Jan 27-29, 31 2018

The Rev. Elizabeth “Betty” Ann Foster

Elizabeth Foster

The Rev. Elizabeth “Betty” Ann Foster died on March 3, 2018 at the age of 74.

Betty is survived by her children John Foster (Linda Jones), Heather Owens (Eddie), and Robert Foster; her grandchildren Padraic, Aidan, and Emma Owens; her sisters Jeanne Mancinelli and Virginia Calyer; and her many nieces, nephews, and countless friends. She was predeceased by her husband Robert W. Forster and her brother James G. Calyer.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Gorham House Activity Fund, 50 New Portland Rd, Gorham, ME 04038.

A memorial service was planned for Monday, March 19, 2018 at the Gorham House, 50 New Portland Rd, Gorham, ME 04038.

Notes of condolence may be shared online at: http://www.dolbyblaissegee.com/obituaries/Elizabeth-Foster-5/

The Rev. Jack Daniel Zoerheide

The Reverend Jack Zoerheide—parish minister and social justice activist—died on 2 March 2018, aged 93.

Throughout his ministry the Rev’d Mr. Zoerheide was a staunch civil rights advocate. In 1964 he traveled to Williamstown, NC, to join in protests and wrote about his experience of 48 hours in jail after being arrested for attempting to be served at a segregated restaurant with a group of people of color.

Jack Daniel Zoerheide was born on 27 June 1924 in Kent City, Michigan, to Grace and Frank Zoerheide, and grew up on a subsistence farm near Grand Rapids. After enlistment in the U.S. Navy in 1942, Jack saw active service (1943–44) as a lieutenant in the Asian Pacific Theatre. The GI Bill supported his study at Harvard Divinity School, where he earned his ministerial degree in 1950.

Mr. Zoerheide was ordained on 22 April 1951 by the Arlington Street Church in Boston. Over the next 37 years his parish career took him to Second Parish in Hingham, MA (1952–57), First Parish in Needham, MA (1957–69), Winchester, MA, Unitarian Society (1969–79), Keene, NH, UU Church (1979–81), All Souls Church in Braintree, MA(1981–82), UU Church of Fort Myers, FL (1982–84), and finally UU Church of Tarpon Springs, FL (1984–89).

While in his first settlement, on 22 Aug 1953, he married Marie Annette Sandberg, an artist and model, who remained his life partner until her death on 24 June 2010. At his death, Jack was survived by children Laina, Dean, Brian, Greg and Julie, 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

The Rev. Dr. Austin Phillip Barton Hewett

The Reverend Philip Hewett—as passionate about Unitarian history in both modern Canada and 16th-century Poland as he was dedicated to hiking, skiing, and mountain climbing—died on 24 February 2018, at age 93, vigorous in mind and body to the end. His refined demeanor, thoughtful intelligence, and sly wit were the marks of a gentleman and a scholar.

During his long ministry (1956–91) at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver (Canada), the Rev’d Mr. Hewett helped to start three new local congregations, wrote multiple books on Unitarian theology and history, including Unitarians in Canada. All the while he advocated for reproductive rights, sheltered Vietnam War draft resisters, promoted LGBT rights, and helped to found the BC Memorial Society and the BC Civil Liberties Association. For his final book, Racovia, he acquired respectable competence in Polish.

Phillip’s physical stamina was legendary. The Rev’d James Kubal-Komoto recalls, as a 29- year-old intern, accepting Phillip’s invitation to hike up a local mountain: “I thought, ‘How hard could it be with this 70-something-year-old man?’ Nobody had told me that Phillip had hiked across Scotland the previous summer. Phillip practically flew up the mountain on those long lanky legs of his. Several times, huffing and puffing, I asked him if we could stop for a few minutes to admire the view, and he reluctantly agreed.”

Austin Phillip Barton Hewett was born in 1925 in Dorset County, England. He earned a B.A. (1949) and M.A. (1951) from Oxford University, and an S.T.M. from Harvard Divinity School (1953). In 1951 he married Hilda Margaret Smith, with whom he raised two children, Barton and Daphne. Later honors included an honorary doctorate in Sacred Theology from Starr King (1969) and distinguished service awards from the International Association for Religious Freedom’s American chapter (jointly with his wife Margaret, 1983) and from the UUA (1992).

Phillip’s life was celebrated at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, on 23 March 2018.

Oct 5, 2017 Conference Notes

Margret H. Kolbjornsen

Margaret Kolbjornsen

Margret H. Kolbjornsen, widow of the Reverend John M. Kolbjornsen, died February 3, 2018 at the age of 94. She was born in Hannover, Germany in 1923, and came to New York City with her family in 1926. She attended Staten Island schools and earned a BS in Mathematics from Douglass College in 1946. She loved the outdoors and began working with the Girl Scouts of America.

Margret had first met John Kolbjornsen during a neighborhood snowball fight when they were children. In 1948 they married and moved to Copenhagen, where he served in the American Embassy, and where their first child was born. In 1952 they returned to the US, as John attended Harvard Divinity School, and they welcomed a second daughter. Two sons were born in the next few years.

After John’s ordination to the Unitarian ministry they served churches in Sharon, Massachusetts; Williamsville, New York; Norwell, Massachusetts; Sioux City, Iowa; and Springfield, Vermont. Margret contributed her beautiful singing voice to the choirs of every church her husband served, and also sang with the Buffalo Schola Cantorum, the Scituate Choral Society, the Morningside Singers in Sioux City, the Seacoast Singers in Durham, and the Monadnock Chorus from which she retired two days before her 93rd birthday.

