At Valley Presbyterian Church
Pike serving as interim senior pastor
By Regina Ford
Green Valley News

The Rev. Dr. George H. Pike will serve as the interim senior pastor of the Valley Presbyterian Church beginning today with the retirement of the Rev. Joe Hawkins.

“In our system of church government, the local church will form a search committee and conduct a nationwide search to look for a replacement for Joe and that will take anywhere from 18 months to two years,” Pike explained.

“My specific responsibility is to be head of staff and administrative work in the meantime.”

The senior interim pastor said he will also be responsible for Sunday worship and will conduct the majority of the preaching.

Pike is a graduate of the Chatham, New Jersey High School, and Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. He received a master of divinity degree from Dubuque Theological Seminary, and has done graduate work at Dubuque and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Ordained in 1957 by the former Presbytery of Sheldon Jackson in Minnesota, now the presbytery of the Twin Cities area, he has served as pastor in five Presbyterian churches over a period of 33 years which included: First Church, Kasson, Minn; Third Church, Dubuque, Iowa; First Church, Bettendorf, Iowa; First Church, Vancouver, Wash.; and First Church, Cranford, N.J.

Pike has been active in presbytery, synod and general assembly work, in ecumenical work at the national and international level, in education, community organizations, and health and welfare services in the various communities which he has lived.

The interim pastor served as the first moderator of the Synod of the Pacific as well as chair of its mission council. He was a commissioner to the 1972 and 1974 General Assemblies and was a candidate for moderator of the 1974 General Assembly.

Among his many roles at the General assembly level, Pike has been active in the Presbyterian delegation to the Consultation on Church Union (COCU) from 1973 until 1999, and was president of COCU from 1984 to 1988 as well as a member of its executive committee from 1980 to 1999.

From 1988 to 1993, Pike served as the co-director in the United States of the Bicentennial Fund of the Presbyterian Church. His major responsibility in that campaign was to be a goodwill ambassador and the chief spokesperson for the fund drive. In that capacity, he visited projects in Africa, South Asia, the U.S. Mexican border, the Caribbean and South American, as well as projects in 151 presbyteries. 

Pike has been listed in “Who’s Who in America” since 1990 and was twice awarded the Freedom’s Foundation Award. He was named “alumnus of the year”  by Dubuque Theological Seminary and has received awards as Bettendorf “Citizen of the Year,” Vancouver “Religious Leader of the Year,” and Cranford “B’nai B’rith Citizen of the Year.”

In 1998, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by the University of Dubuque.

Pike retired in May, 1998 as director of Seminary Development and Church Relations at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, Dubuque Iowa.

Pike, a Green Valley resident for the past 18 months, and his wife Pauline have three children. Their daughter Elizabeth lives in Gig Harbor, Wash., with husband Warren Martin. Both are attorneys.

George III and his wife Debbie live in Pittsburgh, Pa., where Debbie is a school teacher and George is director of the law library and professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh.

The Pike’s son, James lives in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii where he is the owner-operator of Maui Sports and Cycle.

The interim pastor and his wife also have three grandchildren, Alexander and Rachael Martin and Jeremiah Pike.

Pike admits that he is still retired and intends to work only part-time.
“I have to take time for some golf,” he added.

 
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