The Reverend Robert Emmett Kanthak

Let us remember with thanksgiving the life and ministry of Rev. Robert Emmett Kanthak, 91 a resident of Pawling, NY who died at The Grand at Pawling on Saturday, July 9, 2016. 

Robert was born in Chicago, IL on May 9, 1925. He grew up in Chicago and worked part-time at his father's bakery, helping make the bread early in the morning before he went to school. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served as a radar-man while on the USS Barton, the USS Vincennes and the USS Vicksburg.  While in the Navy he received eight bronze stars. Bob was discharged in 1946.

He met Lois Irene Kime while she and her sister, Margie, were attending the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and living at Bob's parents' boarding house. He married Lois in Canton, OH on June 26, 1948; Lois predeceased him on May 30, 2007.

Bob worked as a chemist for a rubber products company in Chicago and Indiana. While in Indiana, Bob became a minister and preached in several small towns, including Goblesville, Green Center, Liberty Mills, and Roanoke. In 1967 it was his occupation as a chemist that brought Bob and his family to Pawling, NY. After his retirement from the rubber company he continued preaching in the New York Conference.  Pastor Bob, as he was called, served congregations in Holmes, Bangall, Milan, Chatham, Kenoza Lake, Jeffersonville, Fosterdale, Cochocton Center, West Sullivan Parish, Margaretville, Malden, Palenville, Quarryville, Phoenicia, Lanesville, Shandaken and High Hill. Bob retired in 1992, having served 24 of his 33 years in parish ministry in the New York Conference.

Ceramics was a passion. Bob gave ceramic lessons and operated a shop called Lo-Bob Ceramics. He was member of the American Legion Hasler-Kamp Post and a former member of the Masons and the Eastern Star.

In addition to his wife, Lois, he is predeceased by his brother, Herbert Kanthak. Survivors include his son Robert Douglas Kanthak and his wife Jane of Spring Hill, FL and Poughquag, NY; his daughter, Deborah Thomes and her husband John of Pawling, NY; six grandchildren: Sara Guilbeault and her husband Mike of Brookfield, CT, Robert Kanthak, Jr. of Wappingers Falls, NY, Angela Thomes-Klug and her husband Dan of New Hope, PA, Timothy Kanthak and his wife Michele, of Wappingers Falls, NY, Shaun Thomes of Pawling, NY and Thomas Kanthak and his wife Angela, of Poughquag, NY; and ten great-grandchildren.

Family and friends may call at the Horn & Thomes, Inc. Funeral Home, 83 East Main Street, Pawling, NY on Friday, July 15th from 6 to 9pm. American Legion Hasler-Kamp Post will conduct a service at 6pm and the Oblong Lodge F & A M will hold a service at 6:16. The funeral service will be held at the funeral home on Saturday at 11am and burial will follow in Quaker Hill Cemetery, Pawling.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 75817, Topeka, KS 66675 or the Dutchess County SPCA, 636 Violet Avenue, Hyde Park, NY 12538.