Paul Gettys Gillespie

Dr. Paul Gillespie died early in the morning of Saturday, April 27, 2019, following several weeks in hospital in Asheville, NC.

Born in Kaifeng, China on November 14, 1934, he was a son of Baptist missionary parents. During a career spanning nearly a half century, he became a prominent progressive Baptist pastor, church leader, theologian, and social activist seeking reconciliation across boundaries which separate by race, religion, gender and sexual preference. Following retirement and a move to Asheville, he became a leading, active, and beloved member of First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ).

Gillespie earned his liberal arts degrees from Mars Hill College and Wake Forest College and his theological degrees from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Writing his Ph.D. dissertation on Civil Disobedience from a Theological Perspective, he was blessed with the opportunity to sit and talk with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Early in his career and coincident with the storm and stress of the modern civil rights movement, he pastored a church in Bogalusa, La. His initiatives toward engaging his church with African American fellow Christians in the small city brought intimidation and death threats from the KKK and the White Citizens Council. Leaders of Paul’s church stood by him, but they bought him a gun and demanded that for protection he learn to use it. Paul threw the gun into a river.

In later ministerial roles he pastored Takoma Park Baptist Church in Washington, DC, then First Baptist Church in Madison, WI, Central Baptist Church in Hartford, CT, and University Baptist Church in Baltimore, MD. Takoma Park was (and is) a thriving multi-racial congregation affiliated with two Baptist denominations. The others are welcoming mainline churches in the cities where they are located. Along the way, Paul served for five years as Executive Minister (the chief executive officer) of the Rhode Island Council of Churches.

Gillespie was predeceased by his father Arthur S. Gillespie, Sr., mother Pauline Pittard Gillespie, and by his older (twin) brothers, Arthur S. Gillespie, Jr., and James Pittard Gillespie.
He is survived by a younger brother J. David Gillespie (wife Judi); by four nieces Mary A. Armstead, Laine Gillespie (Bill Chappelle), Becky Carithers (Roger), and Alison Gillespie (David Briglia); by two nephews Arthur S. Gillespie, III. (Kathy) and Craig Gillespie; by by seven great nieces and great nephews; by cousins Sue C. Huggins and Cobb Huggins; and by many other relatives who have held places of affection in his heart.

But as all who loved him know so well, Paul never knew a boundary between the status of family and of friend. Few people have been so blessed with the number and quality of friendships he made, wherever life took him. J. Hyph, the stalwart friend and comrade whom Paul has known and loved since Gillespie’s days in Washington, DC. Rev. Wesley Dong, Paul’s “Chinese brother” whom Paul has known since 1948, when the Gillespie and Dong families first met each other in Shanghai.

Marcus Iacoppi, the beloved New Zealander son Paul never had. Jerry Dillashaw, the friend who spent more hours at Paul’s hospital bedside in April of 2019 than any member of Paul’s family. Luke Thompson and Genaro Paz, who loved Paul like a son loves his father. Luke, a PA, knew more about Paul’s medical condition and took care of him more fully than any doctor or nurse could have been expected to do.
So many others, especially in his loving and supportive circles of Asheville church, Y, and book club friends; but he also kept friends made wherever he went in the U.S. and the wider world. If you knew Paul, you knew he loved you and chances are you loved him back.

Paul was generous to a fault. But Paul was human and thus not perfect. He did have his quirks. He told tall tales, some of them true. He may very well have been Serena Williams’s greatest fan, but he never really met her. Friends who loved him said he was “irascible.” One of them laughed that on a scale ranging from diplomat to prophet, Paul was a prophet. He spoke his mind, never mind the cost. But so much of what he did say was prophetic, true, life-changing. Many who knew him thought of him as a hero. One of them, his little brother, was blessed for the lessons he learned over the 74 years they had together.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 PM on Friday, May 10, 2019 at Asheville’s First Congregational Church (UCC).