August 21, 1930 - December 15, 2020
Robert Carrol Giles was born on August 21, 1930 in Kelso, Wash., to William Russell and Elizabeth May Giles. "Bob" lived most of his life in this community. He started working at a young age, and liked to say that he was the richest kid in South Kelso as a result of delivering papers for the Longview Daily News. He graduated from Kelso High School in the class of 1948 where he was a three sport letterman, playing football, basketball, and baseball. He was probably most well known as a baseball pitcher who threw submarine style and had great success in high school and later on for the Kelso Town Team. (At least that is the way he told it.) He was a lifelong fan of Kelso High School athletics.
On January 21, 1950 Bob married Marlys Mae Williamson. The couple moved to Long Beach California for a few months, returning to the local area for the remainder of his life. For thirty years Bob worked for the City of Kelso street department. For many of those years he was an equipment operator, mostly on the motor grader. In the latter years of his service for the city he drove the street sweeper, a job he did in the early morning hours. He was also the last bridge tender for the Allen Street draw bridge that has since been replaced. In the 1950's and 60's he did numerous side jobs as a painter/carpenter. He was a hard worker his whole life.
In 1951 Bob was one of the board of directors for a new church start with Rev. Bill Terveen. They called the church Faith Temple Full Gospel. The church began in the Terveen's home, then moved to the Masonic Temple in Longview. Bob and Bill pooled their resources to buy a piece of property at 38th and Ocean Beach Hwy and began the process of building a church building. For ten years Bob worked his full time job with the city, side jobs with Bill, and built the first phase of Faith Temple. In 1961 the Terveens needed to take a leave of absence for nine months and asked Bob to fill in as the pastor of Faith Temple. The Terveens did not return, and for forty years Bob faithfully served as lead pastor of Faith Temple. During the past sixty years he has become known all over the community as Pastor Giles. We have no way of knowing how many people he visited in the hospitals, or how many of them he led in prayer before they passed, or how many funeral services he presided over, because there were so many lives that he touched.
Faith Temple is a charter member of a fellowship of churches called Grace International Churches and Ministries. For many years Pastor Giles served on the Board of Directors of Grace International, as well as being the Vice-president for about a decade.
Pastor Giles did not believe in retiring but in 2001 Pastor Giles passed the baton of lead pastor to his eldest son and became Pastor Giles Sr. Associate Pastor of Prayer and Care. The name of the church was changed to Faith Family Christian Center about that same time, and until he had a stroke that impaired his ability to get around Pastor Giles was on the job seven days a week for FFCC.
On December 15, 2020 Pastor Giles finished his journey here and was welcomed into the presence of his Lord and Savior with the words "well done good and faithful servant!"
