Meet Our Retired Clergy Who Have Been Our Help During Our Rector Search
The Rev. Dean Bickel
Rev. Dean Bickel graduated from Boyertown High School, Susquehanna University and The Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia. He also completed four units of Clinical Pastoral education and is certified by the ELCA for Chaplaincy. He served congregations in Monroevill, PA; Dillon, Colorado; Venice, Florida and Perkasie, PA. Rev. Bickel is married to Robin (Eichner) and has two daughters and five grandchildren. He plays the piano, organ and drums, enjoys oil painting and provides presentations on the flintlock rifle at local homesteads. Dean and Robin came to Holy Spirit because of an invitation by Rev. Richard Miller who is also active in the parish.
The Rev. Robert H. Coble
The Rev. Robert H. Coble has been a life-long Episcopalian growing up in St. Luke’s Lebanon, PA. He is a graduate of Salem University with a degree in Human Relations and gained his Master’s in Divinity from the Philadelphia Divinity School.
He began his ministry as an intern with the Rev. James Gill at Trinity Church, Easton, PA. He moved on and became rector of St. Stephen’s in Norwood for 7 years. In 1978 he was called to be a rector at All Saints’ Church in Norristown, where he served for thirty years. Bob was instrumental in opening a preschool in both parishes. While at All Saints’, he helped establish the West-End Computer Lab, offering free courses to the Norristown community.
In 2009, he retired.He and his wife Bobbi left the rectory and moved into the Peter Becker Community (PBC). Since retirement, Bob has served as the Resident Representative to the Board of Directors, President of the Resident’s Association, and founder and President of the PBC Woodworkers’ Association.
He and Bobbi began attending the Church of the Holy Spirit in 2009. Over the years, Bob has assisted with the Youth Ministry program and the Building Committee. He also led grief groups, adult forums, and assisted with preaching and celebrating. On a personal note, since the 70’s, Bob has enjoyed woodworking and making wooden toys and furniture.
Pastor Marge Dean
I was born in far northern Minnesota to Dave and Helen Wiens (the first of my family to begin life in a hospital) on October 5, 1940. My parents were – along with the federal government – the owners of a small dairy farm, where they, my older sister Tabea (Tabitha in English), brother Vic and I coexisted within a large community of Swedes.
When I was four years old, my dad answered what he believed to be God’s call, and moved the family to Minneapolis, where he attended Northwestern Bible School. He was the last of five brothers to become pastors – also joining two of his brothers-in-law in pastoral ministry.
We lived out the Second World War in small school owned or rented apartments, often with windows blacked out to meet Civil Defense requirements. From Minneapolis, we began a series of relocations to the various Mennonite Brethren churches in which Dad served, from Kansas, to Oklahoma, to Oregon, to California, retiring in Oregon to be near my older brother.
I attended a [very] conservative Christian high school and then Wheaton College, majoring in Music (voice and conducting) and graduated with a Bachelor of Music Degree. While at Wheaton, I met my husband, Roger Dean. We married in my parents’ church in Oklahoma in June 1963, and returned to Wheaton, where Roger was a member of the Music Ed faculty. In July, 1965, Sharon was born, and in 1968, we moved to Eugene, Oregon, where Roger completed his doctoral work in Music Ed, and where Brent was born in 1968.
In 1971, we moved to the Philadelphia area, where Roger joined the faculty at Temple University, and eventually served as Chair of the Music Education Department in the School of Music. Because my degree was in performance, there were no teaching positions available, and I found other employment, eventually working for Hartford Insurance for thirty years, enjoying the benefits of the equal opportunity movement, retiring in 1960 as an Executive Risk Management Consultant with a specialty in Long Term Health Care.
Along with our “careers,” we served in several churches as a music team – Roger with the adult choirs and I with youth choirs. We ended up at Trinity Lutheran, Lansdale, where both our kids sang in my youth choir. My daughter now conducts the youth choir I conducted back then.
Also among my best memories are the twenty-two years I was a member of Singing City, a multi-racial volunteer choir founded by Elaine Brown. Most remarkable: our two trips to Israel, the first marking the first performance of The Messiah in Israel in 1976 with Zubin Mehta and the Israeli Philharmonic. The second most remarkable memory was our tour of Russia in December, 1990, as the Soviet Union was crumbling, performing with the Leningrad Philharmonic in Leningrad and Moscow. We flew out of Moscow to Helsinki on January 13, 1991, the day the Baltic republics announced they were leaving the Soviet Union. Very scary….
