Wardens and Vestry
The Vestry of St. Bartholomew’s Church in the City of New York is the legal, canonical, and fiduciary “board of trustees” for the church.
The Rector is chairman of the Vestry. Wardens, elected for up to three consecutive two-year terms, are the lay chairs of the Vestry, and have canonical authority for the parish when the rectorship is vacant. Members are elected for up to two consecutive three-year terms. Governed by national and diocesan canon law, New York State Religious Corporation law, and our own by-laws, the Vestry leads the parish in setting policies and goals, maintaining the buildings, and raising financial support for the mission of the parish.
Wardens
Miriam K. Schneider, Warden
Miriam began attending St. Bartholomew's in 1982, soon after moving from her home state of Idaho to New York City and beginning work at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. She joined the Community Club and began attending weekday services shortly thereafter, formally becoming a Church member in 1985. Her and her late husband Howard’s marriage was blessed by the Rev. Judith Baumer in 1989. Their twin daughters were baptized by the Rev. Bruce Forbes in 1996. Paula and Helene attended St. Bartholomew's preschool, and were Choristers for 10 years.
Miriam worked in banking as an analyst for the forest products sector for almost 20 years. Now retired from JP Morgan Chase, she is the Senior Managing Partner for Kunkel Farm, LLC, the family's Idaho farm business, which produces mainly barley (for Coors) or alfalfa and occasionally feed corn for the local dairy industry. She is the founder and CEO of Manhattan Multiple Birth Parenting, Inc., an organization providing networking and educational support for parents of twins and other multiples. From 2001 through 2010 she was a parent leader in the New York City Public School System, holding various PTA executive board positions, and was Co-President of NYC’s Presidents Council for District 2, representing the interests of all public-school parents within the District. Miriam served as a parent representative on the Dominican Academy Accreditation Committee in 2013-2014. She is currently a member of the College of Idaho’s National Alumni Board, and just finished her term as President of her co-op board.
As a volunteer at St. Bartholomew’s Miriam has sung in the 9am choir and served as an acolyte and torch bearer at 11am. She has been a member of St. Bartholomew's Altar Guild since 1985, and its president for more than 25 years. She attended DOCC and Alpha courses. While Paula and Helene were in high school, the three of them acted as dinner hosts most Saturday nights, for a dinner cooked by Miriam, at the Crossroad's women's shelter. She regularly read Evening Prayer in the Chapel before the pandemic and continues now with Night Prayer online.
Miriam and the girls share their Upper East Side home with four cats and a dog. Paula and Helene are now in graduate school. They have helped broaden her empathy and interest in social justice and LGBTQ+ causes. She has catholic tastes in a wide range of interests and activities, and considers her intelligence and abilities practical in nature, and personally satisfying. She loves to get in her car and drive. The destination is not as important as the journey!
William (“Bill”) Fry IV
Bill and his wife Lee Anne moved to New York from Nashville in late 2012. As lifelong Episcopalians (and Bill’s father an Episcopal priest), they spent over a year shopping for churches. After visiting more than ten Episcopal churches all over the city, many on multiple Sundays, they decided on St. Bart’s due to the warm welcome and the Rev. Buddy Stallings’ sermons. In deciding on St. Bart’s, Bill said, “This was an important decision to us and we took it seriously. We were looking for a church home, not merely a place to worship, and we found that in St. Bart’s.”
Bill and Lee Anne have lived in numerous cities on the east coast and in the south. Bill has served on vestries leading stewardship for Episcopal churches in Georgia and Tennessee, served as a Big Brother for many years, and as a Director of Boys and Girls Club of Nashville. As a member of the St. Bart's Vestry since 2020, Bill chaired the Investment Committee, served on the Governance Committee, led the Strategic Planning Committee, and is honored to receive this nomination for Warden.
