Category: Obituary: M

The Reverend Dr. William R. Murry, Minister Emeritus of the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, MD, and former President of Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, died July 6, 2017.

During his 17 year tenure at River Road, Bill Murry had a strong pulpit ministry with a major emphasis on social responsibility. The membership nearly doubled in size and their community service and social justice work increased considerably. In his seven years as President and Academic Dean of the Chicago seminary, Bill led in the growth and revitalization of that graduate professional school affiliated with the University of Chicago and the Unitarian Universalist Association. He appointed six new faculty members, expanded the curriculum and saw the student body increase from 60 to 115 students.

He was the author of numerous articles and three books including: A Faith for All Seasons: Liberal Religion and the Crises of Life, in which he presents liberal religious perspectives on the question of life’s meaning, the problems of pain and suffering, loss and grief, and death and Dying; Reason and Reverence: Religious Humanism for the 21st Century, which articulates a humanism grounded in religious naturalism and responds to some criticisms of humanism; and Becoming More Fully Human: Religious Humanism as a Way of Life, which treats humanism as both a philosophy and a way of living with joy and responsibility.

His work for the Unitarian Universalist Association included serving three years as Chair of the planning committee of the National Social Justice Workshop, six years as Ministerial Settlement Representative for the Joseph Priestley District, and President of the Chesapeake chapter of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association.

Bill was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1932. He held a B.A. from Oklahoma Baptist University, a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Theology and Culture from Drew University. He began his career as a Baptist pastor in Shelton, Connecticut, then accepted a joint appointment as University Minister at The Riverside Church and as the Campus Minister at Columbia University in New York City. Bill served from 1967 to 1970 as Chaplain and Assistant Professor of Religion at Goucher College in Towson, MD, and from 1970 to 1974 he was Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Bill became a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1977, and was called to the UU Church of Bloomington, Indiana, where he served on the Board of Planned Parenthood and helped to start hospice in that city. In 1980, he was called to the River Road Congregation in Bethesda where he also became active in affordable housing work. He was a founding member and first board chair of the Montgomery (County, MD) Housing Partnership, and also helped found the Unitarian Universalist Affordable Housing Corporation, which continues to serve the D.C. area. In 1995, he was recognized for his work in affordable housing by the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission.

After retiring from the Presidency of the Meadville Lombard seminary he continued his writing, speaking engagements and service as a board member of the UU Humanist Association. While living in Annapolis MD, he was a founding board member of the UU Legislative Ministry of Maryland and in 2012 was honored with the first “Creative Sage-ing Award” by the UU Retired Ministers and Partners Association. More recently he co-edited the anthology Humanist Voices in Unitarian Universalism.

At the 2017 UU General Assembly in New Orleans, the UU Humanist Association honored him as the first recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award “for extraordinary contributions to Religious Humanism and Unitarian Universalism.” Bill Murry was an inspiring teacher and mentor to a great many members of the UU clergy as well as countless laypersons and professed humanists across the country. The influence of his powerful sermons, lectures and books will continue to enrich and enlighten many.

Phyllis M. McKeeman, widow of the Reverend Dr. Gordon B. McKeeman passed away peacefully on January 7, 2017 at the age of 93. She was born on August 7, 1923 in Swampscott, MA. to Charles F. and Edith (Pedrick) Bradstreet. Phyllis was a fourth-generation Universalist and met her future husband, Gordon B. McKeeman, at the Universalist Church youth group in Lynn, MA. She and Gordon were married in Lynn on Nov. 5, 1944. He became a Universalist minister, and then a Unitarian-Universalist (UU) minister and together they served four churches in Massachusetts and Ohio. From 1983 to 1988 they lived in California as Gordon served as President of Starr King School for the Ministry.

Phyllis fulfilled a variety of church roles wherever they happened to be living. She served on the merger committee for the Universalist and Unitarian Women’s organizations and on the first Board of the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation. She was office secretary and then coordinator of the Ohio-Meadville District of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) from 1965–1983. Part of that time she was also Chair of Region II for the UUA Annual Program Fund. Phyllis was awarded the UU Unsung Award by Ohio-Meadville District in 1976. She and Gordon were presented the UUA Award for Distinguished Service in 1993.

