Ben Roe – Class of 1964 – Now 50 Years Later!
Wow. What a ride! Here's a bit of the scenery.
After graduation, I worked for the Department of Roads as a flagger over a couple of summers, getting a nice tan (no skin cancer yet, thankfully). I went to Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, majoring first in physics, then music, and finally pre-theology. I was active in the campus Christian movement and state Methodist Student Movement after attending the 8th Quadrennial Conference of the MSM in Lincoln. It took me 5 years to get through, partly because of my changing majors, and partly so I could graduate with my fiance, Maggie Davis, another “preacher's kid” from Grand Island.
In June, 1969, we graduated, got married and moved to Claremont, California, where I attended seminary. I was ordained as a United Methodist minister, and after I graduated in '75, we moved to Endicott, Nebraska, and I served as associate minister for a 5-church parish. In 1981, I founded a ministry in Lincoln which provided counseling and education in the area of human sexuality. I did workshops, presentations, and articles on sexuality in general, healthy relationships, sexual orientation, sexuality and disability, and on being single. I worked with several denominations helping to extend understanding and a better welcome to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals in their churches.
In 1988, when Maggie got a job as a regional organizer for Bread for the World, we moved to Denver, where we've been ever since. I worked for 11 years at a company that manufactured air pollution monitoring instruments and systems, as a secretary, executive secretary, Unix applications programmer, and trainer. Then in 2001, I began nine years as a communications staffer for the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Methodist Church (now part of the Mountain Sky Conference), retiring in 2010.
As you know, I played the French horn in band. I continued to play in college orchestra and band, and then in graduate school for the festival worship services we did a couple times a year. My ham radio interests continued, though largely dormant for a number of years. In seminary and now more recently, I've been involved with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), doing emergency and public service communications. I did not continue my acting career, however, though I played in the orchestra for Faust and Camelot at Nebraska Wesleyan. A couple of years after we moved to Denver, the late effects of polio caught up with me, and I began to use a 3-wheel scooter for mobility. (Yes, that's a ham antenna holding up the orange flag.)
We've been involved since 1978 in the movement to help our church become more welcoming to gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender persons, through organizations called Affirmation and Reconciling Ministries Network. This has led to my involvement in the Western Methodist Justice Movement, a network of activists working on a number of social justice issues. I currently maintain several web sites, in addition to my own at JBenjaminRoe.com, where you can read more detail on my life and writings.
I am just finishing a term as chair of the trustees of Warren United Methodist Church, and chaired the Mission Vision Team some years ago.