Roy W. Joellenbeck
United Church of Christ pastor served Locust Point church for two decades and was an activist for civil rights
The Rev. Roy W. Joellenbeck, a retired United Church of Christ pastor who served a Locust Point church for many years, died of heart disease complications Sept. 7 at Genesis Multi-Medical Center in Towson. The former Anneslie resident was 92.
Born in Okawville, Ill., he was the son of Henry A. Joellenbeck, a grain elevator manager and World War I veteran, and his wife, Lydia Hasheider.
“It was a very small town, and my father grew up going to church, walking to school and helping his relatives on their farms and his dad in the grain elevator,” said his daughter, Barbara Joellenbeck of Baltimore. “It was during the Depression and he spoke of how his mother would give sandwiches to the hobos that occasionally came to their back door, and of how they’d sometimes eat cornbread as their main course at dinner.”
When he enlisted in the Navy during the final days of World War II, recruitment officials requested that he start his service immediately.
“He asked to finish high school first, and he was flagging down a local train to St. Louis in the early morning the day after his graduation,” Barbara Joellenbeck said.
He became a Navy SeaBee and was assigned to Truk and on Guam in the South Pacific. His daughter said that he spent idle time at the Navy chaplains’ offices and in recreation tents where he advanced a love of the classical music available on records.
“He never forgot the thrill of waking up every morning on a beach with the ocean rolling in,” his daughter said. “He also said that it was the Navy that inspired him to pursue the ministry.”
After he completed his military service, he attended Blackburn College and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology at Elmhurst College. While a student he met his future wife, Kathryn Abele. He received his theological training at Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Mo., and was ordained in the ministry in 1953 in what soon was known as United Church of Christ.
He served as the pastor of St. Paul’s Evangelical and Reformed Church in Kansas City before being recruited into campus ministry posts at Towson and Morgan State universities in 1957.
Mr. Joellenbeck worked with students at both schools and founded Meet the Professor and Book Discussion Group programs that continued at the schools after he left.
He also led students in civil rights advocacy, including marches and sit-ins. He described going to Haussner’s Restaurant in Highlandtown and the Double T Diner in Catonsville to protest segregation. He participated in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington in 1963 with students and fellow clergy.
“The whole Joellenbeck family marched for peace and for civil rights, so much that when I was small and saw a large group of people, I asked, ‘Peace March?’ ” his daughter said.
Mr. Joellenbeck worked in campus ministry until 1972, when he left to earn a philosophy degree at American University. While studying, he was an interim minister at Christ United Church of Christ in Locust Point — now Locust Point Community Church. The congregation called him to be their permanent minister, and in 1972 he began the job that would last for more than two decades.
“The church was famous for its sour beef and crab cake suppers, which were prepared and organized by the women of the church,” Barbara Joellenbeck said. “My father was their willing ambassador, and he also washed dishes on those days.”
He retired nearly 20 years ago and was later an interim pastor.
He also served on the board of Earl’s Place, a transitional housing program on East Lombard Street that gives a home and other services for 17 men for extended periods of time.
“He was a generous, caring man who was supportive of this program and the men who live here,” said Sheila Helgerson, the executive director of Earl’s Place.
“He was very much an activist, and when you met Roy, he had a big, happy hello for you.”
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Oct. 27 at First and St. Stephen’s United Church of Christ, 6915 York Road.
In addition to his daughter, survivors include another daughter, Lois Joellenbeck of Towson; a brother, Albert Joellenbeck of Florissant, Mo.; five sisters, Ruth Holtgrewe of Mascoutah, Ill., Nora Severs and Melba Holtgrewe, both of Okawville, Ill., Florence Ayers of Beavercreek, Ohio, and Alice Becker of St. Louis, Mo.; and two grandchildren.
His wife of 55 years, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine administrative assistant, died in 2007. Roy Joellenbeck served on the board of Earl’s Place, which provides transitional housing.