Rev. GEORGE W. RIZOR, JR.
Fort Washington, Maryland
George Rizor is a native of
Washington, Pennsylvania.
He graduated from Washington High
School in 1969.
He served in the United States
Navy, as a photographer, from
April 1971 to April 1975. He and his wife, Patricia, lived in the
Washington,
DC area for five years.
His B.A. in Psychology (Magna Cum
Laude) is from
California University of
Pennsylvania. He has an M.A. in
Educational Research Methodology and Statistics from the University of
Pittsburgh.
He also
has completed the course work for the Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at
Pitt,
where he did research work at the Learning Research and Development
Center. His research there involved
human ‘deep’ knowledge and cognitive processing.
He worked for nearly a decade as a
Computer Analyst for the
United States Government. He has been a Juvenile Probation Officer for
the
County of Washington and has taught for Community College of Allegheny
County
and California University of Pennsylvania.
He was previously employed by IBM
Corporation as an Advisory I/T
Architect/Specialist. He traveled the world, providing consulting
and
training to companies who use IBM Enterprise Architecture products.
Rev. Rizor most recently has worked
in a secular position as the
Director, Federal Business
Development for Q.A. Technologies, Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska. He
previously
worked for that company as a Senior Consultant to the United States
Patent and
Trademark office, leading the team that managed the computer middleware
infrastructure for that agency.
Rev. Rizor joined the Methodist
Church as a youth, and came
to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) nearly 35 years ago.
He has
served as a Church School teacher for many
years. He has served as committee
chairperson, youth group advisor, resource person for various church
projects. He has served in many
ecumenical ministerial associations, and is a past president of the
Jefferson-Morgan Ministerium. Mr. Rizor
conducts seminars and retreats in computers in the ministry,
communications,
and story-telling for evangelism and witnessing.
Rev. Rizor was serving as Associate
Minister (Youth and
Evangelism) at Fairhill Manor Christian Church, in Washington, Pa.,
when called
to the pulpit at Clarksville Christian Church in November, 1990.
Rev. Rizor served as the
pastor of Clarksville Christian until August of 1996.
At that time he resigned to accommodate more demands in his secular
position. He began to provide pulpit
supply, but was called to the pulpit of the Taylorstown Christian
Church as
their permanent part-time minister on June 15, 1997. His wife
joined him as co-pastor in 1998, and they served a
co-pastorate until 2003.
He has conducted seminars and
retreats, as well as
coordinated special educational events and authored a Vacation Bible
School
curriculum. Mr. Rizor is a songwriter,
and has written several hymns. He is
also an author and actor/director. Mr.
Rizor is the creator and co-host of the DOVEWORKS radio show, which was
broadcast for one and one-half years, weekly, on radio station WANB in
southwestern Pennsylvania. Mr. Rizor is a licensed minister, of the
Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) of the United States and Canada.
George Rizor currently serves as
the interim pastor of
Springfield Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and is licensed by
the
Christian Church Capital Area (Disciples of Christ).
Rev.Rizor is married to The Rev.
Patricia A. Rizor. Pat is the
pastor of the Hanson Valley Christian Church, in
Fort Washington, Maryland. They have three adult offspring, twin
daughters,
Erin and Hannah, and a son, George III.
Rev. Rizor
has been
employed as a busboy, taxi driver, physics instructor (quantum
mechanics and
the theory of light), photographer (4 years in the Navy as a
photographer in
Washington, DC), juvenile probation officer, computer consultant,
psychiatric
therapeutic team member in a state mental institution, businessman,
college
instructor and pastor.
Rev. Rizor
enjoys
swimming, computing for fun, hiking, dining out, cooking, comic
book
superheroes (partiucularly Batman), science fiction, writing,
recreational reading, and
traveling.