Robert Edwin Seamount
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Robert Edwin Seamount (October 18, 1918 – February 10, 1976) was a gospel singer, recording artist, pastor, missionary, and aircraft builder.
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[edit] Life
Bob Seamount was born in Green River, Utah. His family moved to Boise, Idaho. Bob attended Gem State Adventist Academy where he met Ellen Frances Venable. They moved to Loma Linda, California where he studied Engineering at La Sierra Jr College now called La Sierra University. Ellen is a cousin of Max Mace who founded and operates The Heritage Singers Christian singing group. Robert and Ellen were married April 5, 1941 in Pasadena, California, and lived in North Hollywood, California. They lived many years in Eagle Rock, California where they raised three children. They had 11 grandchildren, and 15 great grandchildren.
Bob became a singer as second tenor with the male quartet The King's Heralds in 1941 – 1961 who were often featured on the Voice of Prophecy radio show. Bob was a studio engineer, helping to compose, record and produce numerous albums that featured a mix of Gospel and Barbershop music style music with a Christian theme. Bob and the The King's Heralds traveled with HMS Richards, Jr. singing at Adventist churches and campmeetings all over the United States, Canada and Central America.
Bob was a life-long, active member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which he served as a pastor in 1961 – 1964 for churches in the San Juan Islands.
Bob became interim president of a local conference in the Inca Union of the South American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but he requested a field missionary position instead. Then Bob and his wife worked as missionaries in 1964 near Pucallpa, Peru on the Ucayali River which is a tributary of the Amazon River. Bob and Ellen lived in an airplane hangar. Their main job as missionaries was to distribute clothing and medicine.
Bob returned to the United States in 1968 where he worked for the Texas Conference in public reliations supplying stories and photos for South Eastern Union and Texas Conference papers. He also flew conference and union men to different places for meetings.
Bob also worked with Bill Tucker of the The Quiet Hour radio program and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Bob would buy and convert small aircraft as ambulances while based at a small airport in Keene, Texas in 1969 – 1974, then fly the aircraft to Adventist missions in Africa, South America, and the Philippines.
Bob went to Orlando, Florida in 1976 to work as a Public Relations Officer at Florida Hospital Orlando to raise money and pilot their jet.
[edit] Death
Robert Seamount died of brain cancer in 1976.
[edit] Genealogy
Bob Seamount is a descendant of the Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet, daughter of Thomas Dudley, through his mother Clara Gibbs.
His father Edwin Seamount was the youngest son of Johann Elof Bernard Sjoberg, a Mormon convert who immigrated in 1840 from Malmö, Sweden, to Green River, Utah.
The Sjoberg family name was translated literally as Sea-mountain when they immigrated to the United States. Two brothers later changed their names to Seamount. It is possible that Sjoberg is short for Skjöld-berg, meaning Mountain of Skjöldr.
[edit] Robert Seamount Building
The Department of Aeronautical Technology at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan is located inside the Seamount Building, which was dedicated in honor of Robert Seamount. The Seamount Building is #47 on this Andrews University campus map.
