Author: Duane Fickeisen

The Rev. Robert “Bob” L. Schaibly died on November 11, 2019, at the age of 77.

The Reverend Bob Schaibly—whose life path was deeply shaped by Unitarian Universalism, by participation in the 1965 Selma march in his senior year of college, and by a mid-life embrace of Buddhist practice—died on 11 November 2019, aged 77, of complications from a more than 30-year battle with throat cancer.

Bob found his interest in Buddhism to be transformatively deepened in 1988 when Thich Nhất Hanh came to speak at the Houston (TX) church where Bob was serving. Already in the early stages of cancer therapy, Bob recalled that “Thầy,” as he was familiarly called, “saw the still-desperate look in my eyes as I was struggling to recover from radiation treatment. His personal message for me was that being was an important practice, since most people find their self-worth in doing.” On returning from his first retreat with Thầy the next year, Bob founded the Houston Zen Community and then supported the development of the Houston Sangha. In 1992 he was invited by Thầy to come to Plum Village, to receive the lamp transmission, and to be ordained as a Dharma teacher, whereupon he was given the name “True Deliverance.”

Buddhist teaching continued as a major focus of ministry for Bob after retiring from parish ministry and moving to Oregon. He became active in Portland’s First Unitarian Church, a weekly Sangha, and a Buddhist men’s group. Bob’s husband, Steven Storla, having heard many of Bob’s sermons and Dharma talks, described him as “a wonderful and powerful speaker.” In the memory of his friends in the Buddhist community, Bob touched many lives, and he is remembered for his kind, inspiring, and compassionate demeanor, [as he] continued to share his wisdom by his loving presence. Despite many years of health challenges and limitations, he consistently taught how to meet suffering with equanimity. Bob shared his true self—all of his humanity—by being transparent and vulnerable, and by being open to the “full catastrophe” when it arose.

Robert Lloyd Schaibly was born on 16 August 1942 in Lansing MI, to Robert Lloyd Schaibly, Sr. and Dorothy Strieter Schaibly, who raised him in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. During college years at Michigan State University, he discovered a more liberating tradition at Lansing’s UU church, and in his senior year answered Martin Luther King’s call to Selma. “It changed Bob’s life to see religious institutions witnessing for justice and changing lives,” recalls his husband, and that was perhaps an important early experience in his call to ministry.

After graduation with a B.A. in humanities in 1965, Bob moved to San Francisco, joined the UU congregation there, and soon took a position as the church’s administrator. Turned down by Starr King School for the Ministry but encouraged by his minister, Harry Scholefield, to apply to Harvard, Bob moved east and completed work for his M.Div. at Harvard Divinity School in 1971. 

Mr. Schaibly’s first parish call was to the Beverly Unitarian Church in Chicago IL, where he was ordained in 1971 and continued to serve until 1979. In those years he served at times on the Planning Council of the Lake Geneva Summer Assembly, and at a summer gathering there he met, and later married, Elinor Berke. Their marriage ended amicably some years later, while she went on to pursue her own career in UU ministry.

The Rev’d Mr. Schaibly moved on to a briefer pastorate (1979–82) at the UU Church of Concord NH and then accepted a call to the First Unitarian Church of Houston TX. There he served as senior minister for two decades (1982–2002), during which that church was the first in Texas to become a sanctuary congregation for Central American refugees and to start a support group for gay and lesbian teenagers. In his public ministry to the Houston area, Mr. Schaibly spoke at multiple rallies against the death penalty, for abortion rights, for the right to die, and for marriage equality. In 1985, when the first UU LGBT convocation was held in Houston, Bob met Steven Storla. In 1991, they made their life commitment to each other at that year’s convocation in San Francisco.

In 2002, with his preaching voice much weakened by throat cancer and radiation treatment, the Rev’d Mr. Schaibly took early retirement at age 60, and the Houston congregation named him Minister Emeritus. He and Steven relocated to Portland OR, where Bob came briefly out of parish retirement to serve an interim ministry (2005–06) at the UU Community Church of Washington County (Hillsboro OR). It was in 2015, on the 24th anniversary of their mutual commitment, that Bob and Steven were finally married in a ceremony conducted by the Rev’d Bill Sinkford.

In the wider UU movement, Mr. Schaibly served on the boards of the UUA’s Southwest District, the Houston Area UU Ministers, and the UU Service Committee, and on the Emerson Centennial Celebration Committee of the UU Historical Society. He was active with the UUA’s Office of Gay & Lesbian Concerns. He was a member of the UUA Affirmative Action Task Force, served as president the UUMA’s Southwest chapter, and was a founder and chair of the New England Students for the UU Ministry. He was the theme speaker at Star Island’s “Life on a Star Family Week” in 1983. The Rev’d Mr. Schaibly saw many of his sermons published in The UU World and the Church of the Larger Fellowship’s monthly newsletter, Quest.

During his three parish settlements and beyond, Mr. Schaibly was supportive of or active with the Child and Family Services of New Hampshire, a food pantry program, a day center for the homeless, Amnesty International, and People for the American Way. He was president of the New Hampshire chapter of the ACLU (1980–1982), a community representative for the University of Houston Animal Research Committee, a board member of the Houston ACLU and the AIDS Foundation of Houston, and a theme speaker for the American Cancer Society of Texas. He chaired a local mental health council and an ecumenical ministerial fellowship.

At his death, Bob Schaibly was survived by his husband, Steven R. Storla; a sister, Rebecca Davidson; two brothers, Ben and Bill; and many nieces and nephews. Donations in Bob’s memory are encouraged to the Endowment Funds of the First Unitarian Church of Portland (firstunitarianportland.org/foundation) or the First UU Church of Houston (firstuu.org/donate). Memorial services were held at both congregations