Although they raised three boys, Phyllis had grown up in Girl Scouting and became an active leader and trainer/consultant in the Girl Scouts and received the Thanks Badge award. She loved the outdoors and spent many years camping with the family. She also enjoyed knitting and playing cribbage.

She and Gordon retired to Charlottesville, VA in 1988 and moved to Rochester, MN in 2010. They were married for 69 years at the time of Gordon’s death in 2013.

Phyllis is survived by her three sons: Bruce, Glenn, and Randall; four grandchildren: Jennifer (Colin) Clark, Neil McKeeman, Alanna McKeeman, and Leland McKeeman; a great-grandchild, Sean Clark; and her sister-in law, Gloria King.

Memorials are suggested to the Unitarian Universalist Association; Girl Scouts of America; or the Alzheimer’s Association. Notes of condolence may be sent to Randall at his email address: rsmckeeman@hotmail.com

Gary Thomas Murphy, 60, husband of the Rev. Suzanne Trappe Black, died Dec. 30, 2010, the day before his 61st birthday. He had had recurrent heart problems and finally succumbed to congestive heart failure. Gary and Suzanne were married August 12, 2000 by the Rev. Karen Stoyanoff, who also officiated at Gary’s memorial service. Gary will be remembered for his love of the desert and his interest in growing plants. He also was good with animals and enjoyed his model train set. The couple called themselves “snowbirds” and enjoyed traveling. He is survived by his wife; his mother, June Murphy; his sisters, Pat Walker and Sue Hicks and by many beloved nieces and nephews and by a great-niece and great-nephew.

The Rev. Keith C. Munson, 85, died Feb. 5, 2008 in Bradenton, FL. Marguerite “Peggy” Hanson Munson died Feb. 1, 2008 in Swampscott, MA, the day before their 63rd wedding anniversary. Peggy had been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. The Munsons served congregations in Annisquam, Palmer, Springfield, and Andover, MA; Cherry Hill, NJ; and Quincy, MA. Keith and Peggy hosted Gov. and Mrs. Michael Dukakis and the Adams family at the Bicentennial Celebration there in 1976. In 1983, Quincy awarded Keith a plaque for his services to the community. When he retired Keith was made an Honorary Citizen of Quincy and minister emeritus at the Quincy church. He was a board member of UURMaPA for eight years, and President for four. Avid sailors, the Munsons sailed from Maine to Florida and back again on Keith’s beloved “Galatea,” a 36-foot Pearson Pilothouse. They were members of the UU Church of Saco and Biddeford, ME, and owned a house at Ferry Beach. Survivors include Carolyn (Lynn) Cashman of Cork, Ireland; a son, Bruce Munson, of Beverly, MA, and six grandchildren. A service was held to honor Keith and Peggy August 3 at Ferry Beach in Saco.

The Rev. Walter Andrew Moulton, 70, died Nov. 5, 2006, in Kennebunk, ME. He served in the Navy, then taught at Kennebunk High School for 22 years. He then completed his M.Div, and was ordained in 1987. He served in Beaumont TX, where his congregation established an AIDS Care Team. He then served interims in Fredericton, NB.; Houlton, ME; Groton MA; Philadelphia, PA; and Kirkland, OH. In 1998 he was called to All Souls UU in Watertown, NY, retiring in 2003, and returning to Kennebunk. Walter read and wrote poetry, published several poems in the York County Coast Star in Kennebunk, and collected old-time gospel tapes. He is survived by his his wife of 47 years, Paula Thayer-Moulton; and two daughters, Valerie Berg of Vienna, VA, and Barbara Moulton of San Francisco, and five grandchildren.

The Rev. Herbert Carlton Moore, Jr. died on February 19, 2015, at the age of 80.

