Margaret Jean Robe Bissell

Bissell, Margaret Jean Robe SCHENECTADY Margaret Jean Robe Bissell was born November 14, 1930, in Frazeysburg, Ohio and entered into eternal life on August 25, 2015, in Glendale Nursing Home in Scotia. Her mother and father were teachers in Ohio schools and her father was a superintendent of schools. Margaret was the oldest of six children and was predeceased by her sister, Llewellyn and is survived by her four brothers, Thurlow Richard Robe, Edward Scott Robe, Robert Quincy Robe, and Nathan Webster Robe. She lived in many places in Ohio and went to high school in Athens and college at Ohio University in Athens. She graduated in 1952 and was intending to be a high school science teacher until she attended a mission's conference for the Student Volunteer Movement in Urbana, Ill. and felt called to go to India and|Pakistan as a three year missionary teacher for the Methodist Church. She found out there were five other "Margarets" on the staff and switched to her middle name Jean. She taught in Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore, Pakistan for four years. She was active with the students in the Student Christian Association, taught the Bible to Christian and Muslim students and assisted in the chemistry laboratory. She traveled all over India and climbed in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains. In 1956, she returned to the United States to study for a Master of Divinity degree at Yale Divinity School to be a Methodist campus minister. She was a Methodist Campus Minister, first in Ypsilanti, Mich. and then in Ann Arbor, at the University of Michigan. In 1964, Jean met her husband, Torre Bissell, a student at the University of Michigan who had just returned from two years teaching at the Holy Cross Mission in up-country Liberia for the Episcopal Church. They were engaged six weeks after they met and married just six weeks later on May 21, 1964. Torre and Jean were married for 51 years, till Jean passed away. In 1966 they went out as Episcopal missionaries with their infant son, Brereton to Eastern Nigeria. They got there just in time for the Nigerian Civil War. Jean and Brereton were evacuated out of rebel territory in early June of 1966, and Torre left Biafra two months later and was transferred to Liberia where they spent the next nine years. They taught on the coast in Robertsport, Liberia for four years and at Cuttington College in the interior of Liberia for five years. Jean taught both at the college and at the Gbarnga School of Theology, which trained men to become village pastors. She taught the students at Gbarnga everything she knew about the Bible and the Holy Spirit. Starting from Genesis, she got as far as Corinthians before she became too large to fit behind the steering wheel of the car because of her pregnancy with the twins, Jonathan and Sarah, who were born in 1972. In between the birth of Brereton and the twins, they adopted their daughter, Hillary, in 1968, and son, Tamba, in 1971. Brereton and Hillary were born in Michigan, Tamba was born in Canada, and Jonathan and Sarah in Liberia. The family returned to the United States in 1976 and settled in the Capital District. Torre and Jean taught the adults of Christ Church Episcopal in Schenectady and led the Sunday School for many years. Torre and Jean were on the Healing Team at Christ Church and the Diocesan Spiritual Life Center. Jean served on the Commission on Ministry for the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, and led a women's bible study for a number of years. Torre and Jean took Stephen Stewart, age 15, into their home in February 2005, and Arthur Fennicks, age 21, in May 2013. Jean and is survived by a large family, her seven children and their families; her husband, Torre, and his family; and her four brothers and their families. Jean was blessed by her children and family, and for that she was always thankful. The funeral service will be on Saturday, September 5, 2015, at 11 a.m. Viewing will take place from 9 to 10:45 a.m. before the service in the side chapel. In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to Christ Church Episcopal, 970 State St., Schenectady, NY 12307. To leave a special message for Jean's family, please visit jonesfh.net.