Always a Christian, former UC Berkeley registrar and director of admissions Robert Bailey reveals his life-long commitment to the church.
Former UC Berkeley registrar and director of admissions Robert Bailey, a devoted Christian and churchgoer since childhood, looks back on his life-long commitment to the church, including while serving in the U.S. Air Force and traveling the world.
“At age five, my father took me to Summit Presbyterian Church in Bremerton, Washington,” reveals Bailey, a former UC Berkeley registrar and director of admissions. Later, and while growing up in Bremerton, Robert Bailey also attended, at various times, Charleston Baptist, and a number of other local Presbyterian churches.
“While attending the University of Washington, I attended University Presbyterian and University Congregational churches,” explains former UC Berkeley registrar, Robert Bailey, and director of admissions. He was, he says, also very active in Young Life—which, in more than 70 countries, offers hope with spiritual values to nearly a million teenagers every year—both as an attendee, and, later, as a high school club leader in the Highline School District.
As a member of the U.S. Air Force and assigned to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, Bailey regularly attended the local base chapel, and, after moving to nearby Norman, attended the city’s Methodist church. “After later accepting a job in Flossmoor, Illinois, my family again attended the local Methodist church, even though my children were Baptist in the University Lutheran Church in Seattle, the same church I was married in,” Bailey explains.
Then accepting another job at the University of California, Berkeley, he attended the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church in Lafayette, California, where he was an elder. “Following my retirement from both the University of California, Berkeley, and the U.S. Air Force, and accepting work in Singapore, I then attended the First Presbyterian Church,” reveals Bailey.
After meeting his partner, the pair switched to the Methodist Church. “I again supported Young Life in Singapore,” adds former UC Berkeley registrar and director of admissions Bailey. “We then moved to Vancouver, the bustling west coast seaport in British Columbia, Canada, and attended the White Rock Baptist Church and the Steveston United Church,” he goes on to reveal.
Over the coming two and a half decades, the pair enjoyed a variety of jobs, he says, and lived in various towns, attending a range of churches in the process. These, Bailey says, included Southwest Community Church in Palm Springs, First United Methodist Church of San Diego, University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, the Presbyterian Church in Newfoundland, Grace Presbyterian Church in Las Vegas, and, in Washington, D.C., the National Presbyterian Church.
“Currently, I’m back in Singapore,” adds Robert Bailey, wrapping up, “and attending the International Baptist Church here.”
