Tribute to RPTS President Emeritus Jerry O'Neill

On Tuesday evening, I received word that former Reformed Presbytery Theological Seminary President Jerry O'Neill had passed into glory. My daughter, Celia, is married to his grandson, Ethan O'Neill. They had just seen Jerry a short time before he died and informed me of this news.

I first met Jerry when he served as the pastor of the Columbus (Indiana) Reformed Presbyterian Church. As a young theological student going through presbytery examinations, the first impression Jerry gave me proved true of the man I came to know for nearly four decades. A loving shepherd of his congregation. A man with strong theological commitments. A faithful expositor and engaging preacher of God's Word. A churchman serving unwaveringly in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.

As I entered the pastorate in the presbytery and began to co-labor with Jerry in various ventures, other lasting impressions were made. A husband to Ann and a father fiercely devoted to his family. A leader and visionary who initiated ministry in areas such as evangelism, discipleship, church planting, adoption, and education. A friend who would look you in the eye to encourage you or correct you when you needed it, but always in love, with a hug and a smile quickly following.

So many fond memories of those Indiana days come to mind.

Jerry was raised on Kansas farmland and was a Vietnam veteran. So, though he had a great sense of humor, he was a diligent worker and a no-nonsense man. When a committee of us traveled a distance to help with a church plant in southern Indiana, this young pastor knew we would hit the ground running when we arrived with Jerry at the helm. Visits, meetings, strategizing, evangelistic activity... these were the order of the day in a schedule that was filled to overflowing. On occasion, when we bunked together, I would get tickled over one item Jerry would always bring with him. He would pull out this little, flat pillow that could not have been an inch thick to sleep on. I reasoned it must have been from his days of sleeping on the battlefield. Regardless, this jokester soon learned not to mess with Jerry's pillow!

He was a wizard on the basketball court, whose exploits in high school and at Geneva College I often heard about from those in his generation. Usually paired against him in pick-up games at family conferences or after meetings at Synod, I could not stop Jerry, though in those days I had youth and a bit of height on him. He would fake, stop, or spin in unorthodox ways, then seemingly shoot the ball out of his back pocket or with a looping hook shot that I could not block. The more determined I was to defend him, the less successful I seemed to be. I always left the court knowing how the Washington Generals felt after a game with the Harlem Globetrotters!

When the close-knit pastors in Indiana learned that Jerry was being approached by RPTS to become president and a professor there, several of the experienced pastors actually urged him not to go. Our growing presbytery relied heavily on his leadership and service. I remember discussions among the older ministers about whether RPTS could continue, as low enrollment and financial insolvency threatened its existence. Yet when Synod called Jerry to this challenge, he accepted it.

At our annual family conference called Covfamikoi down in Tennessee that summer before he left, we sent him away "in style." At one of the last assemblies in the gym, I dressed up as a hillbilly character I called Stringbean, complete with a long beard, a droopy hat, a long john shirt, and overalls. Calling Jerry down from the bleachers before everyone and mispronouncing his last name as "Mr. One Ill," it looked like I would put a "coon" pie in his face before redirecting it elsewhere. How we laughed that night together, though the sadness of his leaving lingered.

Jerry served RPTS as President and Professor of Pastoral Theology from 1995-2018. The Lord blessed his ministry, as Jerry was like Nehemiah in securing the foundation and building up the walls of RPTS. During his tenure, the annual student enrollment increased significantly, with some years reaching record numbers we have yet to match again. A trusted figure who knew how to "friend raise" rather than fundraise, RPTS's financial base was stabilized and expanded during those years.

Jerry guided RPTS through many initiatives. He led the RPTS Board to acquire and then develop the Willson Center across Penn Avenue from Rutherford Hall, and then recruited Dr. George Scipione, who began our counseling program housed there. (I've always marveled how the Lord turned a former seedy bar that regularly had crimes and murders into a place that now offers the life-giving waters of Jesus Christ!) He helped plan and lead the RPTS community through a wonderful bicentennial celebration in 2010. Our facilities were improved through projects such as a chapel renovation, the addition of an elevator, and the "Save the Gables" campaign, which helped stabilize and beautify the exterior of Rutherford Hall. Though originally unsure of online education, preferring that students come to RPTS to study with our pastor-professors in person, when convinced of the kingdom's need, Jerry put the pieces together that created our distance learning program. I could go on recounting the ways the Lord strengthened and expanded RPTS and its ministry through him.

Yet it is the pastoral and personal touch that Jerry had that left the greatest impression. His office door was literally always open. Regardless of how intently he was working at his desk, if he heard his name at the door, he immediately stopped and welcomed each person warmly as he invited them to sit with him and discuss what was on their mind. Pastors-in-training were taught not only in the classroom but by example to love and put others' interests first. An RPTS scholarship in Jerry's name summarizes the qualities students saw in him and the qualities we desire to see in students: "Qualified applicants should love preaching, evangelism, discipleship, and possess a servant’s heart."

