Long faith journey for ‘preacher’s kid’ led to permanent diaconate
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Robert Charles Cobb, the son of Pentecostal missionaries to Africa, teacher, U.S. Navy officer, coach, golfer and the “highlight” of his life, permanent deacon, died Jan. 5, at Straub Medical Center. He was 87 and a deacon for the Diocese of Honolulu 17 years.
A memorial Mass for Deacon Cobb was celebrated Jan. 16 at St. Augustine Church in Waikiki.
Cobb was born on March 14, 1930, in Fresno, Calif., “a preacher’s kid,” the only son of Ralph Charles Cobb and Velma Pear Weymouth, Assembly of God pastors who later became missionaries to the Belgian Congo.
He lived with his parents in the Congo between the ages of 9 to 12, coming home after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
After marrying his childhood sweetheart, Alice Rai Frey, whom he first met at Sunday school at age 7, on March 30, 1951, he quit school and became a police officer. He then joined the Navy during the Korean War, making 17 trips to Korea on a troop transport ship as a personnel officer.
After the Navy, he spent eight years in Fresno as a junior high and high school teacher and coach. He then settled at Merced Community College to coach, teach business management and serve as athletic director.
He and Alice became Catholics in 1977. In a brief autobiography he wrote while studying for the diaconate, Cobb described his “faith journey” as “Pentecostal, Presbyterian, dropout, Episcopal [and] Roman Catholic.”
Cobb retired from teaching in 1985 and in 1995 he and his wife moved to Hawaii because, Alice said, “We just loved it.”
As an avid and skilled golfer he played at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and often volunteered for the Sony Open at the Waialae Golf Course.
It was at his parish of St. Augustine that Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona suggested that he consider becoming a deacon.
“Bob and Alice were a very nice couple who truly loved Hawaii and its people,” said Father Akiona who is now pastor of St. Augustine.
“He was over the age limit for deacons, but I encouraged him to send in the application and they accepted it,” he said.
Cobb was ordained on July 27, 2001, at Star of the Sea Parish in Waialae-Kahala.
“He loved helping people,” Alice said of her husband’s diaconate. “He really enjoyed that.”
“He did marriages, baptisms and funerals, lot of funerals,” Alice said.
Father Akiona said the deacon “served the parish well and was always willing to help those in need.”
Cobb retired from the diaconate two years ago at age 86.
“Even is retirement, he continued to serve at funeral services and helped families in their moment of grief,” his pastor said. “He will be greatly missed with that wonderful smile and welcoming greeting.”
“He lived a really full life,” said Alice. “He was a good man. It just it seems too fast.”
In addition to his wife, Cobb is survived by two sons, Robert C. Cobb and Richard C. Cobb of Fresno, three grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
