ROBERT LEE BAST — April 14, 1923 – February 7, 2024
Robert “Bob” Lee Bast, 100, of Peachtree City, GA, graduated to eternal life on Wednesday February 7, 2024.
Born on April 14, 1923 in Easton, Maryland, he attended Mercersburg Academy prep school in Pennsylvania, graduated from Lafayette college and went on to Virginia Theological Seminary where he was ordained as an Episcopal priest. He married Ann Jordan of Staunton, Virginia in 1955.
Bob had a long and distinguished career as a parish priest, building large congregations in several locations including Baltimore, Maryland, Kansas City, Missouri, Fairfield, Connecticut, Jacksonville, Florida, and ultimately returning to Maryland just a short distance from his hometown to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Oxford.
He loved to travel, visiting nearly every state, as well as trips to Europe and the Holy Land. He sought opportunities for parish exchanges allowing him to live for several months in northern Michigan, England, and New Zealand.
He was an avid reader and history buff, loved the water and enjoyed sailing. His fondness for trains and steam engines was well known to his family and friends, and as a young father helped his son Jim create a railroad garden in the basement that brought hours of enjoyment.
He loved a good NFL game and was a lifelong Kansas City Chiefs fan, even attending the first Super Bowl in 1967 between the Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers. So, it is only fitting that his beloved Chiefs won the Super Bowl just days after he passed. It is assumed that he left us to attend the game from above.
He and Ann had 2 children, Jim “Jeb” Bast (Jeanette) and Devon Pfeifer (Duane/”Duey”), 7 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. After Bob retired in 1989, they moved from Oxford, Md. to be close to their daughter Devon in Peachtree City, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Ann passed away in 1999 from a sudden illness and Bob found the inner strength to flourish. He relished his role as “Boppa” with his grandchildren and in time made a full life for himself. He enjoyed the benefits of Peachtree City, walking the cart paths and marveling at the natural beauty of the area.
A true people person, he was known to regularly strike up conversations with strangers in any setting. Anyone who met Bob was immediately touched by his incredible kindness and appreciative nature. He met and kept in touch with friends new and old, never adapting to a computer but hand-writing letters on a regular basis
His 100th birthday in April of last year was the “Big Day” that he had been looking forward to: A large celebration of his life with many friends, family, grandchildren (even his oldest great-grandchild), some who traveled from different states to be with him.
Cheerful and ever friendly, he lived with a positive attitude and knew the power of a kind word. He never spoke ill of anyone, and always found the worth and beauty of people. He was happy to just “Be.”
Bob’s ashes will be interred with his wife Ann’s in Oxford at The Church of the Holy Trinity in the Columbarium that overlooks the Tred Avon River on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Fittingly it’s a beautiful spot on the water, not far from the house where he grew up.
In honor of this wonderful man the family asks that no flowers or donations be sent. Instead, he would want all to practice kindness each and every day, and live life with gratitude … as he did!
