Gene Robert Thursby
January 15, 2021
Gene Robert Thursby, age 81 years, transitioned on Friday, January 15th, 2021 in the ET York Haven Hospice in Gainesville, Fl.
He was born on May 8th, 1939 in Akron, Ohio to Gene F. Thursby and Mariella Icenhower. He attended public schools in the city of Akron and in Springfield Township, graduating from High School in 1957.
He was accepted as an undergraduate at Oberlin College where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961, then entered Oberlin’s Graduate School of Theology where he was awarded a degree of Bachelor of Divinity with high honors in Philosophy of Religion in 1964. At his second Oberlin graduation, he received a Monroe Traveling Fellowship that enabled him to enter a doctoral program at Duke University where his studies included History of Religions and an interdisciplinary program in South Asia Studies. After eighteen months of archival and field research in India supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, he wrote a thesis on Hindu-Muslim relations and received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Duke in 1972. Meanwhile, in 1970, he had joined the faculty of the Department of Religion at the University of Florida where he continued to teach until his retirement in 2007. His most creative and convivial experiences while employed at the University of Florida were team teaching and public service activities in cooperation with colleagues in the university’s multi-college Center for Spirituality and Health.
He was a gifted and beloved teacher and mentor to thousands of students, many who have written over the years crediting him with changing their lives. Importantly, he was always willing to change, grow, and learn. He was extraordinarily humble, generous, and kind.
His parting advice: “You never know where grace and love are going to break in. If you can, be open to it. Be able to have a little quiet within yourself. If you can become a center of calm, all the better.”
He is survived by his wife Pamela Ann Hunt, his stepson Shen Patrick Hunt, and his sister Emily (Rich) Ferris of Akron, Ohio.
We are forever grateful to the extraordinarily compassionate staff of Haven Hospice.
Please, in lieu of flowers or donations would be appreciated to:
Haven Hospice
4200 NW 90th Blvd.
Gainesville, FL 32606-3809
Sage-ing Legacy Program
Yerusha at Shalom Center
6711 Lincoln Dr
Philadelphia, PA 19119
Humane Society of North Central Florida
4205 NW 6th St
Gainesville, FL 32609
❤️
Pam
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Martha and I send our warm hugs to you & your family. We are so sorry for your loss of Gene, and we are sorry we did not get to know him. With ❤ ,
Martha & Vic
On behalf of myself and the Santa Fe College and the Santa Fe College Foundation, we extend our deep condolences to the Family and Friends of Gene.
I had the pleasant opportunity to talk to, and meet this gentle and giving man and his dear wife, Pamela, when they donated a series of prints from his collection of works by the artist Paul Arnold, an Oberlin College Professor himself.
We have accessioned them into our collection for the enjoyment and education of our students, Staff, and Faculty. We are most grateful for this gift, and we hold this as one more of the ways in which he has touched humanity, and perpetuated the spirit of love and thirst for investigating and understanding.
We hold the Family in our hearts and remember Gene fondly.