Robert Parker Lay was born August 22, 1903.  Brother Lay was from Gilliam, LA and a member of the Friars Club at Louisiana State University, the group whose fifteen year struggle resulted in the revival of Zeta Zeta chapter of DKE.  A member of the class of 1925, Arts & Sciences, Lay was one of the charter members of the revived ZZ chapter.  He is the 60th member whose name is inscribed on Zeta Zeta's rolls since the founding of the chapter in 1858. 

Brother Lay and his family lived in Gilliam, LA, where he was a grocer.  An active member of the Gilliam Methodist Church, he was the Louisiana Conference lay leader from 1952 to 1955.  In the 1953 Lay report he said:  "Our goal to enlist 1,000 laymen in our Conference to help build new churches is well on its way to be reached.  We hope to have this completed the early part of the next Conference year.  We find laymen are extremely interested in missions.  The laymen of our Conference believe in our Church.  We feel the Christian faith is the most tremendous experience a man can have.  There is nothing known to the human mind as great and as important as Faith in Christ.  The Church is the most glorious institution in the world." 

The idea behind The Thousand Club was to get 1,000 Methodist men to contribute $100 each per year to a fund designated for the construction of new churches.  Brother Lay was elected a lay delegate to the Methodist General Conference at least twice.  The General Conference meets every four years and has an equal number of ministerial and lay delegates from each Conference. 

In 1960, Mr. Lay and his family moved to Shreveport, LA where he went into the insurance business.  They transferred their church membership to the First Methodist Church in Shreveport on September 25, 1960.  Bob Lay continued to be an involved member in his church and served again as Conference Lay Leader and was active in the Conference committee of World Service and Finance, Courtesies, Evangelism and a trustee of the Seashore Camp Grounds. 

R. P. Lay died on June 25, 1978.  The 1980 Board of Laity report states:  "The Thousand Club is named in honor of the late Bob Lay who initiated the program many years ago and is known as the Bob Lay 1,000 Club."  The Bob Lay 1,000 Club is still active today and is helping to build churches in Louisiana.