Vincent named president-elect of S.C. UMC Foundation

The Rev. Robert M. Vincent has been named president-elect of the South Carolina United Methodist Foundation Inc., by the foundation’s board of directors.

Vincent will begin his association with the foundation July 1 and will become president on Jan. 1, 2019, succeeding the Rev. Roger M. Gramling, who has served as the foundation’s executive officer since 1985.

Gramling will retire Dec. 31, but will continue as a part-time consultant through June 30, 2019.

Vincent’s selection follows a transition study and search process, which began in 2016 under the guidance of the executive committee of the board of directors.

An ordained elder in the South Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church, Vincent currently serves Shady Grove UMC, Irmo.

Bishop L. Jonathan Holston, who serves as a member of the foundation’s board of directors, has approved Vincent’s appointment to the foundation.

Vincent was born Dec. 25, 1964, in Sumter, a son of the late Howard Frierson and Corinne Coskrey Vincent. He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a major in entrepreneur management and real estate/investments in 1987. Following graduation from college, he returned to work in his family’s business managing the day-to-day operations of the family’s retail and wholesale oil and gas business. In 1989 following his father’s retirement and the sale of the family business, he joined Citizens & Southern National Bank in an entry-level position. He remained with the bank for 14 years and four mergers. He resigned his position as a vice president and consumer credit review manager to answer a call to the ministry.

Vincent received his Master of Divinity degree in 2006 from the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia. He has served as an associate pastor at Trinity UMC, Blythewood, moving from there to pastor St. James UMC in Columbia and Shady Grove, where he has served for the last eight years—the longest tenure of any pastor in that church’s history.

He has been an elder in full connection in the South Carolina Conference since 2009. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of the South Carolina Methodist Conference Credit Union.

Vincent married Susan May in 1988. They have a daughter, Bailey Elise.

“Bob comes to the foundation with experience in business, banking and the pastoral ministry of the church,” Gramling said. “This bodes very well for the future growth and development of the foundation.”