He is survived by his daughter, Emily C. Minihane (James), Rebecca M. Raymond (David), and Meredith M. Owens (James); sister, Carol MacLennan; and grandchildren, Lillian, Charlotte , Madeleine, John, Lydia, Alice, Cole and Mason. He is predeceased by his wife Camilla C .Moore; and son, Warren C. Moore.

A funeral service was held on Tuesday, February 24th at 11:00 A.M. at the Norton Memorial Funeral Home, 19 Clapp St., Norton, MA 02766.

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Herbert are encouraged to Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215 or to Daggett Crandall Newcomb Home, 55 Newland St. Norton, MA 02766.

Notes of condolence may be sent to Mrs. Emily Minihane, 15 Vine Street, Franklin, MA 02038.

[A more complete obituary will be forthcoming after biographical research has been completed.]

Camilla Chickering Moore, 63, wife of the Rev. H. Carlton Moore, died Dec. 11, 2004. In 1963, she joined the Peace Corps, and taught ESL in Ethiopia two years. She taught fifth grade in Acton, MA, before rearing her family, and later taught special education in Foxboro, MA. At Doolittle Home in Foxboro, she served as activities director before retiring in January 2005 due to illness. She was a member of the Unitarian Church in Norton, and its parish committee. She is survived by her husband; three daughters, Emily C. Minihane of Delaware; Rebecca M. Raymond, Franklin, MA; and Meredith M. Owens of North Attleboro; a sister, Morgan Chickering of Brookline, MA ; and two grandchildren.

Eva G. Montoya, 67, wife of the Rev. Dale Arnink, died August 4, 2010, after years of combatting Parkinson’s disease, chronic back pain, and a recent painful fall. She had married her high school sweetheart, Ted Montoya, Jr. They divorced after 16 years of marriage. In 1986 she married Dale Arnink of Los Alamos, but retained the name of Montoya because it had become her business name. She has been a trained beautician in Santa Fe and had a successful and satisfying career in Los Alamos as a cosmetologist in several shops. She operated her own shop, Eva’s Hair Design, for 20 years until her retirement in 2000. She enjoyed travel and maintained a physically active life that included skiing, hiking, tennis, biking and scuba diving. She also enjoyed spending time with friends and family. She was preceded in death by her mother and by her youngest sister Ila. She is survived by her husband, Dale Arnink her father, Eberto, her sister Lillian and by her niece, nephew and their children, and a large extended family.

The Rev. Orloff Miller, parish minister, AIDS counselor, veteran of the Selma march, tireless advocate for civil rights, and devoted husband and father, died on July 1, 2015, aged 83.

Orloff Miller was among the hundreds of religious leaders who traveled to Selma in March of 1965 in answer to the appeal from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. While there, on March 9, as he left Walker’s Cafe with UU ministerial colleagues James Reeb and Clark Olsen, the three were attacked and beaten by a group of white men. The Rev. Mr. Reeb died two days later. The attack gained nationwide attention, and served as one of the turning points in civil rights history.

Interviewed as part of Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years (1954-1965), the Rev. Mr. Miller reflected back on the larger meaning of white northern presence in Selma that spring:

“I’ve been asked many times what business white clergy had in Selma, Alabama. What right did we have telling folks how they should run their lives? We not only had a right, we had a responsibility to be there because some of our family, our black brothers and sisters were not being treated fairly, and wherever people are not being given their fair shot at having a full and meaningful life we have a responsibility to do what we can to help change that. And if it means we have to argue with other brothers and sisters about that then we better get in there and argue about it. And help them to see that there is another way of living as one human family.

“Yes, I think white people had a responsibility, and white ministers especially had a responsibility to be in Selma, Alabama.” (http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eop/eopweb/mil0015.0841.069revorloffmiller.html)

Fifty years later, in March 2015, Mr. Miller returned to Selma to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march. His son, Orloff Garrik Miller, recalls, “By then [his] sense of balance was a problem, and we rented a wheelchair for the conference. The day of the reenactment of the march, [he] got up and walked across that bridge.”

