Welcome to Desert Ministries
Dr. Richard Cromie led our organization until his death on February 9, 2013.
Dr. Cromie is a native Pittsburgher. He was a Pitt alumnus and also graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He began his work as Associate Pastor at The Shadyside Presbyterian Church from 1961-66. He attended the University of St. Andrews, Scotland previously as a Rotary Foundation Fellow; and later left Shadyside to return to St. Mary’s College of that University on a Howard C. Scharfe Memorial Scholarship. He received his Ph.D. degree under Professor James Aiken Whyte.
After returning from Scotland he was Pastor of the Parkwood Presbyterian Church in Allison Park, PA, and then he served for a dozen years as Senior Pastor of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon PA, before being “called” to Florida where he ministered first at the First Presbyterian Church of Ft. Lauderdale and then as Preaching Pastor of the Royal Poinciana Chapel in Palm Beach FL. He retired from there in 2004.
Dick and his wife Peggy were married for fifty-three years. They have three daughters: Catherine is married to Michael DeCramer and lives in Charlotte; Anne Campbell Cromie of Gainesville Florida, and The Rev. Courtney Beth Cromie. They also have two grandchildren: Madeline Noel DeCramer and William Cromie DeCramer, of Charlotte.