Thomas Bernard McBride was born
at Waynesboro, Georgia on August 30, 1908, the son of Robert Claud McBride
and Clifford Viola Agerton McBride. His father was an elder in the
Bethel, Georgia congregation. Mr. McBride grew up in Bethel Church,
Vidette, Georgia. He was baptized in May, 1909, by Rev. Paul A. Pressly.
His pre-college education was obtained at Waynesboro and Vidette, Georgia
public schools. Following his graduation from the Vidette High School
he entered Erskine College in the fall of 1927 and graduated in the spring
of 1931. In the fall of 1931 he entered Erskine Theological Seminary
and graduated in the spring of 1933. He was licensed by Second Presbytery
at Atlanta, Georgia, on April 25, 1933, and was ordained on October 21,
1933, by the Mississippi Valley Presbytery in session at New Edinburg,
Arkansas. From June 1, 1933, until May 1, 1934, Mr. McBride served
as assistant to Rev. L. R. Neill in the pastorate at Troy, Rives, and Polk,
Tennessee. On May 15, 1934, he became pastor of Bethel Church, Oak
Hill, Alabama, where he continued until January 4, 1941. He was installed
at Bethel June 24, 1934 by Rev. R. C. Kennedy and Judge John Miller.
During these years Bethel Church took on new life and prospered greatly.
Mr. McBride proved a gifted leader and a beloved pastor. In January,
1941, he accepted a call to the church at Doraville, Georgia, and on January
15th took up his work there, where he continued till he accepted a call
to Lancaster, South Carolina sometime in the church year 1944-45.
He served Lancaster till in the year 1948-49, when he resigned to take
up the pastorate at Anderson, South Carolina. While pastor of the
Young Memorial Church in Anderson, Rev. McBride accepted a professorship
at Erskine Theological Seminary.
On June 18, 1935 at Fayetteville,
Tennessee, Mr. McBride was married to Miss Jean LeGal Pressly, daughter
of Rev. and Mrs. B. G. Pressly. Mrs. McBride graduated from Erskine
College in 1930. The McBrides had a son, Thomas Grier, and a daughter,
Martha.
Rev. McBride passed away in
an Abbeville, South Carolina, on May 17, 1967, after suffering a heart
attack. His widow still resides in Due West, South Carolina.
