Robert Harrison Dilday, a longtime Baptist editor, died of cardiac arrest on Dec. 22 in Richmond, Va. He was 64. Dilday, a native Texan, was born June 4, 1955, to Russell H. and Betty Dilday. He earned his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, along with a Certificate of Anglican Studies from Virginia Theological Seminary. Dilday was managing editor of the Religious Herald, state newspaper of Virginia Baptists, for 27 years. Previously, he had worked with the Christian Index in Georgia and the Baptist Joint Committee in Washington, D.C. He was editor-in-chief of the Baptist News Global news service from 2014 to 2018. Dilday had been ordained as an Episcopal priest on Dec. 14 and had just begun his duties as associate priest at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond. Prior to his ordination, he had served as a chalice bearer, sub-deacon and jail minister at St. Stephen’s. He also was a founder and co-director of the Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice. He was preceded in death by his mother, Betty Dilday. He is survived by his sons, R. Harrison Dilday Jr. of San Francisco, Calif., and Andrew Christopher Dilday of New York, N.Y.; sisters Nancy Dilday Duck of Richardson and Ellen Dilday Garrett of Brownwood, Tenn.; and his father, Russell Hooper Dilday.
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