Obituary of Robert Bruce Reed

The fourth of four children, Robert Bruce Reed, affectionately known to most of his family and friends as Bob, was born the evening of June 22, 1954, in Montería, Colombia, where his parents were missionaries. Bob’s father was a church planter in Colombia, traveling approximately two weeks out of each month to plant churches in rural areas and share the Gospel wherever he could. He also pastored a church in Montería when Bob was young. Bob’s mom was a nurse, and the only medical person in the town for a while. She was often busy delivering babies, sewing up machete wounds, and so on.

When Bob reached school age, he was sent to a small boarding school called Carmelo for missionary children from first through eighth grade. It was in a mountainous area of Colombia, and it took a day and a half to get there. For high school, he was sent to Ben Lippen High School in Asheville, NC. From there, he went to Columbia Bible College, now called Columbia International University, in Columbia, SC. That is where he met Judy, who would later become his wife.

Bob joined Wycliffe in 1974, received training in linguistics and Bible translation, and got his master's in linguistics before heading to Colombia. Later, he earned a PhD and three additional master's degrees. He often referred to himself as a lifelong learner, and truly, he was. He took many courses beyond the graduate degrees he received.

In May of 1980, Bob married his dearly loved wife Judy, who had ventured single to Peru as a Bible translator. Together, they returned to Colombia for 14 more years of service before the security situation in the country became untenable, and Wycliffe sent them to Dallas to work. In Dallas, Bob was a founding faculty member of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, now known as Dallas International University. He also taught at Wycliffe’s CILTA linguistics training course in Lima, Peru.

In 2016, Bob and Judy resigned from Wycliffe and joined Partners in Joy, a small mission founded by Judy’s brother and his wife. Under Partners in Joy, Bob began teaching in an online seminary in Costa Rica called ProMETA. He marveled that it felt like God had been preparing him his whole life for this ministry. It was truly the apex of his 52-year missionary career. As Spanish was Bob’s first language, he spoke it fluently and had no trouble teaching at a master's and doctoral level at ProMETA. He was beloved by students and staff alike and leaves a huge hole in that ministry.

Bob was brilliant, kind, generous, compassionate, and visionary. He had an analytical gift that made him valuable as a Board or Faculty member. He truly cared about his students and invested much time in them, not just academically, but as a mentor, discipler, and friend.

Bob met his Savior face to Face on April 18, 2026, after a difficult five and a half weeks in the hospital, but his suffering is over. He is perfectly healed. He now knows more joy than any of us could imagine on this side of glory.

Bob was predeceased by his parents, Bob and Fran Reed, and his brothers Doug and Jim Reed. He will be missed by his wife Judy, children Christie McLean (with husband Jason) and Rob Reed, and his grandchildren Daniel McLean, Deborah Cohen (with husband Ryan), and Nathan McLean, as well as his sister Fran Martin. Until we meet again, dearest Bob!

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