Robert Harold "R" Hipps

August 7, 1920 - February 3, 2014

R Hipps was still in high school when he left home to join the circus. He broke into the big top shoveling elephant poo while traveling with the Wallace Bros. Circus for four months one summer. He later attended Ringling Bros.
Clown College and appeared with that circus during Nashville stops.
Thus the future minister and professor made his first foray into higher education amid big floppy shoes and red noses. While R ultimately found his calling in ministry, he never lost his love for adventure that led him to follow that circus, and he never stopped seeking out new experiences and especially new friends during the ensuing decades.

The Rev. R (Robert) Harold Hipps, a longtime Methodist minister and educator who pioneered development of several areas of leisure ministry and Christian education, went home to the arms of Jesus on Feb. 2 following a brief illness. He was 93.

A native of Western North Carolina, Hipps was a graduate of High Point College and Duke University Divinity School. Hipps was ordained an Elder in the Western North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Church and he served West Market Street Methodist Church in Greensboro, NC, as the Minister of Education for 15 years, becoming certified as a Minister of Christian Education. He was also the District Director of Youth Work.

Hipps was also an expert square dance caller and a clogger, to boot. He even danced his way onto the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium as a substitute clogger.

His first assignment in Nashville was Director of Leisure/Recreation Ministries at the General Board of Education, Division of the Local Church, as well as Director of Leadership Development for Professional Christian Educators.

In the leisure/recreation area, Hipps pioneered the development of leisure ministry training and a wide scope of national and international projects. He was an organizer of the National Recreation and Park Association and served three terms on its board of directors. He served 4 years as an American Protestant Consultant to the Vatican Council on Leisure/Tourism.


Christian educators past and present owe much to Hipps, who worked tirelessly to develop leaders in the field, then became the “mover and shaker” in creating a national support group for those leaders, the Christian Educators Fellowship.

Hipps was a fearless champion of the rights and privileges, the service and the support of all lay professionals in the church. He helped bring into existence the Office of Lay Worker and guided the establishment of Conference Committees on the Lay Worker. Hipps served as the first and only Associate General Secretary for the Division of Lay Ministries, of the United Methodist Church.

When the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF) was organized in 1967, Hipps served as the Executive Officer part-time while serving major staff assignments with the Board of Education, and later the Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Upon his retirement from the Board in 1985, he became the first full-time staff employee of CEF as Executive Officer.

Hipps retired from CEF in 1988 so he could spend more time with his wife, Kitten (Kathryn), as well as volunteering at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, teaching Elderhostel courses at Vanderbilt, Scarritt and Epworth By The Sea at St. Simons Island, GA.

Hipps’ industrious interpretation of retirement also led to his forming and serving as president of R and Associates, which provided professional meeting management and people planning. With over 50 years experience in meeting design, planning, management and leadership, Hipps held the distinctive honor of a Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) and in 1995 received the first ever Legend Award for long, distinguished and meritorious leadership in the meetings industry and service to meeting professionals from the Tennessee Meeting Professionals International.

Hipps is preceded in death by his parents Charles and Elise, brother Trevelyn, and son Jeff Hipps. He is survived by his wife, Kitten, of 57 years, son Dr. Dan Hipps, and daughter-in-law, Kim Hipps, grandson, Evan Hipps, sister, Ruth Hipps Houser, and Wayne Houser, and nephews Johnny and Dewayne Houser of Gastonia, NC.


The family wishes to express their thanks and appreciation to the staff of Guardian Hospice, nurses, aides and doctors, for the love and care given to R. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the “Living Church Fund” at West End United Methodist church. Or to Guardian Hospice.

A celebration of the Rev. R Harold Hipps’ life and homegoing will be at 2p.m. Saturday, Feb 15, at West End United Methodist Church in Nashville.

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