- Date Of Birth: April 8, 1931
- Date Of Death: February 13, 2015
- State: Texas
Mr. Cortes died Friday, February 13 at a Temple nursing home. Robert Cortes, Sr., was born April 8, 1931 in Monterrey, NL, Mexico, the son of Camilo and Juanita Cortes. He married Cary Contreras November 13, 1954, in Monterrey, NL, Mexico. Together, they touched the lives of tens of thousands through their Christian ministry.
Robert served as a pastor, elementary school teacher, newspaper columnist, gospel radio evangelist, hospital chaplain and missionary for 60 years proclaiming messages of optimism, love, faith and a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Robert and his wife, Cary, began his ministerial journey in 1956 emigrating from Monterrey to study at Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga, TN, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Religion. During that time he served as an associate pastor in Stevenson, AL.
He then ventured to Waco, TX where he completed a Master of Arts degree in History and Religion at Baylor University in 1968. During that time he served as a full-time Christian minister at churches in Belton (First Mexican Baptist, where he was ordained), Odem, Edroy and Refugio, TX. Returning to Monterrey to serve as a missionary and pastor for the First and Berea Baptist Churches, he founded many churches throughout Mexico.
He also assumed a position as an elementary school teacher for nearly 10 years at the Irish Institute of Monterrey. For eight of those years, Robert wrote a daily bible column entitled, “What the Bible Teaches” for “El Norte” newspaper, a major publication in Mexico and Spain. At the same time he began his 35-year-long international radio gospel ministry. In 1978, Robert returned to start a Chaplaincy Ministry to international patients at the Texas Medical Center in Houston.
He served at MD Anderson, Hermann Hospital and Methodist Hospital as a Senior Chaplain and as Senior Pastor for the Methodist Hospital Chapel, retiring in April of 1998. Afterwards, he served as adjunct pastor for several churches in Central Texas and continued to collect sermons, stories, illustrations and ideas for his current biblical online ministry: LoveWithoutBarriers.com Robert is preceded in death by: his wife, Cary Contreras de Cortes; his two brothers, Joaquin Cortes and Jose Cortes and one sister, Virginia Rodriguez.
Survivors include: his sister, Olga Aguilar Cortes; two sons: Robert Cortes, Jr., MD and wife, Debbie Marie Cortes of Temple, TX and Ariel Alexander Cortes, MD and wife, Elizabeth Ann Cortes of Carlsbad, CA.; one daughter: Linda Yvonne Cortes of Austin, TX; nine grandchildren: David Andrew Cortes and wife, Audrey Diane Cortes of Waco, TX, Stephen Aaron Cortes, JD, of Austin, TX, Robert Alexander Cortes of Washington, DC, Brandon Anthony Peters of Fort Wayne, IN, Leah Marie Dudley and Louie Frank Dudley, IV of Temple, TX, Luke Alexander Cortes, Annabelle Elizabeth Cortes and Christian Alexander Cortes of Carlsbad, CA; two great-grandchildren: Addison Ann Cortes and Lainey Brooke Cortes of Waco, TX and grand-dog, Tiny Cortes of Austin, TX.
