Paula Kreisberg Ulrich died on January 1, 2025, at the age of 88 (1936-2025). She is survived by her husband the Rev. Carl Ulrich, daughter Micaela, son Jethro, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by stepson Benjamin Ulrich.
A memorial service will be held on January 11 at 1:00 PM at Westwood Unitarian Congregation, 11135-65 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB, Canada. For those unable to attend, a Zoom link will start at 12:30 p.m., MST. To view the service, via Zoom, please click here.
In lieu of flowers, friends are welcome to make a donation in Paula’s memory to Seed Change, 56 Sparks Street, #600, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5B1. UURMaPA will contribute to Seed Change.
A more complete obituary will be forthcoming after biographical research has been completed. The obituary will be published in an upcoming issue of Elderberries, and will be available on the UURMaPA website. If any readers would wish to contribute information or reminiscences, we would welcome them. Please send them to UURMaPA’s partner obituary editor, Eleanor Richardson, grandmoot@aol.com
Years ago, I came across a cartoon—might have been a New Yorker gem—that pictured a sporting goods store with a sign in the window: “Now Is the Winter of Our Discount Tents.” Not sure why this stuck with me—maybe because it’s such a sly Shakespeare pun.
As I write, we in the States are, in one way or another, reckoning with the changing landscape of this country’s essence and being. But this is not another hand-wringing essay of worry and fear (although those things dance at the margins), even as we feel a winter of discontent approaching.
Now we need to find those havens of comfort or support and encouragement that will carry us through. Because this is also the season of gratitude. The lingering darkness is a thing of beauty when holiday lights shine. There are, amidst the sadness and concern, whether it’s personal or political, shining shards of hope and support and, dare I say it, joy.
We’re on the brink of the winter holidays and perhaps you aren’t feeling very festive. Understandable. But we still need to find joy and grace and festivity in the midst of the gloom. UURMaPA continues to be one of those places where we can find hope and joy, even when we only gather occasionally. The threads of support are there, nonetheless.
Most of the time when I talk about UURMaPA, I’m given to earnestly touting the good that we do as an organization and the ways we connect within this small community. Maybe it’s an idealized version of who we are. But it is who we aspire to be as a community of retired Unitarian Universalists, ministers and partners or spouses. Do we always get it right? Is it always seamless and effortless to make these connections? No. But maybe that kind of perfection isn’t the point.
The heart of the matter is that we carry on. We pivot and adjust as circumstances require. And we keep trying. Differing groups of people have kept this organization alive and thriving in various ways for almost 40 years.
In these coming days and months, we will keep on in these endeavors, amidst changes and uncertainties. Please stay in touch and involved in whatever ways that work for you, so that the connections we make here in UURMaPA remain vital. We are here. And I, for one, am so grateful to have YOU in my community!
Patt Herdklotz, exulting outside the last national UURMaPA conference before the pandemic, Scottsdale, AZ, Feb. 2020
UURMaPA runs as well as it does because of our volunteers. And most of the time we are unaware of what goes into keeping us connected and informed. So each year, the Board honors an “Unsung UURMaPAn”—a volunteer who has made a singular contribution to our organization, working behind the scenes in their retirement years.
Our 2024 Unsung UURMaPAn is Patt Herdklotz.
Patt, who resides in Oregon, has been retired since 2017 and she began her service as our Membership Coordinator in July of 2020. This particular position has a lot of moving parts:
keeping membership information current (monthly updates to an Excel spreadsheet plus two Directories in a different format, adding new members as ministers retire and deleting those who pass on);
making sure the webmaster and others all have the latest directory information;
extracting information from the Excel data for mailings;
maintaining a separate e-mail “Announce” list… and so on.
The job entails a lot of data management and sometimes proves frustrating. Patt wrangled the information into shape, sometimes against time constraints and a bulky, complex system. Her good humor and flexibility in continuing on with this work when we didn’t find a replacement in a timely fashion is also so deeply appreciated.
For these years of service behind the scenes, keeping us connected in important ways, we are thrilled to award this honor to the Reverend Patt Herdklotz, recipient of the UURMaPA Unsung Volunteer Award for 2024. Congratulations!
Lackey Rowe, husband of the Rev. Jean McKnight Rowe, died Dec. 8, 2024 of Alzheimer’s. He was born June 12, 1938 in Union City TN, the son of Lester Lackey Rowe Sr. and Helen Miller Rowe.
He grew up all over the south—Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi—but always returned to Memphis TN with his dog Red, a present on his 6th birthday, who lived 18 years. An only child, Lackey was given all the things most children think they want, like a pony, cars, attention and support. After a long string of schools, he graduated from Columbia Military Academy in Columbia TN.
After high school, Lackey joined the Marine Corps Reserves for eight years and trained at Parris Island SC. He attended Memphis State University, then attained a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Mississippi. After a stint in the Philippines as a math tutor in the Peace Corps, he returned to Ole Miss and earned a law degree in 1966. He had a reputation for his liberal stance on all matters political and/or controversial in Mississippi.
That year, he married Andromache Castanis. They had two daughters, Helen and Nicole.
He was admitted to the Mississippi Bar and hired as a staff attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Jackson. As a civil rights lawyer, he tried cases all over the state, assisted by prominent lawyers from across the U.S. who came to work with the Lawyers Committee. Suddenly he was learning law from the best and brightest lawyers in the country and trying cases with their assistance because he was the only one on staff who was licensed to practice law in Mississippi.
