At 101, preacher isn’t ready to turn final page

The Rev. Donald R. Fletcher recently published his ninth book: “My First Hundred Years — A Life on Three Continents.”

PHILADELPHIA — The Rev. Donald R. Fletcher was 80 and recovering from cancer surgery when he made a prayerful vow.

“I don’t believe in making bargains with God,” the longtime preacher and teacher explained. “What I said was, ‘If I could have another 15 years, I’m going to write.’ ”

That was 21 years ago. Fletcher, now 101, recently published his ninth book: “My First Hundred Years — A Life on Three Continents.”

Remembering his mother singing a hymn one early evening at their missionary post in Taegu Station, Korea, Fletcher writes: “Even to a child, the situation, the sound, the whole late-sunlit scene were powerfully, transcendentally poignant. There was an awareness of Spirit, of Reality quite beyond ... intersecting my simple, day-to-day reality.”

He and his wife, Martha, an educator and church musician who died in 2014, moved to a retirement community in central New Jersey primarily to be nearer to their daughter, Marilyn Keith, a retired elementary school teacher.

A native of Ventnor City, New Jersey, Fletcher earned a Ph.D. in English at Princeton University, where he also did his undergraduate work. He graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary, and through friends met the Westminster Choir College student who would become his wife.

Recalling the evening when they confirmed their feelings to each other, Fletcher writes: “There needed to be music. But first — words. What followed were the Bible (Book of Genesis, chapter 24) and Beethoven (Symphony No. 5, the final movement): ... I went out into a mild, cool October evening, got on my bicycle, and rode across town to Moore Street, to Martha.”

The Fletchers spent much of their early life together serving as missionaries in Chile, Mexico, the Caribbean and Texas, among other places. They lived for many years in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where they both taught school. They had six children and 10 grandchildren. Fletcher is now a great-grandfather.

“We were married for 72 and a half years,” said Fletcher, who cared for his wife until the end of what he called “the long eclipse” that is Alzheimer’s. In the years since, Fletcher has continued to write and, occasionally, preach.

His preaching is memorable, said the Rev. Greg Faulkner, senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian in Cherry Hill.

“I started hearing Don preach when he was in his late 80s,” said Faulkner. “He preached these really beautiful, eloquent sermons with a care and a gentleness and a kind of low-burning passion ... with no notes.”

DAVID MAIALETTI / THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER The Rev. Donald R. Fletcher at age 101 recently published his ninth book, “My First Hundred Years — A Life on Three Continents.”