Bill grew up in Memphis, TN, graduating from Ole Miss. He served as a Naval Officer first on the USS Bowen (FF 1079) and then in the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program in Washington DC, where Bill and Lee Anne met. Bill received an MBA from Harvard Business School and then embarked upon a career as a senior executive. Bill served as CEO of various companies including Bell Sports, Riddell, and Oreck Corporation. In 2010, Bill joined American Securities, a private equity fund based in New York, where he serves as a partner focusing on portfolio company improvement. In addition to serving on various American Securities’ company Boards, Bill serves on the Board of Directors for Trek Bikes and for the Ole Miss Business School.
While at St. Bart’s, Bill and Lee Anne have become members of the Mosaic Society, and in May of 2019 they went on the St. Bart’s Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a journey that impacted both their faith and commitment to St. Bart’s.
Bill and Lee Anne have two children, a daughter in NYC and a son in Chicago. They live in Chelsea and also have a home in Oxford, MS. While in New York, Bill and Lee Anne enjoy Broadway shows, concerts and all the city has to offer.
Honorary Wardens
Vestry Members
Joe Bessey
Palmer Q. Bessey, Jr. (Joe) was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, and attended the public schools there. He went on to Williams College, where he majored in chemistry and spent most of his time in the theatre. After a year in a medical lab in Boston, he entered a graduate program in physical chemistry at the University of Oregon. He received a Master’s Degree and returned East to work another year in a medical lab before entering medical school at the University of Vermont. He and his wife, Sarah, had met in college and were married in Wellesley, Mass, just before moving to Vermont. He went on to complete a residency in surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The couple’s two children, Anastasia and Nathaniel, were both born in Birmingham. After a research fellowship in Boston, he returned to Birmingham as the Director of the section of Trauma, Burns, and Critical Care. He also served on the faculties of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Rochester. He gradually became increasingly involved in caring for burn patients and joined the Burn Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Cornell Medical College in 2000. He was actively involved in the care of burn victims for over 18 years there, including casualties from the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. He has been active nationally in the leadership of the American Burn Association. He focuses now primarily on research and teaching.
Joe was a cradle Episcopalian, baptized and confirmed in Montclair. He first heard of St. Bart’s from his father, who admired the music program, but he never attended the Church himself before moving to New York City. He remembers his first visit on a Sunday in July, where he heard the Rev. Bill Tully speak about molecular biology in a sermon. He came back that evening for the “Come as You Are” service, which was joyful and uplifting. St. Bart’s seemed to him to be a good fit. He had found a place. He and Sarah are both active in worship, and he has served as a lector, verger, and acolyte for many years.
Kathleen Breiten
Kathleen has been a member of St. Bart’s since 1996. St. Bart’s became her favorite place to go for the noon Eucharist in the midst of long work days at a large bank nearby. Worship in midday brought welcome calm and renewed energy.
Kathleen is a CPA/MBA and worked for Arthur Andersen & Co., becoming one of the first professional women to have a baby and return to work. After interesting “glass ceiling experiences” and the birth of her second child, she decided to work in banking and became the Financial Controller of the Private Bank in two different global banks where she was promoted to Senior Vice President and then Managing Director. Kathleen now works part time as a consultant to a family office.
At St. Bart’s Kathleen served as the co-chair of the 2006 Annual (Stewardship) Fund and was elected to the Vestry in 2007. She served as the Treasurer of St. Bart’s for 5 years and was a member of the Planning and Budget Committee. Kathleen has also hosted a St. Bart’s at Home group, graduated from the 4-year Education for Ministry course, and was a member of the Rector Search Committee that called Bishop Wolfe. Kathleen returned to Vestry service in 2018 and is currently Chair of the Audit Committee. She also hosts a St. Bart’s Connects group on Zoom, is a lay eucharistic minister, leads Centering Prayer several times a week, and tutored pre-pandemic in Harlem with the Episcopal Peace Fellowship group. In addition, Kathleen is on the Board of Directors of Crossroads Community Services, Inc., and has recently concluded her term as its Treasurer.
