Robert Francis Gribble (1890-1970) was a Presbyterian pastor and educator in Texas. He was born on January 6, 1890 in Waco, Texas to Robert Fonda Gribble and Lucy Sleeper Gribble. He graduated from Waco High School in 1908, and graduated from Austin College in 1911 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. From 1912-1913 he served as Student Supply to Midland, Texas. In 1914, he received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He traveled to the University of Chicago to study in the summers of 1914 and 1916. He was licensed and ordained by the Presbytery of Central Texas in 1915. In that same year Gribble served as Student Supply in Bartlett, Texas. The following year he married Joyce Hudson in Fort Worth, Texas. From 1914-1918 he taught Hebrew at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The Seminary closed during the latter part of World War I; consequently, he worked at the YMCA headquarters in Dallas, Texas during 1918-1919. From 1919-1923, he was the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Mercedes. In 1924, he achieved a Doctorate of Divinity from Austin College. During his tenure as professor at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1923-1960), Gribble served Bartlett’s First Presbyterian Church as well as Leander Presbyterian Church.
Other professional activities included supervising the Seminary library from the late 1920s-1930s, serving as Moderator of the Synod of Texas in 1935, and serving as acting President of Austin Seminary from 1943-1945.
Professional highlights include a radio address delivered in 1934 in conjunction with Austin Bible Society, an appointment to the General Assembly of the PCUS “Ad-Interim Committee on Curricula of Our Seminaries,” and editing Baker’s Dictionary of Theology in 1960.
He officially retired from the Seminary in late 1960. During his retirement Dr. Gribble taught at the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi (1960-1970). He died November 8, 1970 in Austin, Texas.
From the guide to the Robert Francis Gribble papers 1993-004; 1997-001; 1997-003; 2000-002., 1907-1993, (Austin Seminary Archives, Stitt Library, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.)
