The Rev. Dr. C. Leon Hopper, Jr.

The Rev. Dr. C. Leon Hopper, whose deep institutional dedication to liberal religion and social justice undergirded a 39 year career that embraced parish ministry, local community service, leadership in national UU youth organization, ministerial education, and international interfaith work, died on June 19, 2016, aged 89, after many years of living with Parkinson’s disease.

As he moved out from local parish and community service to continental and international UU arenas over the years, the Rev. Mr. Hopper earned wide and beloved praise as a “minister to ministers.” He was long a dedicated supporter of the International Association for Religious Freedom. He served terms as a UUA trustee and as president of the continental UUMA, and was instrumental in conceiving and setting up the UUMA’s CENTER program (Continuing Education Network for Training, Enrichment, and Renewal).

Unable to attend the pivotal Selma march, Mr. Hopper later spent two weeks in Selma living with a young black Presbyterian minister, working on voting rights and registration, participating in rallies, and allying himself with other movement ministers and leaders.

In local community service during his parish settlements, Leon helped establish the human service agency, Jeffco Support Inc. (now the Action Center) in Jefferson County CO. Later, in the Seattle area, he served as board member and president for the East King Council of Health and Human Services, president of Eastside Human Services Council, board member of Eastside Domestic Violence Program, and board member of the Center for Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence (now King County Sexual Assault Resource Center).

For his extensive and tireless devotion to these and other causes, the Rev. Mr. Hopper received two honorary doctorates: a 1981 D.D. from Meadville Lombard and a 1993 S.T.D. from Starr King School.

Charles Leon Hopper, Jr., was born on February 21, 1927 to Charles Leon and Ethol [sic] Peterson Hopper. During his teen years as a Boy Scout, Leon developed a love of the outdoors, and his introverted character was nurtured by the solitude and immersion in nature that he found working as a fire lookout in the Cascade Range. After graduation from Seattle’s Roosevelt High School and 18 months of service in the Navy, he returned to the Pacific Northwest for undergraduate study.

While there, he attended Seattle’s University Unitarian Church and participated in the Channing Club youth group, where he met his future wife, Dorothy, and first heard a call to the ministry. In 1951, he received his B.A. from the University of Washington, he and Dorothy were married, and they headed off for Leon’s ministerial study at Harvard Divinity School, where he completed his S.T.B. in 1954.

Mr. Hopper’s parish service began in 1953, while still a seminarian, at the First Congregational Parish, Unitarian, of Petersham MA, where he was ordained the next year. He moved to Boston in 1957 to become Executive Director for the newly formed Liberal Religious Youth (LRY).

Drawn back to the parish, he accepted a call to the Jefferson Unitarian Church of Golden CO, serving there for the 13 years (1963–76). Some years later the congregation named their sanctuary in honor of his service there. Returning to Boston in 1976, the Rev. Mr. Hopper took an appointment as the UUA’s first Ministerial Education Director, a role he held for five years. In 1981, he accepted a call to East Shore Unitarian Church of Bellevue WA, and spent 11 years there before retiring from parish ministry in 1992 as their Minister Emeritus.

Leon was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2002, and the next year he and Dorothy moved into Horizon House Retirement Community in Seattle, where tiered care would be available when needed. Never one to take illness as an excuse for idleness, Leon served at Horizon House on the Residents’ Council, chaired its Committee on Committees, and co-chaired the Hospitality and Opera Committees with Dorothy.

With mobility becoming more severely limited, Leon stayed connected with colleagues, friends, family, and the wider world through letters, emails, and visitors. He cherished friends who came regularly to read to him and help with email correspondence.

Leon was held in high esteem worldwide for his sincere collegiality, gentle honesty, and infectious optimism, which sustained many colleagues through difficult times both in their ministries and personal lives. He was truly surprised to learn of the far-reaching effect he had on people’s lives. In hearing letters of his profoundly positive impact, he would shake his head in humbled amazement, saying, “I never imagined.”

Leon is survived by his wife of 65 years, Dorothy; daughters, Sheridan Botts and Rachel Tucker; son, Chuck Hopper; and five grandchildren. His life was honored and memorialized on July 26, 2016, at the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue WA, in a service co-led by his colleagues, the Rev. Barbara ten Hove and the Rev. Elaine Peresluha.

Notes of condolences may be sent to Dorothy Hopper, 900 University Street, Horizon House, 4C, Seattle WA 98101, or to clhopperjr@aol.com.