Kathleen lives on the West Side where she enjoys great views of the sunsets. She has a daughter who lives with her husband and Newfoundland dog near Philadelphia and a son and three grandchildren who live in Cumberland, Maryland. She enjoys gardening, hiking and cooking at her lake house in northern New Jersey.
David Lee Carson
Approximately 13 years ago David decided he wanted to have a spiritual center—a Church Home—in his life. He had been raised Baptist in the 1950s in Indiana, and church had played a central role in his life. But it had been years since he had attended services, and he was missing the music, the uplift and the community. David decided he’d look for a “place” to worship, and chose St. Bart’s as his first stop. He’d never been inside, but the architecture, the reputations of its Theatre Troupe and its music program, had interested him for years, so he came to a 9 am Sunday service. He never left, or looked for another “place”. He had his home and was confirmed here in 2011.
David has had a 40+ year career in New York theatre as an actor and director. He’s served on the boards of off-off theatres and as a box office treasurer on- and off-Broadway. He’s developed a “niche” working closely with actors, playwrights, and composers developing new works, particularly solo performance pieces. He’s also spent over 30 years as a bookkeeper for medical practices, travel companies, etc. During the 80’s and 90’s he spent over 10 years as a volunteer with GMHC, and helped create its Speakers Bureau within its educational programing.
At St. Bart’s, David gained his footing attending the Explore classes and completed the 4-year Education for Ministry program. He now serves as a lector, a lay eucharistic minister, and verger for worship services; and as a Eucharistic visitor, taking communion to our parishioners who are unable to join us for services (pre-pandemic). He has been a regular at the Wednesday Bible Study for almost a decade.
Since 1977, David has lived in Manhattan Plaza on the western edge of the Theatre District. His husband, Barry, is a “Broadway legend,” having been a Star Dresser for more than 25 years. They have been together for 37 years and married for the last 8. He can’t cook, but Barry sure can. They are TV addicts and have a wonderful family of friends with whom they have traveled to Europe, South Africa, and around the United States.
Luke Failla
Luke Failla has been a member of St. Bart’s for ten years and still remembers the first service he attended here in 2011. At the time, he had not been part of a faith community in over fifteen years and wanted to find a church to visit on Christmas Eve. “The service was wonderful, and I still remember it vividly to this day,” he recalls. The sermon made him feel comfortable, the music was spectacular, and the welcoming nature of people made him feel at home right away. He joined as a member soon after and began volunteering as an usher to pass on the feeling of welcome to others.
Luke grew up in Staten Island, and as a lifelong New Yorker, he has lived in almost every borough of New York City. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Management at SUNY Buffalo and began his career in sales and merchandising for Lord & Taylor and The Container Store before moving to finance ten years ago. Luke is currently a branch manager with TD Bank and has earned a Certificate in Organizational Leadership from the NYU School of Professional Studies. Additionally, he spent five years volunteering as a Big Brother with Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC.
At St. Bart’s, Luke serves as Chair of the Stewardship Committee and currently enjoys participating in worship as a member of the Altar Guild. Aside from serving as an usher and a member of the Welcome Committee, he enjoys spending time with parishioners through his St. Bart’s Connects! group.
Luke loves being a tourist in his hometown, visiting different neighborhoods in New York City and trying out new restaurants with friends. He also enjoys the occasional break from city life when visiting family in the Catskills.
Rachel Farrar
Rachel first found her way to St. Bart’s through the choir. In 2008, only a few weeks after moving to New York from Lexington, KY, she auditioned for Bill Trafka who invited her to sing the Duruflé Requiemin the church’s annual September 11th Remembrance Service. She has remained a devoted member of Saint Bartholomew’s Choir ever since. Rachel was confirmed in the Methodist church as a teenager, but had for many years worked and worshipped in the Episcopal church. So in 2012, she made it official and was received into the Episcopal communion as a member of St. Bart’s.
Rachel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from the University of Kentucky. In New York, she has carved out a career for herself as both a singer and an actor in film and television. She can be seen in Hulu’s miniseries The Looming Tower and Showtime’s City on a Hill. Rachel is a proud and active member of SAG-AFTRA, where she has developed a strong interest in entertainment contracts. This interest, in part, lead her to the decision to begin law school part-time this Fall.
Rachel is active in parish life both in and outside the choir. She jumps at every opportunity to support the chorister program, whether it’s helping out with rehearsals or chaperoning summer camp. She served on the hiring committee to fill the position of Associate Organist and Director of Choristers in 2014. For several years, Rachel served as an overnight host for Crossroads Community Services, Inc., women’s shelter. She co-chairs the 20’s-30’s group through which she helped organize and host the annual Episcopal Diocese of New York Young Adult Christmas Party in 2019, attended by more than 120 young Episcopalians from around the city. Last year, she joined a St. Bart’s Connects group and is enjoying the its rich fellowship.
Rachel lives in Harlem with her husband, Graham and their two dogs, Sophie and Jean. Together they love taking on home renovation projects at both their apartment in the city and their vacation house in the Catskills. They’re finally getting back to many of their favorite pre-Covid pastimes— dressing up, dining out and karaoke in K-town.
James Ferrara
Jamie and his wife, Flora, started attending St. Bart’s in 2014 soon after they moved to New York City. They regularly attend the 11 am service. Jamie is a native New Yorker, and the eldest of four siblings. He was raised Roman Catholic and attended Jesuit schools for high school (Gonzaga, Washington, DC), college (Xavier University, Cincinnati), and medical school (Georgetown University). He was received into the Episcopal Church at St. Bart’s in May 2015.
As a physician, Jamie specialized in both pediatric and adult oncology with a special focus on bone marrow transplantation, a complex form of immunotherapy used to treat aggressive leukemias and lymphomas, and he currently serves as the Ward-Coleman Chair of Cancer Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Physicians who have trained in his laboratory, first at Harvard and then at the University of Michigan, are now transplant leaders throughout the USA, Germany, and Japan. He has received a number of prestigious awards for his research and is regularly featured as a keynote speaker at international medical conferences, now by the magic of Zoom.
Jamie served on the most recent Rector Search Committee, where he represented new parishioners. He has also volunteered for several Fare Share Fridays. Together with Peter de Menocal, he spoke at a couple of Forums on faith and science. Since March of 2020, Jamie has served on the medical advisory panel that guides protocols for pandemic safety at St. Bart’s, and joined other members of this panel to speak at two sessions of The Forum, providing information on COVID-19 vaccines and addressing concerns on pandemic safety. Together with William Fulton he currently leads the popular “St. Bart’s at the Opera” series.
Jamie and Flora live on the Upper East Side. Their eldest son, Andrew, lives in Durham, England, and their two younger sons, David and Michael, live in New York City.
David Hilder
David Hilder first attended services at St. Bart’s in August 2011, and was immediately attracted by St. Bart's practice of radical welcome, opening the communion table to all, and its diverse congregation.
David provides strategic advisory services to family-owned private companies, start-ups in financial technology, and non-profit institutions through Hilder & Co. LLC. He also works as a Supervisory Analyst, editing equity research reports for several investment banking firms. David spent 30 years as a research analyst and investment banker at Wall Street firms including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Bear Stearns, and Drexel Hamilton, a firm owned by service-disabled U.S. military veterans. He was Team Leader for the financial sector and a sector Portfolio Manager at Putnam Investments in Boston for two years during the financial crisis. He started his career as a newspaper reporter and editor, including eight years at The Wall Street Journal. David earned a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University. He has served non-profits as a member of the Dean’s Council of the Yale School of Architecture, a trustee of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, and trustee and Treasurer of the Society for the Increase of the Ministry, which provides scholarships for people studying to become Episcopal priests.
David began ushering at St. Bart’s at Christmas 2015, and has been a regular usher at the 11 am services since 2017. He has served on several ad-hoc and standing committees at St. Bart’s, including the Investment Committee and the Audit Committee, and was Chair of the Audit Committee in 2022.
David lives in Manhattan near Columbus Circle and enjoys Central Park as much as possible. His two children are both recent college graduates. His son lives in Los Angeles and works at a talent agency; his daughter lives in New York and works in technology sales.
Tim Hook
Timothy Hook (Tim) was born and raised in a small town just North of London in the UK. After completing his undergraduate studies in architecture at Kingston University (UK) he attended the University of Notre Dame to earn his Master’s Degree. It was here, while taking part in Notre Dame’s Rome Studies Program that he met his wife and fellow architect, Erin. After finishing his studies, Tim returned to London where he spent his early career working on projects for the Grosvenor and Cadogan Estates. During this time he also worked with the Prince of Wales’ Foundation as both a tutor and a designer on their urban design projects for Sidon, Lebanon and Viterbo, Italy. In 1999, Tim and his wife moved to Seattle, where they worked for two years before finally settling in New York in 2001. After working for well-established Manhattan practices, Tim and Erin founded their own firm in 2006 shortly after the birth of their son, Charlie. They specialize in classical and traditional architecture. With their son and dog, they enjoy a happy New York life.
Tim started singing as a chorister in his local parish church when he was eight years old, and has been singing in church choirs continuously since; in London, South Bend, Seattle and New York. He also founded a choir made up of singers he has known over the years that meet every other year to sing in a different English Cathedral for a weekend. It was in his time as a boy chorister that his love for church architecture, music, and beautiful liturgy emerged. His fondest recollections were of singing the daily offices at summer Cathedral residences throughout England, as well as, with the natural fellowship which flowed from a church with a rich variety of people. So, when it came to looking for a church in New York, he and Erin were sold on their first experience of St. Barts, and became regulars in 2006. Tim was a member of the Singers under Bill Trafka and occasionally subs for the main choir. Since 2010 Tim has also been much involved with Crossroads. In addition to periodically serving breakfast on Sundays, he also assisted in the renovation of the facility. In 2018, Tim was asked to join the Building Committee; an experience he has found to be very rewarding.
Astrid Horan
Astrid Horan was married at St. Bart’s in 1981 by the Reverend Tom Bowers, whom her husband Hubert knew from Atlanta. St. Bart’s was also their neighborhood church and where Astrid was confirmed as an Episcopalian.
Astrid Horan was born, raised and attended high school in Berlin, Germany. After attending the University of Colorado, she moved to New York City and worked as a confidential assistant to Governor Nelson Rockefeller who appointed her to the Permanent Commission on Pension and Retirement Systems to bring about public pension reform in the City and State of New York. After the Commission was abolished under Governor Mario Coumo, Astrid moved to Connecticut, but returned to the City after she was widowed.
Back at St. Bart’s, Astrid attends the weekly bible study, is in her third year in Education for Ministry (EfM) and is taking pastoral care training.
Astrid has served on the boards of Sheltering Arms Children‘s Services (NYC); Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (Waterford, CT); Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts (chairman); president of Joshuatown Association (Lyme, CT); University of New Haven Board of Governors, and is a member of the American Council on Germany.
Astrid enjoys city life with all it has to offer.
J. Patrick Hornbeck II
Patrick Hornbeck is honored to serve for a second three-year term on the Vestry. He first came to St. Bart’s in 2011, on the recommendation of one of his Fordham University faculty colleagues.
Patrick, currently on leave from his position as professor of theology at Fordham, serves as a law clerk to the Hon. Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He graduated in May 2022 from Fordham Law School. During his time as a professor and university administrator, Patrick has authored or edited eight books on medieval and modern Christianity; served as interim dean of Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; and commented regularly on religion, law, and public policy for the national and international media.
