Gregg A. Mast ’74
The Reverend Gregg Alan Mast, Ph.D., president emeritus of New Brunswick Theological Seminary (NBTS) and General Synod Professor emeritus of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), died on Monday afternoon, April 27, at Albany Medical Center Hospital, Albany, New York, after being ill with the COVID-19 virus for several weeks.
Gregg Mast was born on February 7, 1952, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of the late Corneal and Stella DeVries Mast and husband for 47 years of Vicki Ann Kopf Mast. He was raised in Jenison, MI. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hope College in 1974, he attended New Brunswick Theological Seminary, receiving his Master of Divinity degree in 1976. He was licensed and ordained by the Classis of South Grand Rapids, RCA, and served as assistant pastor at the Andrew Murray Church in Johannesburg, a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, for one year at the height of the struggle against Apartheid. He then joined the pastoral staff of North Reformed Church in Newark, New Jersey for a year before spending seven years as pastor of Second Reformed Church of Irvington, New Jersey. While he was at Irvington, Mast studied in the liturgics program at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and earning his Master of Philosophy in 1981 and his doctorate in 1985. He then served as Minister for Social Witness and Worship for the RCA before accepting a call to be Senior Pastor of First Church (Reformed) in Albany, New York in 1988. Dr. Mast considered his fourteen years in Albany as his most fruitful time of ministry. He served as president of Albany Classis, moderator of its Vocational Development Committee, and a contributing editor of The Church Herald, RCA denominational magazine. He authored several books. After serving the RCA again, as Director of Ministry Services, Gregg Mast was called to serve as the fourteenth president of New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Dr. Mast guided the school through a return to financial stability, the creation of a Doctor of Ministry degree, and the move into a new physical plant. He also began a long run of teaching worship for the annual intensive courses for the RCA’s Ministerial Formation Coordinating Agency. In all these capacities, no one met Gregg, even for the first time, that did not come to love and respect the quality gentleman that was Gregg Mast. He will be sorely missed by all.
In addition to his wife, Gregg is survived by his three children, Andrew N. (Erin Carlson) Mast, of Washington, DC; his daughter, Katherine B. (Christopher) Rosno of Bradford, NY; and David A. (Ashley Herren) Mast, of Washington, DC; four grandchildren, Alexis and Emily Rosno and Flynn and Schuyler Mast; a brother, Keith R. (Lynn A.) Mast of Spring Lake, MI; a sister-in-law, Kathy Mast of Hudsonville, MI, and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by a brother, Douglas N. Mast.