Catching up with . . .

Bob Page is a pastor in The Villages, Florida

Former BJ Cuyahoga Falls bureau chief Robert Page, who left Ol’ Blue Walls to become a minister, is an associate pastor at the Live Oaks Community Church in The Villages, Florida.

Bob Page

I’ve been trying to track Bob for decades without success. But the Daily Sun, The Villages’ newspaper owned by the Morse family (along with everything else in The Villages), ran a story about the May 1970 Kent State shootings, and interviewed Bob, who was at the BJ until 1973.

Retired BJ printer Hugh Downing saw the article about Bob and contacted John Olesky, who was assistant State Desk editor in the 1970s when Bob was covering Cuyahoga Falls. Pat Englehart was the State Desk’s fiery and fantastic leader, Harry Liggett was his sidekick and John MacDonald and John Olesky were assistant State Desk editors.

Bob came to Live Oaks in January 2013 after 20 years at the Evangelical Free Church in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Bob had been in the Evangelical Free Church’s pastoral ministry for 37 years, in Nebraska, Fargo, North Dakota, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Crystal Lake, Illinois. He was Evangelical’s district superintendent in Kansas and Nebraska for five years.

Bob and wife Linda, who passed away in 2009, have three children and five grandchildren. The children live in Minnesota, Cedar Rapids and Crystal Lake. Bob and Linda met when both were living in Ashtabula, Ohio. They were married 41 years.

He is a Kent State graduate with a degree in journalism and has Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministries degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.  

Since moving to The Villages, Bob is into golf, pickleball (whiffle ball and ping-pong paddle on a tennis court) and walking.

When Paula and I return to The Villages next winter, Bob and I can join Hugh Downing on The Villages’ executive courses. Hugh and I played nine times during my three months in The Villages. Hugh would line up a tee time for us once a week. 

Now he can add Bob to the list. Never on a Sunday, of course. Bob is busy elsewhere then.

Hugh and wife Sharon Downing have owned a home in The Villages for more than a dozen years. Paula and I got together with them for our December 2013 and winter 2015 stays.

If you want to re-connect with Bob, his cellphone number is (847) 917-0551 and his home phone number is (352) 633-7431. His home address is 2434 Hope Spring Loop, The Villages, Florida, which is about 10 miles from where Paula Stone Tucker bought a home on Bonita Drive, The Villages before we ended our January-March 2015 rental stay in The Villages.