Andrew Bernard Montgomery

1925 - 2020

Reverend Andrew
Bernard Montgomery

The Reverend Andrew Bernard Montgomery passed away from heart failure last year, 12 March 2020, at his home in Grants Pass, OR, surrounded by family. He was 94. He was born on 5 November 1925 at the home of the family's doctor in Yonkers, NY, to the Reverend Dr. Andrew Bernard Montgomery (Bernard) and Mildred Llewellyn Montgomery. He was the grandson of the Reverend Andrew J. and Henrietta Duff Montgomery. His sister (Mildred) Anne Montgomery joined the family four years later.
When Andy was 15, his father was called to serve the Third Presbyterian Church in Portland, OR (a church his own father had helped to establish), so the family relocated across country. Andy finished high school in Portland and began college at the University of Oregon in 1942, majoring in Philosophy and classical languages. For his upper-class years he transferred to Stanford in Northern California, completing his undergraduate work in three years before enrolling in seminary at the Pacific School of Religion in 1946. His seminary training was interrupted by two years of hospitalization with TB, but he completed his Master's of Divinity in 1952.
In 1951, Andy married Sylvia Jean MacDonell in Vallejo, CA. The young couple soon found a home in Rogue River, OR, which was Andy's first solo ministry. In 1953, their daughter Sylvia Anne was born. Three months later, early in 1954, Andy accepted a call to the Community (Presbyterian) church in Crockett, CA, near to both his and Sylvia's parents and other family members in Vallejo. His second daughter, Gloria Jean, was born in Vallejo in 1956. While in Crockett he participated in early meetings toward establishing the John Muir home as a national historic site, and he enjoyed talking about meeting the photographer, Ansel Adams. The family's next move was to Alameda, CA, in 1959, where Andy served as associate pastor at the Presbyterian church. In all his churches he was an energetic and creative youth leader, especially involved in camping programs over the years.
In 1962, Andy accepted a call to become the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Arcata, CA, a position he held until his retirement in 1988. He was especially concerned about addressing unmet social needs, serving as a founding member of the Humboldt Country Human Rights Commission and the Friends of the Redwood Library, among other groups. He helped launch the Religious Studies program at Humboldt State University. During the Vietnam era he worked with a group of local pastors and counselors to help conscientious objectors discern their paths. His food distribution program begun at the church, The Food Endeavor, soon became a nonprofit agency. He was a dedicated member of the Rotary Club and spent many years on the boards of the Camp Fire organization. He continued to support camping programs at the Presbyterian camp Mattole in the Petrolia area. He was an active member of the Presbytery of the Redwoods with a focused interest in assuring that the Humboldt County churches received adequate representation despite their distance from the San Francisco area.
In 1991, his marriage to Sylvia ended, and he began a new married life with the Reverend Judy Currier, a United Methodist pastor. He enjoyed supporting her ministry, and for a time he held a part-time position as pastor of the Methodist church in Clear Lake, CA. After Clear Lake, they lived in Santa Cruz, Petaluma, and Walnut Creek, CA, before Judy retired and they moved to Grants Pass, OR, in 2003.
This brief outline of his life does not do justice to his many interests and talents. He was an artist, leaving his family with oil paintings, watercolors, and sketches. He was a skillful woodworker who could design and build most anything. He was a musician, playing his beloved mandolin, singing, and building dulcimers and other instruments. He and Judy created a rubber art-stamp business. He was a philosopher, leaving behind a body of writing on progressive Christianity, personal essays, and biographical sketches, strongly influenced by the essays of Loren Eiseley. He read voraciously about science, especially interested in natural history and brain development. He embraced computer technology early on, building more than one computer. He maintained a stamp collection that his grandfather and father had begun. He tutored students in advanced mathematics and especially loved calculus. While in Arcata, he developed a unique design for making sleeping bags and, with his daughter Sylvia Anne, made bags, jackets, tents, and climbing equipment in a small business called "LeisurQuip." He took groups mountain climbing in northern CA and the Oregon Cascades. He taught rock climbing through the Humboldt State extension program, making several ascents of Monkey Face in the Smith Rocks. He was an avid cross-country skier, especially fond of skiing in Oregon's Mt. Thielsen area.
Andy is survived by his wife, the Reverend Judy Currier (Eureka, CA) and his daughters Sylvia Anne Montgomery (Dexter, OR) and Gloria Jean Montgomery (Eureka, CA, husband, Gene Cole); his son Larry Wood (wife, Tina, in Arcata, CA, and their children Jory, Alison, and Mason); daughter Anne Louise Wood (husband Nate Cabal, children Courtney and Kylee Cabal); cousin David Benefiel and his wife Susan Piernon of Sebastopol, CA; his brother-in-law Keith Sherman (Vallejo, CA) and nephew Doug Sherman (Vallejo, CA) and nieces Cathy Kardach (husband Jim, Saratoga, CA), and Margaret Sherman of southern California; and his niece Debbie Plantagenet (Arcata, CA) and nephew, the Reverend Dan Fowler (Ashland , OR) and their families.
A memorial service, to be held at the Arcata Presbyterian Church, has been postponed until we can gather together safely to sing his favorite hymns.