Bob Herhold
1924-April 18, 2006
Palo Alto, California

Rev. Bob Herhold, a writer and longtime advocate of social justice, died at his Palo Alto home on April 18, 2006, of congestive heart failure. He was 81.

Herhold, the author of several books, including, "Funny, You Don't Look Christian," and "Promise Beyond the Pain," was a former pastor at Palo Alto's First Lutheran Church.

He was best known for his work in the civil-rights struggle and his dedication to opposing the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. But he also had an ad salesman's gift for catchy copy.

When a friend in Tucson, Ariz. was fighting a difficult re-election battle as judge, Herhold gathered a group of ministers to appear in a newspaper ad on his behalf.

"Some of us wear collars," the ad said. "Ed Morgan wears no man's collar."

Born in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1924, Herhold attended public schools and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota, he attended Yale Divinity School and graduated from the Northwestern Theological Seminary in Minneapolis in 1951.

He served parishes in Pittsburg, Pa., Chicago, suburban Minneapolis and Tucson before coming to First Lutheran Church in 1967, where he was pastor for two-and-half years. During the civil-rights struggle, he marched in Selma in 1965 and undertook a trip to Mississipi. He also ran unsuccessfully for the California Assembly in 1972.

Herhold's liberalism sometimes irked conservative parishioners. But he won praise as an effective preacher who unfailingly visited the elderly and sick in his congregations.

After retiring from Christ the King Lutheran Church in Fremont in 1986, he concentrated on writing, finishing several plays that were performed in local churches.

Herhold is survived by his wife, Muriel; his brother, George, of New Canaan, Ct.; sons Scott Herhold, of San Jose, and Ted Herhold, of Half Moon Bay; daughters Jan Roberts, of Kapaau, Hawaii, and Joy O'Brien, of Prescott, Ariz.; and 10 grandchildren.

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