Jerry's warmth crossed what can often divide. He created relational bridges in the Pittsburgh area and beyond. For years, he led students into the local neighborhoods around RPTS to evangelize those who lived nearby. He represented RPTS faithfully before other denominations and helped others outside the RPCNA realize there are gentlemen pastors in our midst. He befriended African American leaders in Pittsburgh and supported them in their education and ministries. Over two decades ago, when the Lord reopened long-closed doors to a former RPCNA mission field in East Asia, Jerry was instrumental in leading the American church to train, support, and aid the brethren there.

Jerry's work in this area was most remarkable. While most of the RPTS community was taking a break at the end of the year during the holidays, for ten years, Jerry traveled across the Pacific to help the church there, providing theological and pastoral training while building relationships of trust. Soon, men from there began coming to RPTS for theological training and continue to do so in significant numbers today. Through the men Jerry mentored, underground education, church plants, and seminaries are influencing thousands of Asian people for the kingdom of God today. Jerry lived as Paul described, “Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28). His love and concern for the church were always so evident.

Though Jerry was the public figure, his wife, Ann, supported him and stood by him through all those years in ministry. They both tirelessly served their family, the church, and the seminary. She gave herself to bless the many women who came to Pittsburgh with their husbands or studied at RPTS. When Jerry was away for long hours at RPTS or on long trips, she sacrificed to keep the home fires burning. They were always a team. These days, character is lacking, and unfaithfulness looms large among many ministry leaders. Yet Jerry, with Ann by his side, has always been the picture of fidelity and integrity.

As a small-town pastor, I never aspired to the academy. Yet Jerry began working on me years ago, encouraging me to consider teaching at RPTS and pursuing further education. I resisted for a season, wrestling with another pastoral call, when he officially approached me. Yet the Lord, undoubtedly responding to Jerry's prayers to Him and persistence with me, broke down the barriers I had put up. When I entered the pastoral theology department at RPTS alongside him in 2013, I thought to myself, "Well, Jerry has me now and is done with me." I looked forward to a quiet ministry of teaching at RPTS, preaching in the church, and writing during the summers. But Jerry was not done!

In my first year at RPTS, he began to approach me about the possibility of succeeding him as president. I really did not want that job! I'll make a long story short. Jerry prayed and persisted again, the Lord prevailed, and here I sit. Yet there is one part of that story I want to share.

Like Paul, Jerry took this Timothy under his wing as he trained and supported me. I spent two years under his mentorship before assuming this role. When I became president, he gave me a baton inscribed with the seminary's name, telling me that the ministry he and the RPTS Board were entrusting to me needed to be stewarded well and handed down faithfully to those running the race after me. That baton sits in my office today. After his retirement, he spent two more years working half-time to help me carry the baton, especially with my weakness in "friend raising." Names of supporters that I had only heard or seen on paper became my friends as well during that time, as he and Mark Sampson introduced me to them. When Jerry stepped down fully, he still came regularly to RPTS to check on me and pray with me. To this president, hands down, Jerry has always been my biggest supporter after my wife. He genuinely rejoiced in any success and carried any burden I had. He treated me like a pleased father with his son.

In those last years with me at RPTS, Jerry began to show signs that I thought were just him slowing down. But then he shared that he was having difficulty reading and getting words to come to him. Eventually, he and Ann found out that he had Primary Progressive Aphasia, a neurological disease that affects the use of language, progresses into difficulty in understanding speech, and to which he eventually succumbed. Though he struggled to communicate in these past years, he carried this affliction with grace, not complaint, always showing warmth and a spirit of love to those around him.

When I visited with Jerry and Ann over the last few months, he was excited to see me and hear more about RPTS. Late last fall, I updated him on the incredible work the Lord continues to do in East Asia. As I prayed with him and gave thanks for how the Lord had used him so wonderfully to open those ministry doors, I said, "Amen," and looked up. Tears streamed down his face, and he kept his grip on my hands for quite a while, squeezing them in joy and gratitude. Words were unnecessary as the Spirit of God spoke clearly in that precious time.

When I see Ethan and Celia, I not only enjoy teasing my daughter by calling her "Celia O'Neill-ya." I think of how privileged and grateful I am that the Lord wove Jerry's life together with mine. And these days, I also see their baby daughter named Thea, our grandchild, Jerry & Ann's great-grandchild. She is a reminder to me of Jerry's generational influence on his family and the church. Jerry is now beholding the face of the Lord who redeemed him and whose gospel he lived and ministered so well. He is hearing these precious words.

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write: 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” (Rev. 14:13).