Bob Childress

[3] As a young man Childress witnessed and was caught up in the violence, alcoholism and ignorance of his impoverished and then isolated Buffalo Mountain community.

[3][6] He soon became known for his very warm and personal preaching style and was in demand by established churches throughout Virginia and the Eastern United States.

[2][8] His congregations did much to bring education and economic development to the Buffalo Mountain area of Floyd County, Virginia.

The Synod of Virginia noted that “Only eternity will tell the tremendous good accomplished in this unusual diocese.”[5] Childress died of a heart attack in Roanoke in 1956 at the age of 67.

His unfinished autobiography, and biographies of his eight children are published in Childress Cousins: From the Hills and Hollows of Southern Virginia [11]