Marilyn Blitzstein Hromatko

Marilyn Blitzstein Hromatko, 68, wife of the Rev. Dr. Wesley V. Hromatko, died of cancer Oct. 31, 2015 at Morningside Heights Care Center in Marshall, MN. She was born to Leland and Ellinore Blitzstein in Chicago on Dec. 17, 1946. She attended Bradwell Elementary and graduated from South Shore High in 1965. The city of Chicago gave her a citizenship award. Some of her most enjoyable experiences were at Camp Pinewood, MI.

Following graduation, she studied at Roosevelt University, then at Northern Illinois University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. At NIU she had poetry — some in Latin — published in the literary journal Towers.

Marilyn received a master’s degree in English two years later, then studied at Kent State where she was a resident assistant during the campus disturbance there. Her role, as part of the residence hall team, was to help restore calm. Marilyn held a variety of jobs; her favorite was working at a summer camp in the Rockies. Marilyn loved the outdoors.

She enjoyed selling lamps, records, and books at Carson, Pirie Scott, & Company, where her grandmother, Emma Solomon, worked. She was a Girl Scout executive in the Chicago area and later was a YWCA program director. Marilyn then studied at Meadville Lombard Theological School and the University of Chicago. She met the Rev. Dr. Wesley Hromatko, while he was serving First Unitarian Church of Hobart, IN. They were married September 17, 1978.

Religion interested her but preaching didn’t. She taught church school and was involved with the Central Midwest District religious education library. Marilyn was one of the organizers of the Tri-State UU Gathering. Toward the end of her life she returned to studying Biblical language. She was widely read in many subjects. She helped edit a physics book Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt. She was also an amateur radio operator and she had a great interest in the natural sciences.

In Illinois, Marilyn visited Abraham Lincoln sites museums and the homes of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and author Ernest Hemingway. She was a member of the Chicago Art Institute and active in Independent Voters of Illinois. Sometimes she would meet Wesley at Chagall’s “American Windows.” While the Hromatkos lived in New England, they visited many historic sites, such as Robert Frost’s home in Derry, N.H.; the Freedom Trail with Old Ironsides, Plymouth, MA, Starr Island, Strawberry Bank, and Mystic Seaport, home of the last wooden whaler. They also visited the House of Seven Gables, Longellow’s birthplace and Cambridge home, Herman Melville’s farm, William Cullen Bryant’s farm, President Adams’ boyhood home and farm, and Concord where Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau lived. Marilyn loved the woods by Walden Pond. In high school she kept a picture of Walden in her room.

She came to the farm at Lake Wilson in 1990 when she and Wesley decided that they should stay to help his parents, A.J. and Maybelle Hromatko. The farm became home for her. She was active in the Grange there. She said it was the longest time that she had stayed in any one place. They went to Illinois to visit and help her mother several times. She is survived by her husband; her sisters Rabbi Ann Folb, Arlington, VA; Bonniejean (Mike Gualandi) Gualandi, Arizona City, AZ; her niece Leah and nephew Joshua; and brother Alan (Ellen) Learner, Tyler,TX; and a number or cousins.

Services were held Nov. 4 at Chandler Funeral Home, Chandler, MN. Interment will be at Mount Pisgah Cemetery in Hanska, MN, at a later date.

Notes of remembrance may go to Wesley Hromatko at 752 121st St., Lake Wilson, MN 56151.

The Rev. Christine Hillman

The Reverend Christine Hillman — student, teacher, mentor, lover of learning, religious educator, chaplain, preacher, feminist, Facebook frequenter, Canadian curling enthusiast, social justice promoter, and “a colleague’s colleague”—died peacefully from colon cancer on August 7, 2015, in Royal Oak, Michigan. She was 65.

Christine was curious, studious, and truly learned; conscientious, with a soul that ached at injustice; courageous and empathetic, having been schooled in the heartbreak of her own losses; kind, encouraging, and generous of heart and mind. The Rev. Richard Nugent declared, “Ministry was in . . . [her] blood years before her ordination.”

Christine Edith Morr, born in Kokomo, Indiana, 29 September 1949, was the eldest child of Melba and Eugene Morr. Initially drawn to nursing, Christine discovered she was meant to teach. Following marriage to Arthur Hillman, and the arrival of their children, Christine brought her passion as an educator to motherhood, raising three “teacher’s kids.” As a UU religious educator she led Renaissance Modules, was a trainer for the “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” thealogy curriculum, and served on the RE Committee of the UUA’s Michigan District. She also worked as a chaplain and adjunct professor before earning her M.Div. in 1999 at age 50. Thereafter, as a parish minister, Christine served the UU Church of Olinda (Ruthven, Ontario) from 2001 until her death. She served on the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Unitarian Council, and she chaired the Council’s Theological Education Funds Committee.

