In 1970, the United States celebrated the first Earth Day. It took a lot of volunteers to put on this event. One of those volunteers was Siloam Springs resident Robbie Castleman.
Castleman has done a lot in her life. She has been a nurse, a professor in Biblical studies, an environmental crusader and a writer. However, when the day is done and it is time for her to wind down she does it in the place she calls home -- Siloam Springs.
Growing up
Castleman grew up in Sparks, Nev., and lived in the same house until she got married. Her childhood interests included fishing and stargazing with her father, she said. One winter she and her father saw the northern lights. Castleman also loved school, she said.
Castleman developed a passion for the environment early in her life.
"I think I always had an appreciation for the environment because of the beauty of where I grew up -- just about 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake," Castleman said. "My mom loved to tell the story about when I was about three or four years old and I was picking up junk on the playground and she asked me, 'What are you doing?' and I replied, 'I'm 'Keeping America Beautiful' which was a PSA (public service announcement) campaign in the 1950's."
After graduating from high school, she attended Holy Cross School of Nursing in Salt Lake City, Utah, from 1967-1970. It was there that she became a Christian. One of her obstetrics patients at the clinic where she worked introduced her to Jesus during her junior year of nursing school. It was during her time in nursing school when she was tapped to be part of Earth Day.
Earth Day
Castleman was one of 100 students (two from each state in the union) to plan the first Earth Day, she said. Castleman said she represented the National Student Nurses Association.
"I was first on a sub-committee to talk about medical waste disposal," Castleman said. "We wanted a nation-wide wake-up call concerning the fragility of the planet."
When she gives talks on Earth Day she compares the Earth to a Christmas ornament, breakable and fragile. It took a lot of people to set up the first Earth Day and most of it fell to influential people in Hollywood, Calif., and Washington, D.C., Castleman said.
"It was a fascinating time and all I organized back in SLC (Salt Lake City) for the small Earth Day event was to set up a booth to inform folks about how lovely, pastel toilet paper hurts the water supply, its creatures, etc.," Castleman said.
Castleman remembers the discussions for the Earth Day slogan that would be used. She ended up voting for the winning slogan "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," she said.
The most difficult thing the volunteers had to contend with was the hypocrisy. Someone on Castleman's student team had found out Eddie Albert, one of the celebrities at the conference in November 1969, had stock or did advertising for a soap company that had phosphates in its product.
One of the students called him on it and the group was expecting push-back. Albert said he did not know and did care about the issue. He said he would see about getting out of his contract and he did, Castleman said.
"Looking back on it, I marvel that we helped plan a nation-wide event in November that took place in every state of the union in five months," Castleman said. " (I) don't know anything about budget -- can't remember who paid for our trip and lodging, food, etc. for the 100 students. It was near the end of November to take advantage of Thanksgiving break."
She doesn't remember how the turnout was nationally, but does consider it a successful first step. Castleman said a lot of people stopped by her booth.
New Orleans
Some people would see her arrival in New Orleans as a series of coincidences, but Castleman saw it as providence of the Lord. She was still living in Salt Lake City where she was part of the Christian Liberation Front, she said. The group was going to set up a clinic in Berkeley, Calif., and asked if she could be a nurse there. Castleman said yes.
One month before she was supposed to go to Berkeley, she got a letter saying not to come because the group did not have funding or the liability insurance. At that point, Castleman had already given up her apartment and given notice at her job. Around the same time she got a letter asking her to come down to Mississippi to be a nurse at Kings Arrow Ranch, a summer camp for boys ages 7 to 12.
One day at the camp, she was asked to accompany a counselor and the dining room hostess, who were a couple at the time, to New Orleans for appearances sake, she said. It was during this trip she would meet the man she was going to marry.
Breck Castleman was fresh out of seminary and was working as an associate pastor and youth minister at Canal Street Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, he said. He had met with a pastor friend for lunch and he asked Breck about his dating life. Breck said he was single.
Later that afternoon the pastor friend asked Breck if he wouldn't mind having dinner with him and three workers from a camp in Mississippi, one of whom was Robbie.
"We stayed out in New Orleans till four in the morning," Robbie said.
A little over a week later, Breck came down to the camp because one of the boys from his church was going to be attending the camp.
"I saw Robbie, and she said she would love to show me around, but she was busy with camp registration," Breck said. "I said I could come back on my day off, which I did."
This began the relationship between the two. After multiple trips between Louisiana and Mississippi and multiple phone calls the two fell in love, Robbie said.
After camp ended, Robbie returned to Nevada and worked until it was time to get married. The engagement lasted 40 days, Robbie said.
