Santa Rosa pastor James Marchbanks dies at 64

As the pastor of a small Santa Rosa church, James Marchbanks wasn’t satisfied to urge his congregation to walk the path of righteousness.

The lifelong track-and-field competitor and coach had the faithful of Fulton Community Church out running.

“I would never run, but he even had me running,” said Deborah Marchbanks, the Pentecostal pastor’s wife of nearly 42 years. “He used to have his mom out there running!”

James Marchbanks, who had a full-time day job as master technician at the Rohnert Park Pep Boys, was ailing with stomach cancer last fall but even so entered the Sonoma Wine Country Games for seniors. Overcoming the pain, he showed well in several events and won the 100-meter short hurdles.

“I could not have believed it if I hadn’t seen him do it,” Deborah Marchbanks said. Though it was anguishing in recent months and weeks for her to witness her athletic husband’s decline, she spoke of being grateful that he was surrounded by his large family when he died Monday.

“He didn’t even look sick,” she said. “He just looked peaceful.”

James Marchbanks was 64.

He grew up in Tulare County, the son of a minister. He was a junior in high school when his family moved to Santa Rosa.

He ran track at Santa Rosa High, graduating in 1971. He competed also at Santa Rosa Junior College before moving on to Chico State University.

As a teen and a young man, Marchbanks worshipped at the small Fulton Community Church of God in Christ, founded by Pastor Robert Lawrence Hall Sr.

In 1988, the congregation chose him as Hall’s successor.

The labor of love required that Marchbanks also hold a day job.

“One thing that really stands out to me was that he always came to work in a good mood,” said Joe McClendon, who runs the speed shop at the Pep Boys store. “It was always a pleasure working with James.”

In addition to running the church, working as a mechanic and acting as father to his and Deborah’s seven children, Marchbanks served for more than a decade as a track-and-field coach at Cook Middle School and Elsie Allen High School. He also helped out on the track at Slater Middle School.

His wife said his love of running, and also of basketball, prompted him to take members of his church, young and old alike, to the track at SRJC and to courts at parks and schools.

“That’s what he liked, so that’s what he would have us out there doing,” she said.

When the effects of cancer made it impossible for Pastor Marchbanks to run or even to walk without assistance, he pushed a bicycle, using it as a walker.

He wasn’t up to making it to church this past Sunday, so all weekend, members of the congregation stopped by the Marchbanks home to thank him and pray with him.

“He was talking all that time,” Deborah Marchbanks said. He died early Monday morning.

His wife said, “I was so glad that before he left he asked me for a hug.”

In addition to his wife, Marchbanks is survived by his children, Kamari Marchbanks and Joe Marchbanks of Santa Rosa; James Marchbanks and Daniel Marchbanks of Fulton; Joy Marchbanks of Sebastopol; Jessica Marchbanks of Petaluma; and Marvin Marchbanks of Vancouver, B.C.; his siblings, Earl Marchbanks of Santa Rosa; Ray Marchbanks of Sonoma; Louise Jenkins of Pixley in Tulare County; Ernestine Washington of Bakersfield; Mary Eastland and Ollie Mae Jones, both of Tulare; Homer Marchbanks of Porterville; and Mariann Williams of Las Vegas; and 11 grandchildren.

Funeral services will be at noon Friday, May 15, at Community Baptist Church in Santa Rosa.

There also will be a memorial celebration at Fulton Community Church at noon Sunday, May 17. A tribute to the fleet-footed pastor will follow at 3 p.m. that day at the SRJC track.

Notes Deborah Marchbanks, “We’re telling people to bring their tennis shoes.”

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.