Christine is survived by her husband, Arthur Hillman, daughters Courtney, Lee, and Blythe Wood; granddaughters, Kaylee and Anaka Wood; sisters, Anne Morr and Susan Bienz; and many nieces and nephews.

Memorial services were held at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church, Southfield, Michigan and the UU Church of Olinda, Ruthven, Ontario.

The Rev. William L. Holden

The Reverend Bill Holden, parish minister, social worker, civil rights activist, youth advisor, and consultant to countless Unitarian Universalist congregations, died on August, 22, 2014, aged 83.

William L. Holden was born to William L. and Gladys Holden in Boston on June 2, 1931. Generous and outgoing even as a child, his teachers commented on his unselfish outlook. He was graduated from Boston English High School in 1949 and summa cum laude from Springfield College in 1954 with a B.S. in Youth Group and Recreational Leadership.

After U.S. Army service (1954-57), he earned an M.S.W. from the University of Connecticut (1959). Before completing his B.D. at Crane Theological School in 1967, Mr. Holden served youth ministries in the Massachusetts UU congregations of Stoneham and Medford. His work with youth extended more widely to professional social work and administration in several public youth agencies in California, Delaware, and Minnesota. He was ordained by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Minnetonka, MN in 1980.

After a near-death experience while waiting for a heart transplant in 1985, Bill co-founded the Second Chance for Life Foundation, mentored many transplantees, and often drew upon these personal stories in his preaching.

Elizabeth “Betty” G. Haskell

Elizabeth “Betty” G. Haskell, widow of the Rev. Grant F. Haskell, died March 6, 2014 in Brooklyn, NY at the age of 91.

During their long marriage, the Haskells reared three children, as they served congregations in Milford, NH; Littleton, MA; Biddeford, ME; Medford, MA; and White Plains, NY. During summers in the 1940s the couple directed youth camps for the Unitarian Service Committee.

They enjoyed camping, hiking and square dancing.

Betty is survived by her sons, Richard A. Haskell of Alamogordo, NM and Jonathan F. Haskell of Newark, NY. She is also survived by her daughter Beth M. Haskell of Brooklyn, NY; and by grandsons, Kenneth Haskell of Brooklyn, NY and Grant W. Haskell of Baltimore.

The Rev. Robert L. Hadley

The Rev. Robert L. Hadley, 84, died on December 28, 2012. Rev. Hadley was born in Leominster, MA on February 21, 1928 to Eleanor and Lawrence Hadley. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1950. He went on to attain a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Harvard Divinity School in 1956 and a Master of Sacred Theology from Boston University School of Theology in 1977.

Rev. Hadley was ordained on June 17, 1956 at the First Congregational Society in Leominster, MA. In 1956, he began a remarkable 31 years of service to the First Church Unitarian in Littleton, MA, finishing his time there in 1987. Then, from 1987-1991, he served as minister of the Maumee Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Perrysburg, OH; and from 1991-1994, he served as minister of the Universalist Meeting House in Provincetown, MA. Lastly, he served as minister of the First Parish Church in Fitchburg, MA from 1995 until his retirement in 2002. The First Unitarian Church in Littleton, MA and the First Parish Church in Fitchburg, MA named Rev. Hadley Minister Emeritus in 1998 and 2002, respectively.

Committed to the denomination, Rev. Hadley served as: a member of the UUMA’s Member Insurance Committee from 1974-1977; a Ministerial Settlement Representative in the Massachusetts Central District from 1982-1985; and a member of the UUA AIDS Task Force from 1985-1986.

Throughout his life, Rev. Hadley was also heavily involved in his communities. He served as president of the Central Middlesex Mental Health Association from 1974-1977. He was also a founding member of the Emerson Hospital Hospice, and served on its board from 1978-1981.

Those who knew Rev. Hadley will remember his love of nature and his passion for restoration. He restored the gardens around a housing complex in which he lived during Hurricane Wilma. He and his life partner, Jimmy, took on all the costs and labor themselves, as well as the upkeep afterwards. They also restored a historic landmark house and garden in Provincetown, MA. Certainly both a natural and spiritual experience, Rev. Hadley once referred to his garden as “an expression of God.”

Rev. Hadley is survived by daughter, Amy Hadley; son, Thomas Hadley; son, Peter Hadley; grandchildren, Maya and Rosa; former wife, Pat Hadley; and life partner, Jimmy Sullivan.

