Retired pastor celebrates 90 years of life

By Nancy Sharer (Review correspondent)
Published: September 5, 2010

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ROME TOWNSHIP - Written in bright frosting, the words on the cake told the story: "90 and going strong."

The Rev. Carroll Brentlinger's living a long, healthy life. And Saturday afternoon, the retired pastor from Allis Hollow celebrated as he turned 90 years old.

Family members held an open house in the Rome Curves/Allis Hollow Equipment Annex building along Route 467, with guests enjoying refreshments, a video of pictures, music, photos and a program honoring their friend.

Brentlinger, or "Pastor B" as a sign out front called him, helped found the North Rome Christian School some two decades ago. He also pastored the North Rome and Herrickville Wesleyan churches and the West Warren Church in earlier years, according to a relative.

Smartly dressed in a blue shirt and plain yellow tie - he declined a bright, flashy neckpiece his daughter Linda Gorsline offered - Brentlinger stood mingling with guests. Balloons in red, blue, pink, green floated above tables. Little party hats lined the floor.

"Happy 90th Birthday" declared a decoration on the card table.

How has he stayed healthy? "You'll have to ask the good Lord, because I really don't know!" Brentlinger replied. "I could say good genes - my dad made it to 98 … and I don't wanna!"

He added: "I just have to accept the blessings that God gives."

Brentlinger said he played tennis until he was 81 and golf to 85. Today, he just bowls.

Showing photos and text, the video led viewers through the pastor's career. He was born near Syracuse, N.Y. According to the program, he and his late wife, Mary Frances, married in 1944. Their daughters, Beatrice Sink and Linda Gorsline, were born in 1946 and 1947, and Brentlinger graduated from Houghton College in 1949.

He was a pastor in Scio, N.Y., from 1948 to 1950, and missionary to Haiti, 1950-53. Next, he served as pastor in South Point, Ohio, 1953-56; Ottawa, Canada, 1956-60; Canisteo, N.Y., 1960-63; and Spencerport, N.Y., 1963-68 (and also professor of Old Testament literature at Roberts Wesleyan College). From 1968 to 1970, he worked to establish a Bible school in Jamaica. In 1970 he came to Bradford County, serving at North Rome until 1984, and also in Herrickville and West Warren.

The year 1984 brought retirement and a motor home, then a vacation home in Florida. A photo from 1985 shows him with his father, then 92. In a 1997 Father's Day shot, Pastor Brentlinger stands with his daughters. Again, he's dressed up just so, a flower pinned to his light dress coat. And he's smiling a huge "dad" smile.

Today, he shares a double house with his girls in Allis Hollow. Bea and husband Brad live on one side; with Pastor B and Linda on the other.

Brad Sink has a theory about his father-in-law's good health: "I think because he lives well, continues to exercise. …

"He trusted in the Lord," which takes the strain out of life, he said.

Those daughters, though - he's not sure if it helps having them! Sink joked.

The video flipped through more joyful shots: Brentlinger's baptism in the Jordan River; his 35th wedding anniversary with Mary Frances; his bowling friends; receiving the Claude E. Reis Award for Pastor of the Year from Houghton in 1980.

Look at that! He made the list of Top 10 Golfers, right behind Tiger Woods - at least according to the blanket he holds in another photo. And in a 2000 picture, at age 80, he sits surrounded by a group of ladies - a "Rooster among the Hens," it explained.

"Grandpa: the man, the myth, the legend," declared a heart-shaped plaque on the video table. (Brentlinger has one grandson, Scot Gorsline, living in Florida.) A little wooden carved preacher and pulpit stood by the TV.

And another plaque, along with the photos of Pastor B and relatives, read: "A happy family is but an earlier heaven."

So with that happy family, and his family of friends, around him Saturday afternoon, "Pastor B" celebrated his life. And began a special year. … His 90th.

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