Robert Lewis Gillilan Jr.'s Obituary
Funeral services for Robert Lewis Gillilan, 65, of Longview, will be 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 3, 2010, at Macedonia Baptist Church with burial at Rosewood Park Cemetery in Longview. He died Thursday, February 25, 2010, in Longview of natural causes.
Lew was born June 23, 1944, in Fanwood, New Jersey, to Robert Lewis Sr. and Dorothy "Dede" Gillilan. He was raised in Park Ridge, Illinois, and attended Northwestern Military Academy and Elmhurst College. He served in the U.S. Army as a specialist from 1967 to 1969 at the DMZ in Korea. Lew accepted Jesus the Messiah as his Lord and Savior in November 1970. He worked as a plastics engineer in Illinois, where he met and married Janet on August 2, 1975. He worked in California before moving to Israel to work as a production manager.
Lew returned to the United States in 2001 and settled in Longview, where he and his wife founded the Messianic congregation Beit Shomrim, and he was ordained in 2009. He was also instrumental in organizing the Messianic congregation Adat Eloha Chai within Telford Prison in New Boston. Lew was a gifted and devoted teacher and friend to all who knew him.
He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Suzanne.
Lewis is survived by his wife, Jan; his children, Joy and Jay Hopping, Staff Sgt. Stephen Gillilan, retired Staff Sgt. Paul and Melissa Gillilan and Elizabeth Gillilan of Longview; seven grandchildren; sister, Margery Johnson of Hickory, North Carolina; and brother, Bruce Gillilan of Prospect Heights, Illinois.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the R. Lewis Gillilan Memorial Fund at Community Bank.
The family will be sitting shiva at the family home.
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