A memorial service took place on March 16, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at the First Church Unitarian, 19 Foster Street, Littleton, MA 01460.

Notes of condolence may be sent to Jimmy Sullivan at 130 Dartmouth St., Apt. 407, Boston, MA 02116.

The Rev. Dr. John “Jack” Frank Hayward

The Rev. Dr. John “Jack” Frank Hayward, 92, died on September 24, 2012. Rev. Hayward was born in Winthrop, MA on May 8, 1918 to Catherine and Frank Hayward. He graduated with an A.B. from Harvard University in 1940. He went on to attain a B.D. from Meadville Theological School in 1943 and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1949. Finally, in 1968, he earned a D.D. from Meadville Lombard Theological School.

Rev. Hayward was ordained on June 10, 1943. He served as a military chaplain in the United States Naval Reserve and later, in the Marines, from 1943-1946. He was called to serve as minister of the First Unitarian Church in Columbus, OH from 1948-1951. He then began his career in higher education at the University of Chicago, serving as an Assistant Professor of Religion and Art from 1951-1956 and as an Assistant Professor of Philosophical Theology from 1956-1961. He went on to work as an Associate Professor of Theology at Meadville Lombard Theological School from 1961-1968. In the years spanning 1968-1983, he served as the Chair of the Department of Religious Study at Southern Illinois University. He retired in 1983.

A passionate writer on the power of the ongoing relationship between art, mythology and religious life, Rev. Hayward’s words were published in Through the Rose Window: Art, Myth and the Religious Imagination (Skinner House, 1980), a collection of sermons that span over 30 years. Earlier in his career, he also wrote Existentialism and Religious Liberalism (Beacon Press, 1962).

Rev. Hayward was a proud, founding member of Prairie Group. He served as the Scribe for over 20 years, and received Emeritus status from them upon his retirement from the group after 54 years.

Rev. Hayward’s chief delight while at Harvard University was being in the Harvard Glee Club. He sang in public concerts, including a few with the Boston Symphony. A life-long devotion to the arts – specifically classical music – led Rev. Hayward and his first wife, Muriel Sternglanz Hayward, to establish the Southern Illinois Chamber Music Society, which still performs at the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship today.

Regarding a performance of Hamlet that he attended when he was much younger, Rev. Hayward once wrote,

“I can still see in my mind’s eye an almost totally dark stage where an invisible Hamlet was speaking with the equally invisible ghost of his royal father. All of heaven, hell, life, and death had to be visualized by the movement of Hamlet’s two small hands. Nevertheless, the eloquence was there to prove it possible that each of us, before we die, may hope to believe that life is beautiful, terrifying, and self-justifying, and that gratitude for life itself is our best way of saying farewell.”

Rev. Hayward is survived by his loving wife, Lois Hayward; daughter, Miriam Hayward and her husband, Rick Herbert; son, David Goodward and his wife, Margaret; grandchildren, Megan Hayward, Zachary Hayward, Joseph Herbert, Gina Hayward, Gavin Goodward, and Jenna Goodward; and great-grandson, Jaden. He was predeceased by his sons, Peter Hayward and Steven Hayward; and his beloved first wife, Muriel Sternglanz Hayward.

A memorial service took place on November 3, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. at the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship, 105 North Parrish Lane, Carbondale, IL 62901.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to any of the following organizations:

Southern Illinois Chamber Music Society, School of Music, Altgeld Hall, Mail Code 4302, Southern Illinois University, 1000 S. Normal Ave., Carbondale, IL 62901;

TIP Hospice of Southern Illinois, 707 Walnut St., Murphysboro, IL 62966;

Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, 1231 Lincoln Drive, Mail Code 4429, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901;

Good Samaritan Ministries of Carbondale, 701 South Marion St., Carbondale, IL 62901.

Notes of condolence may be sent to Lois Hayward at 1020 Villa Ct., Carbondale, IL 62901.

The Rev. W. Edward Harris

The Rev. W. Edward Harris, 77, died on August 10, 2012. Rev. Harris was born in Tampa, FL on June 17, 1935 to Ira Walter Harris and Ruth Hope Duss. Soon after, his father remarried and he was raised by Mary Elizabeth (Smith) Harris, whom he referred to as his mother. He attained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Birmingham-Southern College in 1957. In 1968, he went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Tufts University’s Crane Theological School. He received a Merrill Fellowship from Harvard Divinity School in 1980.

