Obituary - Robert A. Chesnut

Robert A. Chesnut died at his home in Glen Allen, VA on December 25, 2024.

He was born August 3, 1937, in Elk City, OK, the third and youngest son of Atwood W. and Lillian Phipps Chesnut. He attended the College of Wooster, Wooster, OH from which he graduated with honors in the Study of Religion in 1959. In his freshman year at Wooster, he met Janet Lee Rippey, also a freshman. They married on June 13, 1959, in Palisades, NY, Janet’s hometown church, Palisades Presbyterian. That Fall Chesnut entered Harvard Divinity School and graduated with honors in 1962. In August he was ordained to the ministry by the Presbytery of Cincinnati and installed as Pastor of Calvin Presbyterian Church in Amelia, OH. Bob was a community activist from the start of his ministry. Chesnut returned to Harvard for Ph.D. studies in 1966 and graduated in 1974. Over the years he served as Pastor of First Presbyterian, Norman, OK; Northminster Presbyterian, Evanston, IL; and the historic East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA. The East Liberty Church, a highly diverse urban congregation inspired Chesnut’s first book. Transforming the Mainline Church: Lessons in Change from Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Hope tells the story of a dying congregation’s remarkable turnaround after forty years of decline to become a growing, thriving faith community offering renewed hope.

Following a fourteen-year ministry in Pittsburgh, the Chesnuts retired in 2002 to Santa Fe, NM where Dr. Chesnut continued to serve on the national boards of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians (advocating for full inclusion of LGBTQs in the church), the Presbyterian Multicultural Network, and the Ghost Ranch Conference Center in New Mexico where he was co-founder and Dean of the Multicultural Church Institute.

Bob and Jan relocated in 2014 to the Richmond, VA area where they became active at the Gayton Kirk Presbyterian Church. Bob had continued his teaching, writing, gardening, and occasional preaching. In 2017 he published Meeting Jesus the Christ Again: A Conservative Progressive Faith.

Dr. Chesnut is survived by his devoted and loving wife, Janet, and their son, Andrew, and wife, Fabiola, their daughter, Elizabeth Kennedy, and her husband, Paul Kennedy, and their grandchildren, Vanessa and Nicholas Chesnut, and David and Eric Martinez.

He will be remembered as a passionate advocate for social justice. A loving, faithful, companionship marriage of sixty-five years was the joy and stay of his life.

A memorial service will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 18, 2025, at the Gayton Kirk Presbyterian Church,11421 Gayton Road, Henrico, VA 23238.

Memorials may be made to Gayton Kirk Mission Fund, Gayton Kirk PO Box 29635, Henrico, VA 23242.