Clayton Andrew Gilbert, retired Alabama pastor and former Royal Ambassador (RA) camp director, died May 18. He was 88.
Joining the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions in 1958 as the associate in charge of RA work, Gilbert became the first RA camp director in 1965. He was also instrumental in building the camp facility between 1963 and 1965 at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega and was known to RA campers and staff as “Mr. G.”
Before his RA work, Gilbert served as pastor of First Baptist Church, Maplesville; Hopewell Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa; and a church in Kentucky.
After leaving his position as RA director in 1970, Gilbert moved to Memphis, Tenn., to work with the Brotherhood Commission, which is now part of the North American Mission Board, from 1971 to 1974.
In 1974, Gilbert moved back to Alabama to take a position as associate pastor of First Baptist Church, Alexander City. A year after retiring from this position in 1986, he took a position as pastor of Pine Grove Baptist Church, Camp Hill, and served there until 2006.
A native of Walker County, Gilbert graduated from Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham in 1944 and from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in 1947 with a bachelor of divinity and in 1948 with a master of theology.
Gilbert was preceded in death by his wife, Nancy, and his daughter, Mary Anna.
He is survived by two children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. (TAB)
Share with others: