Lifetime Achievement: Lansdale Founders Day Kicks Off with Honor for Late Rev. Dr. Sue Bertolette

A sunny Saturday morning brought together dozens of community members to recognize a local woman who left a lasting legacy.

Borough officials honored the late Rev. Dr. Sue Bertolette, longtime pastor of St. John’s United Church of Christ, with the borough’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Sue was a firm believer that St. John’s needed not only to serve the members of St. John’s, but to give back to the greater community, making it a better place to live for everyone, especially those who experienced hardships in their lives,” said her husband Bob Bertolette.

Sue Bertolette worked as a pastor for St. John’s UCC for 42 years, beginning in June 1980 as an associate pastor, then as co-pastor starting in 1993 and as senior pastor starting in 1999. During her tenure, she was named Outstanding Young Religious Leader by the Lansdale Jaycees in 1984, led confirmation classes and youth Sunday School classes at St. John’s, established and taught Adult Bible studies during Advent, Lent and Summer Vacation Bible School, and was honored in 2012 by the Lancaster Theological Seminary with an Award for Excellence in Ministry — and, Councilwoman Mary Fuller added, sat on the volunteer committee that chose the first decade of Lifetime Achievement Award winners presented by borough nonprofit Discover Lansdale.

“For so many years, Dr. Sue sat by my side as we made the selection for each year’s recipient. I obviously miss that. Certainly, she is in the pantheon of Lansdale greats, and her day was always going to come,” said Fuller.

“We were excited to recognize her last year, which would’ve been our 150th birthday year. We chose that specifically for her because of the impact she made — definitely a quiet hero,” she said.

Fuller said she got to know Bertolette as co-board members for nonprofit food pantry Manna on Main Street, an organization Bertolette helped lead which was located just next to St. John’s for roughly three decades, and that Mayor Garry Herbert said proudly carries on her legacy.

“It’s such an honor to be able to stand here today, recognizing what Mary often refers to as ‘quiet voices in our community’ that have spent a lot of time helping build Lansdale as we see it today. Reverend Sue was one of those people,” said Herbert.

“Just a small piece of what she has done: help create an organization that now aims to end hunger in our area. That is no small feat, and that is an amazing piece of work,” he said.

Longtime family friend Janet Morton recalled how she met Sue and Bob Bertolette not long after each moved to town in the early 1980s, and said the pastor was a close friend, and always dedicated to the community.

“She was the pastor at St. John’s for 42 years. She had the distinction of being the longest-serving pastor in St. John’s 147-year history. Reverend Sue, as she was fondly known, was involved in a variety of important community activities,” including founding Manna, adding “when special needs were brought to Manna’s attention, she was instrumental in finding effective solutions.”

Bertolette also served on the boards of the local United Way and Red Cross chapters, helped found the North Penn ministerium, a group of churches across the region that meet regularly to discuss ongoing issues and challenges, and the Visiting Nurse Association hospice association, and served as hospice chaplain for 19 years. Her regular columns in The Reporter from 2004 until just before her passing in August 2022 brought comfort to many, Morton added, and dozens of congregants applauded as Bob Bertolette accepted the award on her behalf.

“This is a very emotional time. It’s been a year, and a lot of feelings come up after a year,” he said, holding back tears, adding he accepted “on behalf of Sue, with much sadness that she could not be here to accept it herself. That’s the hardest part.”

Years ago, he recalled he was looking for a scriptural passage in a Bible, could not find his copy, and looked in hers.

“I found a bookmark in the pages and what it said was, ‘People step into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.’ To countless members of the community, she’s just been an incredible woman, and she was one of the quiet ones, a humble one. She did it quietly, without any fanfare. She didn’t do it for any recognition for herself, she did it for the community,” he said.

Town tours

Just a few steps away in the Founders Day festivities, Lansdale Historical Society volunteers offered historic publications looking back on the town’s earliest days, and a map of 15 “Main Street Survivors” — buildings that date back from the nineteenth century and still show traces of the town’s founding.

LHS President Pat Rieker said in addition to those tours, offered by volunteers Saturday and with copies available online for those who’d rather be self-guided, the society is in the process of converting the society’s full archives of The Reporter into digital format for online viewing, and the homestead and adjacent research center will be open for public tours.

“We’re happy to be part of this Founders Day once again, as we have from the start. Lansdale history is what we’re about, and Founders Day is Lansdale history, and that’s what we’re celebrating today,” she said.

Dozens of area residents turned out at 1 p.m. for the “Survivors” tour, as Rieker and LHS volunteer Elliott Sadlon led groups up and down Main Street, pausing at historic buildings to learn about their uses in days gone by. As his group stopped to gawk at the former Wells Fargo bank branch at Main and Green Streets, Sadlon asked for suggestions about what could be located there, and tour members suggested a “Roaring ’20s” style speakeasy or restaurant, a movie or live performance theater, or an escape room built around the former bank’s vault.

Festival of the Arts — and more

Half a block from the historical society’s Jenkins Homestead, dozens of art and craft vendors showed off their goods in the 34th annual borough Festival of the Arts. Live music was played at the ‘Mayor Mike’ DiNunzio memorial gazebo in the center of the park, as kids clambered atop the historic World War I-era howitzer cannon at the center of the park.

At the Fairmount Fire Company’s station on Vine Street, members of two model railroad cars had trains on tracks set up for display, as Fairmount officers showed off the latest fire apparatus.

Two blocks west, at St. John’s, current church board President Liz Rivett told visitors about her congregation’s history, from their earliest days offering German language services to those who settled from that area, through a Great Depression-era church that remained unfinished above ground level, and only offered services in what is now the basement until the current stone structure and scenic stained glass windows  arrived in the early 1950s.

Other events scheduled throughout the day included open houses of several borough buildings, food trucks, live music, and a fireworks show starting at 9 p.m. For more information visit www.DiscoverLansdale.org.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit www.thereporteronline.com.

See also:

North Penn High Guidance Counselor Celebrates The Gift Of Life

Lansdale's Founders Day Saturday Will Be Filled With 'Main Street Memories'

Liberty Belles To Host Annual A Cappella Show Sept. 9 In Souderton

For Lansdale Father-And-Son Authors, Kids' Sports Book Was A Gnatural

New U.S. Citizens Greeted By Towamencin DAR