John O’Meara, Saint Matthew Congregation Council President
John O’Meara was born in Pittsburgh and his family moved to St. Louis, MO when he was a year old. He was active in scouting and became an Eagle Scout. He attended a very small Catholic boys prep school, with 34 people in his graduating class. That was followed by attending Princeton University on a Navy scholarship where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. Four years in the U.S. Navy were followed by receiving an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
He began working for Inductotherm (now known as Rowan Technologies) and retired 13 years ago after working there for 33 years. It was the first company founded by Hank Rowan, who endowed Glassboro College, which is now Rowan University. The company designs and manufactures high powered electric furnaces for melting metals for foundries. John worked in field services, sales and engineering at the headquarters in Rancocas and lived in Moorestown. (Incidentally, for those of you who are longtime members of Saint Matthew, he worked for awhile with Bob Sundeen, an active member of Saint Matthew for many years.) In 1986 he began working as a CEO/President of other companies owned by Rowan whose products dealt with something electrical or electronic and spent 10 years on Long Island. He later returned to one of the other Rowan companies in this area and again lived in Moorestown. Since retiring, he has done some occasional consulting work in associated fields.
During the many years John has lived in Moorestown, he has been active in the community, serving as President of the Moorestown Free Library Association, the Moorestown United Fund, the Rotary Club of Moorestown and his condominium association. He was a founding director of the Moorestown School of Music which had been started by his wife. He is an avid bicyclist and has a private pilot’s license (well used during his years with Inductotherm but now inactive). He spends significant time keeping up in the computer field and helping groups with data processing.
John’s family includes his wife of 47 years, Mary Anne (Polk) O’Meara and “two wonderful daughters and sons-in-law and three adorable grandsons” who are in Austin, TX and the San Francisco area.
John came to Saint Matthew Church seven years ago after experiencing various other churches through many years. He was raised Catholic, and while attending the prep school, he went to mass every morning. He “learned to love the old Latin hymns” and also learned a lot about the Reformation and Martin Luther. After his marriage, he and his wife attended her Episcopal church. During the time they lived on Long Island they joined a Presbyterian church where he was on the Session. After moving back to Moorestown, they joined the First Baptist Church. Later his wife began attending Moorestown Friends Meeting and he visited Saint Matthew because he knew Pastor Wengert when she was in the Moorestown Rotary.
Saint Matthew appealed to him and made him want to join for specific reasons: “the liturgy was familiar and comforting; the sense of mission in the larger world very much fit my sense of mission; the theological aspects of Lutheranism and today’s Lutheran theology seemed like common sense; and Saint Matthew has a terrific music program and choir, and I like well chosen hymns sung at a proper tempo (no dirges).”
John has been on the Congregation Council for three years. He was secretary during the first year and served as president for the past two years. He was recently elected president for another year. He says, “being part of this Council has been a joy all in itself.” He thinks it is “a great group of people who continue to inspire me.” He is a relatively new member of the church and he believes his greatest challenge has been not knowing individuals in the congregation. Sometimes people know things and expect him to know, but he doesn’t. He is thankful for Kim Bohley and her network who “have been a Godsend.”
In thinking about moving forward during this pandemic, John says it is a challenge to know how to reach out to the congregation. The pandemic was “poorly timed for Saint Matthew.” With the “arrival of a new and energetic pastor, it should be a time to throw open the doors and windows, tidy the cobwebs and emerge anew and refreshed.”
It is very difficult to do that when we can’t do in-person communication but have to rely on emails, phone calls and Zoom. If anyone has ideas on how to reconnect with the congregation, John would welcome them. Certainly, as a congregation, it is important and necessary for all of our continued prayers for John and other leaders as they guide us in trying to do “God’s work with our hands” in this unprecedented time.
—Rozella Bower, archivist