The Reverend Richard Samuel Coons, 91, died May 30, 2021, in Memphis, Tennessee. Known to most as Dick, Rev. Coons was born to Clara Grace Newline Coons and Herman S. Coons in Troy Grove, Illinois, June 30, 1929. He grew up and was educated in the public schools of Casey, Illinois, graduating from Casey High School in 1947. He attended Bob Jones University, a non-denominational evangelical school in Greenville, South Carolina, and Burton College and Seminary in Colorado. He later received a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky.

Coons joined the Willow Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Martinsville, Illinois, in August 1945. Called to ministry, he came under the care of Foster Presbytery as a candidate in 1948 and was later ordained. The Reverend Clarence C. Bline preached his ordination sermon and the Reverend J. Roscoe Deverick delivered the charge. For eight years, Coons directed Youth for Christ in Rochester, New York. In 1959, the Union City Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Union City Tennessee (Obion Presbytery) called Coons to the pastorate and there he served until 1966. In Union City, Coons met the Reverend Jimmy Latimer when the later was a member of the youth group. A lifelong friendship began.

The Church of the Open Door in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, called Coons as pastor in 1966. The non-denominational Church of the Open Door developed in the 1930s made up of disaffected members of Philadelphia’s Central North Broad Presbyterian Church. Under Coons, the church voted to relocate to Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. There, on a lot of over ten acres, the church built a church, Open Door Estates (a senior living facility), and their elementary school, Open Door Academy. Coons developed other senior living facilities in the Philadelphia area and served COD until October 1977.

After leaving the Church of the Open Door, Coons continued his involvement with senior adult ministries, in particular, his desire to develop safe and affordable communities for the senior population which would provide apartment living, nourishing meals, and a variety of activities. Communities were developed in Pennsylvania, Florida, and North Carolina. Upon his retirement, Coons served on the Board of Kirby Pines Lifecare Community in Memphis, Tennessee.