Since making St. Bart’s his parish home, Patrick has spoken regularly at the Forum and taught adult education classes, covering topics ranging from the history of the English Reformation to the relationship between religion and politics in the contemporary U.S. In 2015-2016, he served on the Rector Search Committee, and since 2020, he has been a member of the Vestry.
Patrick’s husband, Patrick Bergquist, served St. Bart’s for many years as Minister for Children, Youth, and Families, and special assistant to the rector; he now works as chief program officer at Episcopal Charities for the Diocese of New York. The Patricks were married at St. Bart’s in 2015, coincidentally the day after the Supreme Court recognized marriage equality nationwide. They live in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.
Mary Robin Jurkiewicz
Mary Robin and her husband moved to New York City from Montgomery, Alabama, almost four years ago and began “church shopping” immediately, because she knew a solid church would help her feel more at home in New York City. In 2016 they found St. Bart’s and formally joined on Welcome Sunday that October. Mary Robin writes, “Being from the Deep South, I was pleased to find such a friendly church with an excellent outreach program, plus there seemed to be a fair number of Southerners here.”
Mary Robin began work as an eight year old filing cash tickets in one of her father’s hardware stores. She has had a wide variety of work experiences growing up working summers and Saturdays for her father’s other small businesses; this instilled in Mary Robin an ownership mentality, which she has carried with her in all endeavors. Mary Robin received her B.A. in Architecture from Auburn University and worked for eleven years with McAlpine. She has served on volunteer boards with Holy Cross Episcopal School (K-6) and Booker T. Washington High School F.A.M.E. board; St. John’s Episcopal Church Vestry (all in Montgomery, Alabama). Also at St. John’s, she graduated from EfM and served in several volunteer leadership capacities.
At St. Bart’s, Mary Robin is pleased to serve on the Usher and Stewardship Committees, and is a co-leader for Centering Prayer. She attended the EXPLORE class series and has also occasionally assisted with altar flowers and Christmas decorations, which she describes as “great fun!”
Mary Robin lives in Chelsea with her husband, Greg Tankersley. Their daughter, Sullivan Tankersley, a recent college graduate, resides in Dallas, TX. Mary Robin enjoys life long learning on the topics of functional spirituality, world history, investing, and traveling when at all possible.
James Marion, MD
James F. Marion, MD has been a member of St. Bart’s since 2003. He is married to Allison Rutledge-Parisi, and his two daughters, Molly and Ella were baptized at St. Bart’s. James previously served on the Vestry and as Warden. The family volunteered for the Saturday Breakfast Program for many years. More recently James served on the St. Bart’s Medical Advisory Board during the COVID-19 pandemic.
James is a Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and an Attending Physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is Director of Education and Program Director for the Advanced Fellowship at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Marion is an active clinical investigator currently involved in numerous clinical trials.
James, Allison, and Ella live in Harlem with their Rhodesian Ridgeback Phineas. He enjoys running, hiking,cooking, and writing.
Keith Rook
Keith began attending St Bart’s in 2009, and because of its “Radical Welcome” became a member in the fall 2013. Growing up in Texas he attended a conservative evangelical church where he struggled with reconciling his church’s teachings with his sexual orientation. As a result, he stopped going to church for over 25 years. He says “St. Bart’s inclusive spirit opened my heart and helped me find a new spiritual home and regain my faith that had been missing for so many years.”
Keith grew up in Texas and has lived in NYC since 1991. He earned a BA in accounting from Southwestern University in Texas and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). He is currently President of the Weiler/Arnow family office and has more than 25 years’ experience in investment management and financial planning for multigenerational families. His prior experience includes Big Four tax work with high-net-worth individuals/families; serving as Director of Tax for Collier Enterprises; and serving as Vice President for the Norman/Weil families and for the Sulzberger family.
