Obituary

The Rev. Dr. Richard Charles Lamb of Charleston, West Virginia, passed away on October 13, 2023, in Charleston.

Dr. Lamb was born in Celina, Ohio, on May 7, 1926, the son of the late Albert Lamb and Thera Kohlhorst Webb. He graduated from Center Township High School and attended Giffin College. He was called into service in the U.S. Army during World War II, trained as an engineer, and served in the Philippines at Corregidor. After the war, he returned to Ohio and attended Miami University, Athens, Ohio, where he played football and was on the track team and joined Delta Chi fraternity.

After graduating from Miami, he served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean Conflict. He was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, as an aide to a colonel and a general on inspection tours.

Following discharge, he was employed as staff accountant for Trans-Continental Gas Pipeline Co. in Houston, Texas, and worked toward a master’s degree in economics at the University of Houston.

Having experienced a call into the ministry, Dr. Lamb attended Austin (Texas) Presbyterian Theological Seminary, graduating in 1959. It was during his first call to First Presbyterian Church in Earle, Arkansas, that he met his future wife, Katharine (Kay) Sattes, then director of Christian Education at Evergreen Presbyterian Church, Memphis, Tennessee. They were married on December 29, 1959.

His next pastorate was at Gracewood Presbyterian Church, Memphis, during which time he participated in a march supporting striking garbage workers; it was during this time that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis.

During his next pastorate at the First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Missouri, he earned both master’s and doctoral degrees from Eden Theological Seminary at St. Louis, Missouri. He also received training as an intentional interim minister. His interim pastorates were at New Covenant Presbyterian Church, St. Louis; Eliot Presbyterian Church, Lowell, Mass.; and First Presbyterian Church, Owego, New York. After retiring in 1991, he and Kay moved back to her hometown of Charleston. He served as an interim pastorate at Falls View Presbyterian Church; McKinnon and Kanawha Presbyterian Churches in Charleston; Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, Huntington; and First Presbyterian Churches in Dunbar, Ripley, and Vienna. He then accepted the post as parish associate for First Presbyterian Church in Charleston.

Dr. Lamb wrote a monthly devotional for the newsletter at Edgewood Summit, where he and Kay have lived since 2019. He has authored two study books, “Choices, Choices” and “The Sympathy of God.” He has served in presbytery committees and was commissioner to General Assembly meetings in Columbus, Georgia, and Montreat, North Carolina.

Dr. and Mrs. Lamb have three children: Elizabeth (Lisa) Lamb Marshall and her husband, Gary, of Covington, Virginia, Richard (Rick) C. Lamb, Jr., Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and Andrew “Andy” W. Lamb, who now lives in Alexandria, Virginia; two grandchildren, Sarah Marshall MacGillivray, who lives in Akron, Ohio, and John Hudson Marshall, who lives in Covington, and many nieces and nephews. He has one sister, Joan Adams, who lives in Mendon, Ohio.

He was predeceased by his brother, Albert Lamb, Jr., who lived in Arleta, California.

The funeral service for Dr. Lamb will be held at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 18, 2023, in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church, 16 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston WV. Interment will follow at Cunningham Memorial Park in St. Albans, WV.

Visitation will begin one hour prior at the church.

Memorial gifts may be made to First Presbyterian Church at 16 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston, WV 25301.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.barlowbonsall.com.

Barlow Bonsall Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.