June 26 Today in OPC History

Barry and Sharon Traver were married on this day in 1965 one week after Sharon graduated with an English degree from the State University of New York in Albany, the same school where Barry earned his degree in English and math. Teaching English has been a constant in the Travers’ lives. Barry taught in Canada and at Pinebrook Junior College; Sharon received her doctorate in English from Temple University and served as an English teacher and English Department chair at Upper Dublin High School for 36 years; and their son, John Calvin, currently is an English professor at California State University, Chico. Barry earned a master’s of divinity degree at Westminster Theological Seminary in 1969 and a master’s of theology degree in 1988. In 1976, he was ordained as pastor of an RCA church in Philadelphia, before being instrumental in bringing the church into the OPC in 1984 and himself into the OPC in 1985. He served as a teacher of that church—Pilgrim OPC—from 1988 to 2005.

A member of Mensa and a lover of games and puzzles, Barry became a self-taught computer expert in the 1980s, which led to his entrance into the Texas Instruments Hall of Fame. From 2000 to 2004, he produced an email and web news letter called CHRISTIANS AND THE INTERNET (CATI), covering topics ranging from Evangelistic outreach with computers and Internet technologies to safe computing and news regarding Christian Schools and Universities. Archive at http://traver.org/cati/archives.htm

In 1998 he was pivotal in the initial development of the OPC’s fledgling website—OPC.org. For 16 years he served the Committee on Christian Education as the website’s technical associate until his retirement in 2014. On November 19, 2016, Barry Traver went to be with the Lord in glory.

Picture: Barry, Sharon and grandson Christopher John