I guess Roger and I could best be described as poster children for mismatched couples. Eventually his very conservative views and my increasingly “liberal” leanings resulted in divorce in 1990. (Our daughter described the fact that the “celebration” of our 25th anniversary was more that we all survived the marriage than a celebration of its joys.) Roger passed away in 2022.
I have always been active in one facet of Christian education or another: teaching Sunday School, but more often leading adult studies and retreats. In 2003, when my good friend Rick Summy kept sending me application forms to the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, I shot one back. Result: I matriculated at The Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia and graduated in 2007. I served my internship at The Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit in Emmaus, and joined the staff as a part-time Associate Pastor in 2008.
I had intended to be an active pastor for at least ten years; however, life had other plans. In 2010, I came down with a mysterious malady that took months to diagnose, but finally found out that I had dermatomyositis – a no-nonsense example of the many autoimmune diseases out there. Symptoms were a debilitating muscle failure and horrendous skin breakouts – think shingles. I was given a five month leave of absence, during which I suffered a stroke which left my vision impaired in my right eye. I have been in remission since 2016, but am always aware that it could reoccur.
While I recovered from the serious physical limitations, I was not able to gain full strength back, and as a result I retired from active pastoral ministry in 2013.
All during seminary, and after my retirement, I heard about this little Episcopal church that had a fabulous choir. The more I heard, the better I liked it. I attended Holy Spirit on my Sundays off, and when SueEllen Echard announced the trip to Winchester, England, I did the only logical thing– I joined the choir to make the trip, and have loved the choral experience – until, that is, my voice got whacked by the effects of testing positive for Covid several times (but never actually getting seriously ill).
I would be totally remiss if I didn’t address my friendship and sharing living with my friend Jan Eckardt. I had worked with Jan’s husband in Youth Ministry at Trinity. Jim died in 1985 after a very short fight with Leukemia. I sang at his funeral – and only really learned to know Jan after that. They had purchased a lovely home in Towamencin Towship in 1984, and Jan knew she could not keep it in the long term. I had a 3-bedroom home in Morgandale. We decided to take a leap of faith and see if two strong willed women could co-exist while sharing a home. I kept my house and rented it out for seven years, and we began the experiment in 1997, after our kids had all married and moved out. Until her stroke in 2022, we did it – and in doing so, provided encouragement for other women to do the same. I so regret that Jan’s stroke left her unable to live independently, and she now resides in the skilled care facility at Peter Becker, and I have a small cottage in Dock Woods.
So, here we are, you and I -- sharing life at Holy Spirit. I have loved this community since I first came in 2008. I have loved the music. I have loved serving in worship. I love the people. I love it here, and am glad that I can join my colleagues in serving you during this transition.
Sorry this is so long! Eighty-three years is a long time….
The Rev. Robert E. Mitman
Having grown up in the little burg of Pipersville, upper Bucks County, Robert (Bob) Mitman attended the Pennridge Schools, graduating in 1967. It was there in ninth grade that he met his future wife, Linda.
Muhlenberg College offered a challenging undergraduate education as well as opportunities for musical endeavors in College Choir, Institution of Sound, and Broadway musicals. Bob graduated with a BA in Psychology in 1971 and within the month after graduation married Linda. That September he began studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, graduating in 1975. The Mitmans spent a year of internship in Albany, NY. The month following graduation from seminary their first child, Eric, was born, and Bob began serving as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church of Wyndmoor. Jennifer was born 3 years later. Today they are blest with 5 grandchildren. In 1980 the Mitmans moved to “suburban” Perkasie as Bob became pastor of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, where he remained for 36 years, retiring in 2016.
Over the years Bob has enjoyed playing tennis with a foursome in Doylestown. He began bowling shortly after retirement and relishes his Wednesday mornings with friends he has made at Earl Bowl in Quakertown. He and Linda enjoy traveling, especially to watch grandchildren participate in sporting events. They joyfully call Church of the Holy Spirit, Harleysville, home.