VeNews March 2010

Welcome to VeNews, the newsletter for Vesper Society friends.

In Memoriam:
Robert B. Cummings
1922–2010

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Robert B. Cummings, a pioneering social entrepreneur who in the mid-1960s co-founded Vesper Society. Our dear friend, colleague, and mentor died on March 23rd at the age of 87.

A Mind for Business, A Heart for the Church

Robert Cummings believed in the possibility of a more compassionate world and devoted his life to demonstrating that the business of the church is ministry in the world. In 1965, he and Eugene Heckathorn, owner of a Bay Area chemical company, launched Vesper Society so that business leaders and professionals like themselves could serve the church beyond the pews.

The Society owned two East Bay hospitals until 1984 when it sold the facilities to start a private foundation. Under Cummings’ leadership, the organization sent volunteer medical professionals to Africa and the Caribbean and launched one of the first hospice care programs in the United States. In Europe, the Society convened church, business, and political leaders to discuss nuclear disarmament. Today, Vesper Society continues to live out Cummings’ vision in projects spanning from equitable access healthcare and economic justice, to youth development and religious pluralism.

Early Years

Robert B. Cummings was born June 2, 1922, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the only child of George and Betty Cummings. When he was 14, the family moved to California on the advice of their doctor. The young Cummings suffered from hay fever and asthma, but the California climate was ideal, and he was better immediately.

Growing up in the Lutheran church, he contemplated becoming a pastor. But it was commerce that captured his imagination. He believed that business leaders could serve the church, so he looked for opportunities where the two arenas connected. “I always felt that if there was no place for the church in my business, I had no business being in it,” he said.

He went on to earn an associate degree at Pasadena City College and to attend the University of Southern California before World War II interrupted his studies. He found employment in the manufacturing arena and rose quickly in the management ranks while also providing leadership to local and national Lutheran organizations.

On June 25, 1943, he married Pauline Lieberg. They had two children, Rob and Paula.

In 1951, Cummings became a partner in California Tank & Manufacturing Company and quadrupled the firm’s sales in four years. In that post-war period, Protestants and Catholics increasingly emphasized the importance of the laity in the ministry of the church. He was approached by Dr. James P. Beasom Jr., the president of the Pacific Southwest Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, to help recruit lay leaders like himself.

His business partners were active church leaders in the Pentecostal tradition, so they supported his involvement in the laity movement. Piggybacking on business trips, Cummings would speak to groups of lay leaders eager to integrate their faith and work. “I found a lot of men in the West who had the same feelings and the same desire,” he said.

In 1964, Cummings met Heckathorn in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at the national convention of the Lutheran Church in America. Both men served in leadership posts for the denomination. During a break in the proceedings, Heckathorn struck up a conversation with Cummings. “Are you out here boondoggling?” Heckathorn asked. Their friendship blossomed immediately. “We just had a natural interest in each other,” Cummings said.

Soon after, church officials asked Cummings and Heckathorn for consulting assistance with several church-related nonprofit organizations that were struggling with management issues. The invitation was “the answer to our prayers,” Cummings said.

One evening after a busy day of consulting in Philadelphia, the two men sat down at a local restaurant. They enjoyed the work immensely and imagined that other lay leaders would value the opportunity to contribute their skills to the church. On the back of a placemat the two men sketched out their vision of a consulting network.

“It was the idea that many of the nonprofits were founded with the best intentions but were unable to follow through or execute because of lack of business acumen,” said Cummings’ son, Rob. They intended to help. Turning the placemat over, they saw that the restaurant’s religious-sounding name, The Vesper Bar and Grill, was ideal for their “society.”

‘A Home for My Service’

Soon after launching Vesper Society in 1965, Cummings and Heckathorn were invited to help a financially troubled Lutheran-related hospital in San Leandro, California. What started as a consulting relationship turned into ownership of the hospital, to the surprise of both men.

Following Heckathorn’s untimely death in 1973, the Society acquired a second hospital in nearby Hayward. While they hadn’t planned on this, the Society’s ownership of the hospitals “played right in and fit like a glove” in terms of getting lay people active in the church, Cummings said. The hospitals created a laboratory, an “arena where the laity could apply their faith.”

The opportunities for application were numerous. “We were broadly based and involved in many things,” said Cummings, who recalled that as new activities were proposed, the question Vesper Society would ask was, “Do we have a ministry there?”

In remarks prepared for the Society’s 40th anniversary in 2005, he wrote, “We have been said to be the ‘opportunists’ and I make no apology about that. I hope the Society will always be alert and quick to seize opportunity. But recognizing opportunity is not in itself sufficient. Whether it be an individual, corporation, or Society, one must position oneself—attain a stance, if you will—so as to capture the moment and turn the opportunity from dream to reality.”

As Vesper Society grew, Cummings kept up his senior housing consulting business, at times managing more than 4,500 apartments, principally in Southern California. He chaired the Subsection on Housing for the 1971 White House Conference on Aging. He lectured occasionally at the Ethel Percy Andrus School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. He also served as a regent for California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

But Vesper Society continued to be Cummings’ first love. “I found a home for my service which I just couldn’t refuse,” he said. Those who worked with him could easily spot his joy, said Society corporate member Robert Brorby. “He was just pleasant to be with,” said Brorby, who noted that his longtime friend had a way of defusing difficult situations with humor. “He smiled very easily, and he laughed very easily,” Brorby said. “He was greatly respected—and liked.”

Cummings lived for more than 30 years in Huntington Beach, where he enjoyed boating and fishing. Four years ago, as his health declined, he and his wife moved to Modesto to be near their daughter and her family.

Cummings is survived by his wife, Pauline; son Robert and his wife, Ann; daughter Paula and her husband, Arie Kroeze; grandchildren Heather Cummings Jensen, Peter Kroeze and the Rev. William Kroeze; and great-grandchildren Ava and Riley Kroeze.

A celebration of Cummings’ life was held on Monday, March 29, at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Modesto. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to:

Emanuel Lutheran Church—Building Fund
324 Collage Avenue
Modesto, CA 95350-5884  

or

Community Hospice of Modesto
4368 Spyres Way
Modesto, CA 95356-9259

Long before the term "social entrepreneur" became popular, Robert B. Cummings used business to make the world a more just place. To honor his legacy, the Society established the Robert B. Cummings Internship to support the work of young people committed to using their gifts to protect human dignity and enhance human potential. Everyone at Vesper Society extends their deepest sympathies to the Cummings family and gives thanks for the life and vision of this remarkable man.

 

About Vesper Society

Founded in 1965, Vesper Society is a faith-based private operating foundation that envisions a compassionate world that protects human dignity and enhances human potential. The Society’s mission is to promote social justice locally and globally by addressing critical social issues, including the provision of health services for the underserved.