Keith gives time, talent and treasure to St. Bart’s. He has served on the Vestry since 2018 and currently serves on the Governance Committee and as Chair of the Finance Committee. He served as Stewardship Co-chair from 2015-2017. Keith also served as Trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of New York from 2018-2020 where he served on the Investment committee and as Chair of the Finance Committee. He also serves on the Investment committee of Auburn Seminary.
Keith loves to travel and learn about cultures and history, especially the commonalities of different religions.
Craig Simmons
Craig found St. Bart’s in 1987 via the Community Club, led then by our current Assistant Rector, the Reverend Canon Andrew Mullins. He began attending worship services in 1988 after an introduction then-Rector Tom Bowers and later headed and expanded the Ushers & Greeters Corps. He implemented the “radical” (and) welcome idea of having greeters stand outside the church. In 1991, he was received into the Episcopal Church from the Roman Catholic tradition. His two older children attended St. Bart’s Community Preschool. His daughter was in the first class of Choristers and his son served as an acolyte.
Craig is an independent consultant with 35 years of corporate experience and non-profit board service. He has worked at large financial institutions as First Boston, Lehman Brothers, and Sumitomo Bank; and been a change agent at a number of startup and small businesses. At Drexel Hamilton (a Wall Street firm owned and run by disabled veterans), he headed the corporate capital markets area. He successfully led the firm’s 3-year efforts to introduce and pass New York State’s first disabled-veteran-owned business-preference legislation that focused on professional services firms as a diverse supplier. Craig’s work directly with state legislators resulted in the unanimous passage of bills in both the NYS House and Senate, and legislation passed by Governor Cuomo. He mentored over 20 combat-disabled veterans at the firm and introduced additional race and gender related diversity initiatives. Non-profits including One Hundred Black Men (OHBM), Inc., John Jay College Corporate Veterans initiative, and Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of America have benefited from Craig’s efforts.
In the 1990’s Craig served St. Bart’s on the Preschool Advisory Board, as chair of the Search Committee that called the Reverend Bill Tully as Rector, and chaired the Stewardship Campaign. He was elected by the parish to the first of two terms on the Vestry in 1994 where he led the newly formed New Ventures Committee that developed Café St. Bart’s and the Bookstore. In recent years, pre-pandemic, Craig attended the 11am service with three toddler children. He now participates via YouTube or by hosting Facebook watch parties.
Craig is a native of Philadelphia and graduate of Amherst College where he majored in Asian Studies became fluent in Japanese. He lives in Astoria with his soulmate Tina and their three small children who are currently remote schooling. He enjoys technology, biking, cooking, traveling, and public policy advocacy. He is also actively engaged local politics.
Robert Watson
Robert first started attending services at St. Bart’s in 2006 soon after arriving in New York, having been transferred by his employer from London to their headquarters on Park Avenue, just two blocks north of St. Bart’s. He was quickly impressed by the open welcome of the church and the magnificence of the worship. Robert and his wife were married in the Chapel at St. Bart’s in 2009, which deepened his connections to the Church. He became a Church member in 2012 and he and his wife now attend services with their two children.
Robert is a Managing Director in the Risk Management department at Citigroup, leading a group responsible for the risk management oversight of the firm’s global wealth and investment management activities. He has been with Citi for almost 20 years, previously working as an investment strategist for the Global Consumer Bank based in New York, and prior to that, in a similar role servicing the firm’s businesses in Europe and the Middle East based in London. Robert is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a BSc in Economics and Politics and an MSc in Economics from the University of Southampton, UK.
He first began his service to the Church joining the greeter and usher crew at the 11 am services in 2015. During the process to select a new investment manager for the consolidated assets of St. Bart’s, he acted as an advisor to the Investment Committee. More recently, he has been a member of the Finance Committee. Robert is a regular participant in his local St. Bart’s Connects group.
Robert and his family live on the Upper West Side. During his spare time, he enjoys skiing, running, traveling, and sampling the rich and diverse cuisines that New York City has to offer.