Category: Obituary: M

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.

The Rev. Dr. William J. Metzger, 73, died January 30, 2010. He was a reporter and editor, who worked with migrant laborers in the Midwest. He was co-founder and partner in Adult Literacy and Training in Wisconsin and Chicago. Bill earned a BS in Journalism from South Dakota State University. Bill earned his M.Div. from the University of Chicago, and his D.Min. from Meadville Lombard. He served churches in OH, AL, NY, IL, TN, PA, and TX. He was founding editor of Quest Magazine for the Theosophical Society in America. He joined the professional interim ministry program for the UUA. He is survived by his wife, Diana Heath, his son, David Metzger and his daughter, Christine Dziawura, their spouses, three grandsons; and a sister. He was predeceased by his first wife, Sarah Castle.

The Rev. Dr. Jack Mendelsohn, 94, died on October 11, 2012. Rev. Mendelsohn was born in Cambridge, MA on July 22, 1918 to Jack and Anna (Torrey) Mendelsohn. Rev. Mendelsohn attained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston University in 1939. He then went on to earn a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Harvard Divinity School in 1945. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Meadville Lombard Theological School in 1962.

Rev. Mendelsohn was ordained by the Beverly Unitarian Church in Chicago, IL on October 28, 1945. He was called to the Unitarian Church in Rockford IL and served there from 1946-1954. He then went on to serve the All Souls Unitarian Church in Indianapolis, IN from 1954-1959. Rev. Mendelsohn was called to the Arlington Street Church in Boston, MA and served there from 1959-1969. The years 1969-1978 found him working at the First Unitarian Society of Chicago until he moved his ministry to the First Parish in Bedford, MA where he served from 1979-1988. Rev. Mendelsohn retired and began his next career as an interim minister at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara. He served there from 1990-1991, and then found himself back in the northeastern United States at the Community Church of Boston, where he served from 1991-1993. He served as an interim minister from 1993-1994, and for the last time, at the First Parish Church in Beverly, MA. In 1988, he was named Minister Emeritus of the First Parish in Bedford.

Rev. Mendelsohn’s lifetime of community activities and accomplishments were vast and impressive. He served as president of the following: the Urban League of Greater Boston, Boston’s Foundation for Housing Innovations, the Binder Schweitzer Foundation, Hyde Park and Kenwood Council of Churches and Synagogues, Chicago’s Alliance to End Repression, and the Abraham Lincoln Centre. He was the president and CEO of the Civil Rights Project, Inc.; and the grant administrator of *Eyes On The Prize*, an award-winning public television series on the civil rights movement. He served as director of the following: the Housing and Planning Association of Metropolitan Boston, the International Institute of Boston, and Chicago’s Center for Psychotherapy and Religion.

Heavily invested in and committed to the denomination, Rev. Mendelsohn served as: a member and an officer of the Board of Directors for the Western Unitarian Conference; vice-president of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee; chairman of the board of Beacon Press; vice-chairman of the Unitarian Universalist Black Affairs Council; chairman of the UUA’s Program Committee; chair of the UUA’s Channing Bicentennial Celebration Committee; chair of the UUA Committee on Urban Concerns and Ministry; and president of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA). He was also once a candidate for the presidency of the UUA; a founding member of the Association for Liberal Religious Studies (Collegium); a consultant for the Cambridge Forum; the only male member of the UUA Committee on Women and Religion; and an adjunct faculty member at Meadville Lombard Theological School. In 1997, he received the UUA Distinguished Service Award.

Long active in civil rights and political matters, Rev. Mendelsohn made headlines when he conducted the Vietnam War Resistance service at Arlington Street Church in Boston in 1967. He also served as an advisor on religious questions to his friend and fellow UU, Adlai Stevenson; and, in 1968, he served on the campaign staff of Robert F. Kennedy. In 1979, an old friend and colleague, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, asked Rev. Mendelsohn to accompany him on his trip to the Middle East to meet with Yasser Arafat. 15 years later in 1984, he once again travelled with Rev. Jackson to Syria to attend negotiation talks with Syrian President Hafez Assad.

At the 1969 UUA General Assembly, Rev. Mendelsohn came to the microphone on a point of personal privilege following a critical close vote on agenda priority for funding of the Black Affairs Council. He stated that he was leaving the floor of the Assembly and going across the street to Arlington Street Church to contemplate what had happened. This gesture triggered a mass walkout of many Assembly delegates and the ensuing negotiations that resulted in re-consideration of the black empowerment agenda.

A prolific and engaging writer on the subject of liberal religion, Rev. Mendelsohn was the writer of many denominational pamphlets and magazine articles. He also published seven books: Why I Am A Unitarian (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1960); God, Allah and Juju (Beacon Press, 1965); The Forest Calls Back (Little Brown and Co., 1965); The Martyrs: Sixteen Who Gave Their Lives for Racial Justice (Harper and Row, 1966); Channing: The Reluctant Radical (Little Brown and Co., 1971) and Being Liberal in an Illiberal Age: Why I Am a Unitarian Universalist (Beacon Press, 1964/Skinner House, 1995). Rev. Mendelsohn’s Why I Am books have provided thousands of people with their first in-depth introduction to Unitarian Universalism.

On the subject of “Immortality for Skeptics” in his seminal work, Being Liberal in an Illiberal Age: Why I Am a Unitarian Universalist, Rev. Mendelsohn wrote,

When we reason together about the truths and mysteries of life, there is one all-powerful reality: The humanity of which we are individual expressions is a product of the sense and nonsense of our forebears. We are the living immortality of those who came before us. In like manner, those who come after us will be the harvest of the wisdom and folly we ourselves are sowing. To let this reality permeate and drench our consciousness is to introduce ourselves to the grand conception of immortality which makes yearnings for some form of personal afterlife seem less consequential. So long as there is an ongoing stream of humanity I have life. This is my certain immortality. I am a renewed and renewing link in the chain of humanity. My memory and particularity are personal, transitory, finite; my substance is boundless and infinite. The immortality in which I believe affirms first and foremost my unity with humankind. My unity with humankind gives meaning to my desire to practice reverence for life. It is pride in being and pride in belonging to all being.

Rev. Mendelsohn is survived by his loving wife, Judith Frediani; son, Channing Mendelsohn; daughter, Deborah Mendelsohn; son, Kurt Mendelsohn; granddaughters, Olivia Jenkins and Hannah Kossow; step-son, Aaron Worth; step-daughter, Keilah Worth; and step-grandson, Luca Domingos-Worth.

A memorial service was held on Monday, November 12, 2012 at 1 p.m. at The First Parish in Bedford, 75 Great Rd., Bedford, MA 01730.

Notes of condolence may be sent to Judith Frediani at 51 Butler Ave., Maynard, MA 01754.