Three days after his first day at work, he was in court challenging the discriminatory jury composition in a criminal case. In 1969, he joined the U.S. Equal Opportunities Commission, working in Memphis and St. Louis. Later employment included real estate and human resources director for Marriott Hotels in New Orleans, Minneapolis and Nashville, and human resources director at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis.
He was divorced in 1991 and in 1994 married Rev. Jean McKnight Rowe. They lived in Memphis until 2005, when they retired to Brevard NC, where he was active in the Unitarian Universalists of Transylvania County, the NAACP, and was an avid writer of letters to newspapers in Memphis and Brevard.
Lackey died with a huge debt of gratitude to lawyers who practiced in Mississippi in the 1960s and who are still fighting for racial equality. If his life stood for anything, it was “equal justice under the law” and abolishing racial discrimination. This is how he wanted to be remembered.
He is survived by his wife Jean; daughter Nicole Rowe Heroux; one granddaughter; one great-granddaughter; stepsons Michael J. Rickard (Julie Jeannine) and Kenneth C. Rickard (Amy Hobby); and two step-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his daughter Helen.
There will be a memorial service at UUs of Transylvania County and another at Neshoba UU Church in Memphis, dates to be determined.
Donations in his memory can be mailed to Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Attn: Development Department, 1500 K Street NW, Suite 900, Washington D.C. 20005.
The Rev. Harry H. Hoehler died on December 3, 2004, at the age of 95 (1928-2024).
Harry is survived by his wife of 68 years, Rev. Judy Hoehler, his daughters Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton (Robert), and Kristen Hoehler (Spencer), three grandchildren, one step-grandchild, and one step-great-grandchild.
A memorial service will be held at 11 am on Saturday, January 11, 2025, at the First Parish Church in Weston, 349 Boston Post Road, Weston MA 02493.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the charity of one’s own choosing. UURMaPA will contribute to the UUMA Endowment Fund in honor of our colleague’s ministry.
A more complete obituary will be forthcoming after biographical research has been completed. It will be published in an upcoming issue of Elderberries and posted on the UURMaPA website.If any readers would wish to contribute information or reminiscences, we would welcome them. Please send them to UURMaPA’s clergy obituary editor, Rev. Jay Atkinson – jayatk40@gmail.com.
Unitarian Universalist Retired Ministers and Partners Association presents its 2024 Creative Sageing Award to Carole Martignacco
Former teacher and religious educator Carole Martignacco retired from parish ministry in 2019, after over two decades serving congregations in Minnesota, Quebec, and Vermont. During her Canadian ministry, she served as President and Vice President of UUMOC and on the CUC Board; she also designed and conducted training workshops for lay chaplains all across Canada. During her ministry she published The Everything Seed (Tricycle Press 2006), a contemporary origin myth, as well as a meditation manual Open to the Spirit (AuthorHouse 2018) based on her weekly interfaith newspaper column. Since retiring she heeds her own counsel to reclaim an earlier version of herself as poet and artist, continuing to expand her creative life as a writer in myriad ways:
Exploring reprint possibilities for The Everything Seed in English, Spanish and French, in softcover and as an e-book;
Publishing her first full-length poetry collection entitled A Bowl of Orange Suns (Shoreline Press, QC 2021);
Founding the Fundy Bay Writers in New Brunswick, offering regular poetry readings and twice-monthly online writing workshops;
Teaching writing and other workshops, both in person and online;
Creating and editing Eco Lyrics of Love and Lament, an anthology published in cooperation with the local Sunbury Shores arts center;
Serving on the executive board of Haiku Canada;
Publishing Teasing the Times (Yarrow Press, QC May 2023), a collection of 100 haiku. She writes a daily haiku as spiritual practice;
Creating and editing Porch to Porch, a maritime haiku anthology;
Continuing to write a weekly column with interfaith colleagues for the Record newspaper in Sherbrooke, QC (since 2014);
Leading interfaith retreats and designing e-book meditation manuals in the spirit of her first one, Open to the Spirit: The Soul’s Alphabet;
Leading worship from time to time, often on Zoom — “a modern miracle”;
Offering Labyrinth retreats and earth-based events at a local church;
Launching a new project focused on grief following the death of her husband David Turner in May 2024, employing the 5-line Japanese tanka poetic form.
Deeply committed to improving her craft, Carole maintains a list of projects above her computer, including a memoir in poetry of her years as a single parent, work on five e-books based on her “Open to the Spirit” newspaper column, distilling decades of sermons to a series of one-pagers, and continuing to build a wider community of artistic collaborators. She loves to encourage others’ creativity.
Carole is passionate about claiming this stage of life as richly fulfilling.
“One way I’ve found to keep energy from lagging in these truly ‘golden’ playful years is to go with the flow. I have more creative projects than I can ever hope to complete.” Creativity brings a perpetual renewal of wonder, joy and awe, which serves as her own fountain of youth. She stands by Bob Dylan’s adage, “The purpose of art is to stop time.”
Carole’s wide-ranging creative endeavors writing, publishing and teaching, as well as her passion for drawing people into creative community, inspire us all to follow her lead in keeping creative energy flowing. We are pleased to honor her with UURMaPA’s 2024 Creative Sageing Award.
Presented by her UURMaPA colleagues at the Fall Conference, October 23, 2024
