March 15 Today in OPC History

On March 15, 1915, William S. (Bill) Ramsey was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, into an RPCNA family that can trace its ancestors back to their arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts, around 1751.

During the Second World War, Bill served as a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, with the Transportation Corps, where he helped move military personnel and equipment between the U.S. and the European war theater, and later around the U.S., and was involved in the transportation of prisoners of war back to the U.S. Following his stint in the Army, Bill worked for Otis Elevator and, later on Cape Cod, for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

It was on Cape Cod that Bill and his first wife, Mildred, joined the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The Ramseys and a group of like-minded believers desired to see a church of Presbyterian government, Reformed doctrine, and Evangelical outreach planted on Cape Cod. The Presbyterian Church of Cape Cod (OPC) was established in 1974, and over the years, Bill served the church as deacon, elder, clerk of session, Sunday school superintendent, and when the church started a building program, as general contractor. The church’s first pastor, the Rev. Wendell R. Rockey, Jr., recently noted, “Bill was the kind of person who, when he saw a need for something to be done, took care of it.”

While at Cape Cod OPC, Bill served as regional contact for the Committee on Foreign Missions’ “Stamps for Missions” project, helping to raise thousands of dollars for the work of missions around the world.

In 1985 Bill and Mildred moved to Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community (QPRC) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, when Mildred’s health began to fail. She passed away in 1989. At QPRC Bill continued his helpful ways, assisting many of the residents in the community and volunteering to assist the QPRC staff wherever his gifts could be utilized.

At QPRC Bill recognized a need to encourage prayer support for the OPC among fellow OP retirees. He and his second wife, Lois (who passed away in 2007), began a missions prayer meeting for OP Home and Foreign Missions. Lois was previously married to the late Leonard S. Pitcher, constituting member of the First General Assembly of the PCA/OPC and first pastor of Calvary OPC, Wildwood, New Jersey.

Bill Ramsey died and went to be with the Lord in glory on August 20, 2015.

Editor’s note: Today’s entry was written by Linda Posthuma.