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"Robert Bilheimer is well remembered within the WCC as one of the imaginative individuals whose faithful and creative spirit shaped the movement and actions of the Council in its early stage of development," wrote WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia to Mrs Dorothy Bilheimer on 18 January 2007.
A well-known opponent of apartheid, peace activist and leader of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCCUSA), Robert S. Bilheimer passed away on 17 December 2006 in New York.
In the tribute enclosed with his letter, Kobia notes that "in the World Council, we remember him for his practical yet pastoral, immediate yet far-sighted, approach to the great issues of his day," and recalls that "He sometimes described himself as an 'ecumenical engineer' sorting out everyday problems of institutional organization and impediments to dialogue. "