Rev. Harris was called by the Arlington Street Church in Boston, MA in 1967 (where he was also ordained on November 3, 1968) and served as the minister there until 1970. He was then called to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana Champaign in Urbana, IL from 1970-1983. He experienced another long run as minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in Indianapolis, IN from 1984-1992. There, he was bestowed with the title of Minister Emeritus in 1992. He worked as an interim minister at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, MD from 1992-1993; the Unitarian Church of Evanston, IL from 1993-1995; the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Shelter Rock in Manhasset, NY in 1997; and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis, IN from 2003-2004. He also consulted on health care issues at the UUA from 1997-1998, and helped found the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Hendricks County in Danville, IN.

Rev. Harris was a passionate civil rights and political activist. He was a founder and president of the Alabama Civil Liberties Union and also served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union. He pioneered voter registration campaigns in Birmingham, AL following 1964’s Civil Rights Act. He was a board member of the Birmingham Council on Human Relations and served on Birmingham’s first Anti-Poverty Committee. Rev. Harris also worked on both the Kennedy-Johnson and the Johnson-Humphrey campaigns of the 1960s. He was chairman of the Illinois Committee for Jimmy Carter, and also served on the Democratic National Committee on the Platform and Credentials Sub-committee.

A dedicated and engaging writer and poet, Rev. Harris published seven books: Life Will Never Be the Same (1989); A Religion of the Heart(1990); A Garage Sale of the Mind (1991); A Midwife’s Tale and Other Christmas Stories (1994); How You Can Have a Good Day Everyday (even if you made other plans) (1995); The Way It Happened: Five Christmas Stories (1996); Miracle in Birmingham: a Civil Rights Memoir, 1954-1965 (2004); and The Wine of Astonishment (2010). Four short articles by Rev. Harris can also be found in the Walt Whitman Encyclopedia (1998).

Known to many as an “impressive, yet humble, man,” Rev. Harris has been described as having “enjoyed the fine art of good conversation” with “wonderful humor and storytelling.” He was noted to be “an ideal model for ministers who wonder how to maneuver through emeritus status.” To some he was a “wise mentor and teacher,” and to many, he will be remembered as “a man generous with joy.” His wife of 56 years, Sandra, remembers him simply as “a magnificent human being.”

Rev. Harris is survived by his wife, Sandra (Gutridge) Harris; two sons, Mark Emory Harris and Phillip Stone Harris; three grandchildren, Tabitha Grace Camp, Ian Dougherty-Harris, and Maya Dougherty-Harris; a brother, James Tyra Harris; a sister, Ruth Reader; a son-in-law, Steven Camp; and former daughter-in-law, Deborah Dougherty. He was predeceased by a daughter, Edith Harris Camp.

A memorial service was held on September 8, 2012 at 2 p.m. at All Souls Unitarian Church, 5805 East 56th St., Indianapolis, IN 46226.

Notes of condolence may be sent to Sandra Harris at 5705 Crestview Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46220.

The Rev. Lawrence M. Hamby

Larry Hamby

The Rev. Lawrence M. Hamby, 85, died August 28, 2011 in Athens, GA. He was a native of Atlanta. He held degrees from Emory University and Tufts University’s Crane Theological School. Larry served the Community Church of New Orleans, which ordained him. He also served the Unitarian Congregational Society of Grafton, MA; the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, PA; and the All Souls Unitarian Church of Augusta, ME. In later years, he was a chaplain in the Civil Air Patrol of the Air Force in Brunswick, GA. He was the Membership and Growth Chair for the Unitarian Universalists of Coastal Georgia. He also served on the board of UURMaPA. Larry will be remembered as a very generous supporter of our association. He managed our list serve SpeakUP until the time of his death.

The Rev. Dr. Mary J. Harrington

Mary Harrington

The Rev. Dr. Mary J. Harrington, 58, died at home October 26, 2010, after a courageous struggle with ALS. She attended Middlebury College and graduated from William James College of Grand Valley State University with a BS in Social Ethics and Social Relations. She was executive director of Home Hospice of Sonoma County (CA).

She earned her M. Div. from Starr King. She served UU churches in Santa Rosa, CA; Houston, TX; Marblehead and Winchester, MA. Her last congregation named her minister emerita. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she co-founded and served as president of Gulf Coast Volunteers for the Long Haul. She led 14 trips to the area, many from a wheelchair.

Mary delivered the sermon at the Service of the Living Tradition at the 2009 GA in Salt Lake City. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Sacred Theology from Starr King for her outstanding service as a parish minister and her inspiring leadership as president of Gulf Coast Volunteers for the Long Haul.

She is survived by her beloved husband of 30 years, Martin Teitel, her children, Julia & Samuel Teitel, and her stepson, Jason Teitel.