After getting married, Robbie worked for several hospitals in New Orleans, but her longest tenure was at Hotel Dieu (House of God), she said. During her time in New Orleans, she also went back to school at Loyola University in New Orleans and completed her Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies in 1985, she said.
It took Robbie about seven years to complete her degree because she was working full-time, raising two young children and did not want to take out any loans to complete her degree, she said.
In her third year, she was going to have to drop out due to a lack of funds, she said. One of her instructors offered her a Jesuit scholarship which would pay for everything, but still allow her to complete her degree at her own pace.
The couple moved to Tallahassee, Fla., in 1986,where Robbie pursued her Master of Arts in Religion with an emphasis in Christian Thought at Florida State University (FSU) in 1988, while serving as part of the campus ministry team. It was during her time at FSU Robbie discovered her passion for writing.
Becoming an author
Robbie discovered writing at FSU. She mainly wrote devotionals and chapters in various books. One of her most famous contributions was for the book For All the Saints Evangelical Theology and Christian Spirituality. This analogy included works from other writers like Dallas Willard; James Houston and Alister McGrath.
Robbie wrote several books of her own including all three editions of Parenting in the Pew in 1993, 2002 and 2013; the third volume of a series called New Testament Essentials in 2014; and Interpreting the God-Breathed Word, Trinitarian Speech Act & the Art of Hermeneutics in 2018.
She also wrote several Bible study guides including The Story of Scripture in 2008; Peter Learning to Follow Jesus in 1999; and Elijah Obedience in a Threatening World in 1989.
Along with Books, she has written numerous publications including The City Journal, at Baylor University; the Theta Alpha Kappa Journal; and Student Leadership Journal.
Presently Robbie has a novel in her head on the demise of culture, beauty and kindness called Dead Canaries.
Finding JBU
Robbie began teaching Bible and Theology at John Brown University in August of 2001. Around two or three years earlier, Robbie was a keynote speaker at a national conference called Ivy Jungle and did an exposition on Isaiah 6, she said. One of the audience members was Tracy Balzer, JBU director of Christian Formation. Balzer and Stan McKinnon, who was the chaplain at JBU at the time, wanted to talk to her after the lecture.
"I guess they really liked what I did," Robbie said. "Then maybe a year or so later, they asked if I would come and speak at JBU chapel and I said, 'Sure!' I had no idea where Siloam Springs was and had never heard of JBU at the time, but I came and was blown away by this hidden jewel of Christian Higher Education, greatly competent students and a sterling faculty."
Dr. Jim Walters loved the talk and when he retired from JBU, he threw her name in the hat to be considered to follow his tenure at JBU. Robbie was close to finishing her doctorate and made it through a crowded group of applicants. Then her life began in Siloam Springs and a series of deep friendships.
While at JBU she taught New Testament Survey; New Testament Book Study Evangelical Theology; and Discipleship & Evangelism; and the Senior Seminar in Theology, she said. Steve Brankle, head of facility services at JBU, remembers a time when he stopped by his daughter's class and found Robbie's students jamming to island music.
"I was walking by her class and there was island music blaring from the room and the students were all up dancing and stuff," Brankle said. "I asked my daughter what was going on and she said they were studying the book of Acts and about Paul visiting an island so it was island day."
Brankle thought it was crazy, but the students seemed really engaged in the class. One of the things she brought with her from FSU was a group called the Dead Theologians Society, where she and her students would study the works of theologians who had passed on and then discuss it. The group's motto was "You have to be dead to be read."
She was also an active member of the school's diversity committee.
"When we decided to draft a diversity statement we looked to her to draft it from a Biblical statement," said Dr. Marquita Smith, the Diversity Committee's chair.
Post education life
Robbie retired from JBU in 2016, she said. She spends time with her husband of 49 years and enjoyed traveling before the coronavirus pandemic. She still returns to teach a class at JBU if she's needed.
Robbie volunteers at First Presbyterian Church and plans on designing and teaching the Women Of Worth (WOW) Bible study at Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, Okla., on Monday mornings in the fall.
"Her breadth and depth of Biblical knowledge is legendary," said Thera Barber, a friend and fellow church member at First Presbyterian. "I don't think I've ever sat under Robbie's teaching without coming away with a fresh insight or a new understanding of a passage she was opening up."
Smith said Robbie was very welcoming and very intentional to make sure a person feels welcomed and safe. At the start of the protests surrounding the murder of George Floyd, Robbie and her husband Breck attended a prayer service at JBU. While at the service, Robbie hugged Smith and told her she has not hugged another person other than her husband since the onset of the coronavirus.
"I understood her heart and desire to affirm and comfort regardless of the virus," Smith said. "I won't ever forget the way she extended herself."