Orloff Wakefield Miller was born on August 8, 1931 to the Rev. Lawrence Miller and Alice Miller. He received a B.A. from Mount Union College (now University of Mount Union) in 1953, and went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology in 1956.

Mr. Miller was ordained by the Methodist Church in 1954, and served as minister to the Federated (Congregational) Church of Francestown (New Hampshire) from 1956 to 1959. He then left the Methodist ministry to serve for two years as Associate Director of the Liberal Religious Youth (LRY). After receiving Unitarian Universalist ministerial fellowship in 1961, he became the Director of the Office of College Centers of the UUA and staff advisor to Student Religious Liberals (1961-66) and then District Executive of the Mountain Desert District of the UUA (1967-70). Moving into parish ministry, he served All Souls UU Church of Colorado Springs (1968-72) and the UU Fellowship of San Luis Obispo, California (1973-79).

In the early 1980s Orloff felt called to respond to the national AIDS crisis. He entered a doctoral program at the Institute for Advanced Human Sexuality in San Francisco, working as a volunteer hospice coordinator and field secretary for the AIDS Interfaith Network and providing support to people with AIDS, and to their friends and families. F
or five years (1984-89) he served as minister and AIDS consultant to the UU AIDS Crisis Ministry in San Francisco. His son, Orloff Garrik Miller saw this as “the hardest work of Dad’s career. Few he assisted survived more than a few months.”

Throughout his ministry the Rev. Mr. Miller was active within the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association; the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee; and the UUA’s (former) Full Recognition and Funding of Black Affairs Council. In 1987 he received the Unsung Hero Award of the Pacific Central District of the UUA for his work in AIDS ministry.

Orloff moved to Germany in 1989, married Renate Bauer, and a year later their son, Glenn Erasmus Bauer, was born. Although he officially retired in 1991, the Rev. Mr. Miller began service as Minister-at-Large to the European Unitarian Universalists (EUU) in 1993. In a sermon and personal memoir for the UU Fellowship of Paris in 1993, he looked back on his childhood encounters with American racism and his experience in Selma. In 2000 he was accorded the title of Emeritus EUU Minister-at-Large. In retirement, Orloff enjoyed volunteering, traveling, and being a father to Glenn Erasmus.

Orloff Garrik Miller has fond memories of a childhood spent with his father. Together they camped, sailed, motorcycled, traveled to regional retreats and encounter groups, and in the early 1980s, they loaded a motorcycle with camping gear and rode from San Francisco to Oregon.

Renate remembers the ease with which Orloff made friends, and connected with people. “He found a way to bond with practically everyone,” she recalls. “He was dedicated to people, even at the end of his life. Even when he was not doing very well during the past two years, he made a point to call those who were worse off.”

Orloff Miller is survived by his wife, Renate Bauer, sisters Karen and Sandra, and children, Orloff Garrik Miller, Tanya Crete, and Glenn Erasmus Bauer. His life was celebrated in two memorial services in August 2015, one for his European family and friends at the Johannes-Ronge-Haus of the Freireligiösen Landesgemeinde Pfalz in Ludwigshafen and one for his American family and friends at the UU Church of Akron, Ohio.

Memorial donations are encouraged to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, 689 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-3302.

The Rev. Guy Wheeler Meyer, 94, died in his sleep February 22, 2009. He was a graduate of University of Chicago and Meadville Theological School  He served the First Universalist Church in Stockton, IL, then worked as a labor organizer in New York City. A conscientious objector during World War II, he served in the Merchant Marines after the war. He served churches in RI, Arlington and Saugus, MA, and Newburgh, NY. He was an active voice for justice and civil rights. Guy hosted The Power of Love, a weekly radio program on KWMR in Point Reyes Station (CA) that featured people from all walks of life. He is survived by his partner of 34 years, Joyce Greenwood, his former wife, Verne M. Bell of Newburgh, NY, six children, ten grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.