A funeral service will be held Dec. 20 at Leeds (Maine) Community Church.
The New Jersey native served 43 months in the Marine Corps during World War II before graduating from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and Princeton Theological Seminary. Ordained by Albany Presbytery in 1952, embarked on a lifelong career of serving small and rural churches and advocating for stronger denominational support for small and rural church ministry, including lengthy service on the PC(USA)’s Rural Ministry Advisory Committee.
Serving under the PC(USA)’s Board of National Missions, Geores organized three churches in the rural central Maine communities of Leeds, Wales, and Hartford. In 1954, he was instrumental in developing Mission at the Eastward (MATE), an ecumenical church support organization in the region, where he served as assistant director and then coordinator.
In that position he helped found the Rural Community Action Ministry — an ecumenical, non-profit social service agency dedicated to meeting the needs of the rural poor. In the, course of those efforts, Geores received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Princeton Seminary and the Jefferson Award for public service from the State of Maine. RCAM created a Housing Ministry that served the area. After his retirement in 1989, he continued to serve as a rural ministry consultant with the presbyteries of Northern New York, Utica (N.Y.) and Kendall in Idaho.
Geores is survived by his wife Melva; three daughters, Martha, Ruth, and Deborah; three sons, Paul, Peter, and Timothy; 10 grandchildren, a great-grandson and a niece.
