Seymour, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1925-2020

Robert E. Seymour was born on 13 July 1925 in Greenwood, S.C. In deference to his father's wishes, he started his studies at the Citadel, but quickly switched to the Navy's pre-chaplaincy program. He attended Newberry College for two years and then studied at Duke University, from which he was graduated with a B.A. degree in 1945. He received a Masters of Divinity degree from the Yale Divinity School in 1948 and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1955.

In 1959, Seymour became the first minister of the Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, N.C. Before coming to Binkley, he was pastor of the Mars Hill Baptist Church in Mars Hill, N.C.; pastor of the Warrenton Baptist Church in Warrenton, N.C.; and assistant pastor of the Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C.

The Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church started out with about 40 parishioners; services were held in Gerrard Hall on the University of North Carolina campus. The establishment of the Church coincided with the arrival of some of the first black students at the University. From the beginning, Binkley had an open membership policy that sought to include not only all races, but all Christians, including those who had not been baptized through immersion in water in orthodox Baptist churches. This and other stances earned the Binkley Baptist Church and its pastor reputations in the Southern Baptist Convention for being uncooperative. Seymour himself was frequently labeled a maverick for opposing the Baptist Church's move towards conformity and for advocating racial integration.

Under Seymour's leadership, the Binkley Baptist Church became involved in day care and preschool programs, classes and services to older adults, and other community activities. He also kept the Church active in both the Southern Baptist Convention and the more liberal American Baptist Convention. At the time of his retirement in 1988, the Church had about 500 members.

After his retirement, Seymour published two books: Whites Only: A Pastor's Restrospective on Life in the New South in 1991 and Aging Without Apology in 1995. He was one of the writers of the Village Voices column in the Chapel Hill News.

Seymour participated in many community undertakings, including serving as the first president of the Inter-Faith Council, a social services association of churches and synagogues in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area. He was married to Pearl Seymour and had a daughter named Frances and a son named Robert III.

(Compiled from various newspaper and journal sources.)

From the guide to the Robert E. Seymour Papers, 1941-1997, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)