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Rev. Dr. Samuel K. Roberts Sr. Memorial Fund


Reverend Dr. Samuel K. Roberts Sr. Teen Leadership Award Memorial Fund

Rev. Dr. Roberts, Sr.

Reverend Dr. Samuel K. Roberts, Sr. recognized that within himself and within all of us, there is a need to be part of the community in which you live.  As a father and mentor, he knew that the future of any community is its young people and that they must be encouraged. This core tenet drew him to the YMCA.

Rev. Dr. Roberts moved his family to Richmond from Harlem in 1980 after accepting the position of Academic Dean at Virginia Union University. He quickly embraced the city and became an active supporter and leader for the Northside Family YMCA.  He volunteered with the Y for more than 20 years, serving on the board of the Northside Y, the YMCA of Greater Richmond and YMCA of the USA, the first person in Richmond to achieve this national leadership position.

In 2014, after a 50+ year career of ministry and education, he retired from Union Presbyterian Seminary on Richmond’s Northside, where he’d served as the Anne Bordon and E. Hervey Evans Professor of Theology and Ethics since 2001.

Rev. Dr. Roberts, passed away in February 2015. In a significant gesture of the importance of the Y in his life, he left instructions for his sons, Dr. Samuel K. Roberts, Jr. and Franklin H. Roberts, to deliver one more donation to the Northside Family YMCA. This request sparked the idea to honor their father’s memory through a legacy gift. 

“Our father can no longer be with us at the Northside Y,” reflects Franklin, who now serves on the Northside Family YMCA Board of Management, “but it is our hope that by establishing the Reverend Dr. Samuel K. Roberts Sr. Teen Leadership Award, a part of him can continue to work at the place that he loved so much.”  

Rev. Dr. Roberts, Sr. and Sons

We hope you will consider contributing to Dr. Roberts, Sr.’s legacy and investing in the lives of young people in Richmond’s Northside community for years to come.

Contributions to the YMCA for this project are tax deductible. For questions or to make a pledge, please email Alex Moore, Vice President of Philanthropy or call 804.474.4327.

 

 

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