As a psychologist, chaplain, minister, friend and father, James Gebhart can unofficially take the title of world’s best listener. With all these positions under his belt, he has learned, seen, heard and experienced more than most will in a lifetime.

His office is as calm and peaceful as a psychologist’s office should be. Two school pictures of his 12-year-old twin daughters sit on his desk. A proud smile appeared when he introduced them.

A large red recliner has his name all over it. In it he sits and listens to his patients and responds to their needs with years of spiritual and psychological training.

Gebhart started his life in human service as a civil-rights worker in the 1960s, then became a minister after attending the United Theological Seminary in Dayton. He spent his post-graduate years at Columbia University in New York and was there for eight years building therapy practices.

Almost 20 years after becoming a minister, Gebhart received his doctorate from Ohio State in 1982. He started a practice in Upper Arlington with Dr. Rahe Corlis.

“I’ve had so much supervision already as a pastoral counselor, and I didn’t want to do my pre-doctoral and post-doctoral supervision by going back and repeating what I’ve already had,” Gebhart explained. “So I went to Rahe and I thought he was one of the persons I could really learn from.”

“He has a great background in spirituality,” Corlis said of Gebhart. “He is more than a psychologist or minister. He has a super social conscience and responds to tragedies.”

Gebhart is passionate about helping people, as he proved during the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Everyone will remember where they were the day Kennedy was shot and when 9-11 occurred,” Gebhart said.

He was sitting in his office when his wife, Jan, called to tell him about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.

The tragedy was very personal for Gebhart. His son is an American Airlines pilot and was flying that day.

“I knew he was on the East Coast, and I thought that he was in Boston that morning,” he said. As it turned out, Gebhart’s son called him 45 minutes later from Chicago.

Wanting to help, he called his friends in some of the city hospitals and told them he would come over and help either as a chaplain or a psychologist, but was told to wait until more help was needed.

Gebhart kept communications with New York for a period of weeks. During that time he began other work.

“They were going to need some programs on post-traumatic stress disorder because people were going to have a long time getting over this,” Gebhart said.

Not long after the American Red Cross flew him to Chicago for disaster relief training, another tragedy occurred in New York. This time Gebhart was called to help.

On Nov. 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Queens. The plane took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport and went down at 9:17 a.m. A reported 260 people were killed as a result.

“This disaster was shadowed by 9-11 events,” Gebhart said. “I went over thinking I was going to help with the World Trade Center, but they sent me directly to the crash site.”

As a chaplain, Gebhart helped several different types of constituencies.

“I talked to the families of the victims, many of whom were Dominicans because the flight was going to the Dominican Republic. They were stricken with grief – but also paranoia, with many wondering if this was another attack like 9-11,” he said.

Gebhart has many memories of talking to the residents of the Queens community. He particularly remembers a cold day several days after the crash. It involved the only Irish pub in the neighborhood.

“I got to know the people in the pub during the week, and by the end of the week the crash was pretty much cleaned up,” Gebhart said. “On that Saturday, I was still doing some work with the firemen, and I remember ducking in there to see the Ohio State versus Illinois game.”

Gebhart said the patrons of the pub continuously said, “Get a drink for the chaplain,” when he would check the score of the game.

“Finally I told them if Ohio State comes back and wins this game there will be drinks on the house,” Gebhart said. “A great cheer went up, and I soon realized what I had said and asked how much that would cost, but they told me it was too late to change my word.”

OSU lost the game, but the next day Gebhart remembered standing alone on a crater where the plane had crashed, just to get one last look. He heard footsteps behind him, and there was the proprietor of that pub holding two Irish whiskies. The man handed one to Gebhart, made a silent toast and turned away with not one word spoken between them.

Gebhart provided help again when a fire broke out last month on 17th Avenue, killing five students.

Arriving on the scene around 6:30 a.m., Gebhart saw firemen organizing with students, so he tried to find the best place where he would be useful.

“The word “arson” then went out for the first time, and some of the students didn’t like the implication that they were being questioned. They were traumatized,” he said.

Gebhart said he talked to a lot of friends and family members of the victims, but he mostly listened. He eventually went to the OSU Hospitals, where he would be of better service.

George Gibbs, director of pastoral care at OSU & Harding Behavioral Healthcare and Medicine, said Gebhart’s whole life has been dedicated to providing compassionate care.

“He is very compassionate and concerned for those who are hurting,” said Gibbs, who has known Gebhart since 1984. “He wears two hats in a sense of being a very credible psychologist and also embodies what a good pastor would do.”

Sister Christella, a friend of Gebhart’s for more than 20 years, said he has a way of letting people get in touch with themselves.

“Jim is very willing to walk that extra mile for a patient or a person,” she said. “He is a behind-the-scene kind of person, and people can count on the fact that he will be there.”