Robert C. Broome, 66, of Louisville, Ky., a South Carolina native and ordained Baptist minister who was a lifelong activist in the peacemaking community, died following a long battle with cancer July 11, 2009, while visiting family in Asheville, N.C.
Robert BroomeHe was born in Oakway, in Oconee County, Nov. 20, 1942, and grew up at South Union Baptist Church in Westminster. Broome attended Anderson College and earned a bachelor of arts degree from William Carey College in Hattiesburg, Miss., and a master of divinity degree from Southern Seminary. He served in the U.S. Navy and was an upholsterer for more than 35 years.
Broome was a founding force behind the journal, Baptist Peacemaker. He had become acquainted with the peacemaking efforts of the Society of Friends (Quakers) while working at a Quaker-sponsored high school in Tennessee during the late 1970s. In an effort to communicate with Southern Baptist churches, he and others began publishing Baptist Peacemaker out of Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville in 1980. In 1989, the journal merged with the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America in Memphis, Tenn., and is now in its 29th year of publication.
In his international travels, which included trips to Russia, Sweden and Georgia, Broome spoke at peace gatherings and shared copies of Baptist Peacemaker.
Survivors include his wife of 44 years, Rosanne Broome, two children and four grandchildren.