Longtime minister Bro. Bob Case has been honored as a 50-year graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.

Case has been inducted into one of the university’s distinguished clubs, Corpus Cordis Aureum, which is Latin for golden corps of the heart.

The induction took place last month during the university’s commencement ceremony.

Case graduated from Candler School of Theology at Emory in 1968.

He is proud of Emory University and likes to say “Harvard is the Emory of the North.”

Case spent 13 years as minister of First United Methodist Church in McMinnville.

When he left, he expected to retire but then spent 10 years at First Mill United Methodist in Manchester. Now fully retired for the past three years, Case is 78.
Asked about what he remembers most from his time in ministry, Bro. Bob said, “seeing lives transformed.”

“One thing that surprised me during my years at First Mill is the number of people over 70 who were regularly baptized,” said Bro. Bob. “Usually people join as young people and don’t wait so long in life.”

He said people commonly think preachers only work two days a week, on Sundays and Wednesdays, but he says it’s an around-the-clock job.

“One day I drove up to Nashville to see a member of the congregation who was in the hospital and as soon as I got back I heard about someone else who was in the hospital in Nashville,” said Bro. Bob. “So I turned around and made two trips to Nashville in one day.”

He said he once officiated three funerals in one day, which was tricky because the grave diggers have a union which dictates they won’t work after 5 p.m. That didn’t allow much free time from funeral to funeral.

As for his sermons, Case said he never threw them together at the last minute Sunday morning.

“I wrote them a month in advance,” said Bro. Bob. “That way you can mull them over and get them in your head.”