05/31/2026
Some people serve a parish with their time. Bob Sandford served St. Thomas More Parish with an unshakeable belief that art can be one pathway to bring a person closer to God. For 26 years, Bob showed up with his hands, his ears, and his eyes to create a welcoming and loving place of worship.
The cross at the entrance of the sanctuary was carefully crafted. If you look closely at the cross he carved, and you'll find an entire theology in the woodgrain. The nail holes are there, but so is the triumph. The Crown of Thorns has become a crown of victory. The label once nailed above Christ in mockery King of the Jews is reimagined as what it always truly was: a declaration of his reign over heaven. Bob didn't carve suffering alone. He carved the full arc of redemption, because he understood that Christ went to the cross not in defeat, but with intention. Every line of that piece reflects that understanding.
And then there's the adjustable cantor stand in the sanctuary, which Bob built himself. (You may not have even noticed the switch of furniture because it looks exactly the same!) This stationery mic was too short for tall people. He didn't wait for someone else to solve it; he went to his workshop and made one that worked. That, too, is Bob: practical, generous, quietly solving problems so that others can do what they're called to do.
For his final three years at St. Thomas More, Bob served as Music Director, and he brought to that role the same vision he brought to his carpentry. He understood music not as a performance inserted into the Mass, but as the Mass itself taking audible form. "It is the auditory experience of what it means to be the body of Christ," he said, "the rhythm that unites a parish the way a heartbeat unites a body, the ebb and flow of a hymn that mirrors the movement of grace itself." He chose music the way he chose his wood: for what it could carry, for the truth it could hold, for the way it might open something in a person that a sermon alone could not reach.
What Bob Sandford leaves behind as a staff member and brings forward to his next endeavor is not a simple list of accomplishments. It is a church that looks, sounds, and feels different because he was here. It is wood shaped by hands that prayed while they worked. It is music chosen by someone who believed that a parish lifted in song is a parish lifted toward God. It is photographs that caught the light exactly when it fell just right because someone was paying attention.
That is who Bob is. A man who notices. A man who creates. A man who takes the gifts God gave him and offers them back. Thank you, Bob! We are wishing you the best of luck on your next endeavor.
Attached to this post, you will find photographs taken by Bob. You can find more of his photographs on bobsandford.net.