In 1971 Margret earned an MEd and began teaching 6th grade math and science in Durham, NH, where she remained until her retirement and relocation to Peterborough. Her summer vacations were spent visiting her German cousins and traveling in Europe. In several trips she sailed the Danube from its source to the Black Sea. Star Island, a UU Conference Center off Portsmouth, was part of her summers as well; she attended the Natural History Conference, beginning in 1974, and volunteered in the Island Gift Shop. She was an accomplished gardener, and kept her hands busy knitting “comfort dolls” that physicians took on medical missions to third-world countries.

A Memorial Service was held March 24, at the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church. At her request, memorial donations in her name may be made to the Church and to Summerhill Assisted Living.

Jan 10, 2018

The Rev. Dr. Alan Glengyle Deale

The Reverend Dr. Alan Deale—distinguished preacher, church builder, strong institutionalist, social justice activist, and fighter for death with dignity—died on 29 January 2018, aged 90.

A veteran of the 1965 Selma Marches, Alan Deale was also instrumental in the Oregon Right to Die Society, whose success in reforming the state’s laws carried a personal meaning for him when he was able to help both his second and third wives, the Rev. Marguerite Hessler-Deale and Dr. Leola Lorenzen, fulfill their wishes to die at home.

Alan Glengyle Deale was born on 7 August 1927 in Hanover, New Hampshire, to the Rev. Jessie Deale and the Rev. D. G. Deale. Serving in both the U.S. Navy and Air Force (1945–50), Alan earned a B.A. in English from the University of New Hampshire in 1950, followed by an S.T.B and S.T.M. from Harvard Divinity School in 1953 and 1954. He served a brief ministry at First Parish Unitarian of Hubbardston, MA, where he was ordained on 29 May 1953, with Frederick May Eliot preaching. His parents, both ministers themselves, also participated in the service. Leaving the Hubbardston church in 1954, he spent a year of study at Oxford.

Back in the U.S., the Rev’d Mr. Deale accepted calls to the UU Society of Fairhaven, MA (1953–58), the UU Church in Rockford, IL (1958–70), and the First Unitarian Church of Portland, OR (1970–91), the latter naming him minister emeritus. The Rockford congregation remembers his “pithy, lively sense of humor which raised a few hackles…balanced by a capacity for compassion for the human condition.” In 1979 he received a D.D. honoris causa from Meadville Lombard Theological School.

At his death, Alan was survived by his wife Kathleen Hunter, three children, three stepchildren, and nine grandchildren. A memorial service was held on 24 February 2018 at the UU Church in Rockford, IL, and a month later at the Portland UU Church on 24 March.

Joan M. Waterhouse

Joan Waterhouse

Joan M. Waterhouse, spouse of the late Reverend Howard A. Waterhouse, died 23 January 2018 at a Genesis Healthcare facility in Southern New Jersey, at age 82. Born in Brooklyn, New York on 1 June 1935, she was the daughter of George Ellsworth and Ruth Waters.

Joan earned her bachelor’s degree at Columbia Presbyterian in New York, and had a career in hospitals, schools, nursing homes, clinics and home care. She retired after ten years of night shifts at East Hill Woods in Southbury, Connecticut.

A devoted minister’s wife, Joan held an active role in service to church and community. Joan called many places home including; Newton and Upton Massachusetts, Allentown Pennsylvania, Williamstown and Lowville New York, Milford New Hampshire, and Baltimore Maryland before settling in Southbury to care for her parents.

After Howard’s death, she was sustained by the love of her children Carol (Mark) Sinner, Paul Waterhouse and Ruth (late husband Edward) Jensen as well as her nine grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren, and by her siblings Barbara Schniable and Donald Waters.

She will be remembered for always smiling, no matter the adversity, and always doing for others, wanting nothing in return.

Those desiring may send donations to American Red Cross, Heifer International or to one’s favorite charity.

The Rev. Dr. Robert “Bob” Harold MacPherson

The Reverend Bob MacPherson—parish minister turned medical professional, advocate for criminal justice and women’s reproductive health, world traveller, thespian, singer, patron of the arts—died on 20 January 2018, aged 92.

A fifth generation Universalist, Bob was dedicated to UU institutions. He was president of the Universalist Youth Fellowship (1946–48) and as a young minister helped guide it toward merger with the American Unitarian Youth to form the Liberal Religious Youth, later recalling that “the youth led the way” to AUA and UCA consolidation (in 1961).

Robert Harold MacPherson was born on 9 February 1925 in Boston to Doris Hicks and Harold S. MacPherson and grew up in the West Somerville (MA) Universalist Church. Bob and his older brother David both studied at Tufts University and became ministers. Bob was ordained at his home church on 27 June 1948, but entered ministerial fellowship as a Unitarian minister and, until 1966, served parish ministries in Ohio, Maine, Mass. and NY.

Following a career turn, Bob earned a Ph.D. at Syracuse University, specializing in speech pathology. He started an audiology program at a Veterans Administration hospital in Asheville, NC, and eventually retired as Chief of Audiology and Speech Pathology there in 1993. All the while, Bob maintained associate fellowship with the UUA and would occasionally preach and conduct special services at UU churches.

Outside of his work in ministry and medicine, Bob was active with the Western Carolinians for Criminal justice, Planned Parenthood, Pisgah Legal Services, and as a singer and actor with the Asheville Community Theater. He also served on the Social Responsibility Committee of the UU congregation in Asheville.

At the time of Bob’s death, survivors included his son Ralph MacPherson, five grandchildren, three great- grandchildren, and his brother David MacPherson. His spouse, Ann Marie Haggerty MacPherson, died in 2015 and his son Robert Owen MacPherson in 2005.