This past week we lost a 40 year Club member, the Reverend Bob Bingham. Bob was sponsored into our Rotary Club back in 1968 by Ed Bolden. This was when the Club met at Tip's Restaurant, formerly at the intersection of Sierra Highway and Via Princessa. It was also called the Newhall Rotary Club at that time.
Bob Bingham was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Westminster College and the Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. He was first called to California in 1954 by the 1st United Presbyterian Church in Salinas. In 1958 Bob and his wife Janet moved on to the Victoria United Presbyterian Church in Riverside, and in 1968 he joined as the Pastor of the Fist Presbyterian Church of Newhall, where he stayed until retiring in 1968. After the earthquake in 1971, Bob asked Ed Bolden to come on as the civil engineer to oversee the building of the new church.
Bob frequently gave the invocation at our weekly Rotary meetings. If someone was late to the meeting, and was asked who had given the invocation, the answer was always 'Bob Bingham', even if he was not present that day. He was a kind and compassionate man, always willing to lend a hand. We will miss you, Bob, and you will always be remembered for what you did for our Club and its members.
