Crieff couple celebrate Diamond Wedding anniversary

Jul 9 2010 by Lynn Duke, Strathearn Herald

A DIAMOND Crieff couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this week.

Bob and Joy Smart were delighted to receive a card from the Queen on Tuesday to mark the occasion, followed by a visit from Councillor Ann Cowan, who presented them with a basket of flowers on behalf of Perth and Kinross Council.

The dozens of other cards sent from well wishers from all over the world are testament to the pair’s popularity.

Bob and Joy met after the war but it was just as well Joy had not known Bob during the war years. The former Marconi radio officer went to sea as a fresh faced 17 year-old, serving in the Merchant Navy, where he went through some life changing experiences including being torpedoed three times. Four years ago, Bob was persuaded to recount his war time encounters in a book called Another World, Home from the Sea.

The couple married in Southampton in 1950 after meeting at college in Bracknell where Bob was studying theology and Joy was training as a teacher. Bob became a pastor for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which is principally a missionary church, with hospitals and schools around the globe. Bob and Joy soon found themselves serving in Ethiopia, where Joy taught and Bob was the president of Eritrea and Tigre Province where he oversaw five schools.

Bob and Joy came to Crieff in 1974 and Bob was the pastor when the Gwydyr Road Church was built. It took only 11½ days to be erected.

The chaplain for retired pastors in the UK, Pastor Martin Bell from Crieff, paid tribute to the charming couple. He said: “Their home has always been an open door to visitors. They are a very special pair. Bob’s been a pastor of pastors, looking after many of us who have been working within the church.”