June 18 Today in OPC History

On June 18, 1955, Robert and Alice (Simon) Strimple were married. Students at the University of Delaware, they met at a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting on the campus. Following their graduation, Robert enrolled at Westminster Seminary and graduated three years later in 1959. At that time, however, he was a Reformed Baptist. His first teaching position was at Eastern Christian Jr. High School in Paterson, New Jersey. In 1961, he joined Toronto Bible College (now Tyndale University) in Toronto to teach systematic theology. He was ordained in the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Church in Canada on January 23, 1964. However, by the end of the decade of the 1960s, he had become convinced that Presbyterianism was biblical. He joined the Westminster Seminary faculty in 1969 and was received into the Orthodox Presbyterian Church as a ministerial member in 1970. In 1979, he would be part of the original faculty of the now Westminster Seminary California and would serve in multiple positions, including as president, until his retirement in 2001.

During this pilgrimage, Alice was beside his side the entire way, her commitment to the Reformed faith as strong as his was. They were blessed with four children, Marsha, Stephen, Anne, and Heather. In 2019, Alice died and went to be with the Lord in Glory, and in 2020 Marsha also died after a long battle with lupus.

Picture: The Strimples in 1975, from left to right, Marsha, Stephen, Anne, Alice, Heather, and Bob.