Robert F. Andrews on the “Light & Life Hour” radio broadcast (Courtesy of Marston Memorial Historical Center)
Bishop Emeritus Robert F. Andrews passed into eternity Nov. 11, 2014, following complications from a Nov. 9 surgical procedure.
Robert Frederick “Bob” Andrews was born in Sedalia, Missouri, on Nov. 26, 1927. He was one of eight children born to Milton and Lydia Andrews.
He attended Central Junior College (now Central Christian College of Kansas) in his hometown, McPherson, Kansas, for two years before enlisting in the U.S. Army, where he became a corporal and a military police officer. After his honorable discharge in 1947, Andrews entered Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois, on the GI Bill. There he met and fell in love with Genevieve “Jimmie” Hendricks. On June 25, 1949, he and Jimmie married and moved to Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.
He accepted his first pastorate in Caldwell, Kansas. He then accepted a position at Free Methodist World Headquarters in Winona Lake, Indiana, as regional director for the Free Methodist Youth.
In 1960, he was elected president of Wessington Springs College in Wessington Springs, South Dakota. When Myron Boyd was elected bishop, Andrews was recalled to Free Methodist Headquarters to fill Boyd’s place as speaker for the “Light & Life Hour” broadcast. During those years, he was also executive director of Light and Life Men International (1968–71) and general director of the Department of Evangelistic Outreach (1971–78). In 1977, he was honored with the doctor of divinity degree from Western Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Oregon.
Andrews was elected to be a bishop at General Conference 1979 and then re-elected to a second term in July 1985.
He is survived by his cherished wife, Jimmie; his children Robert and Cheryl Andrews, Mary Lu and Bob Cannon, Melli and Ken Johnson, Vondria and Randy Bergen; surrogate daughter Deidra and Ramon Sanchez; older brother Martin and his wife, DeEtte; sisters Alice, Martha, Eunice, Anne and her husband, Dick; 17 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Go to fmchr.ch/rfandrews for expanded coverage.
