The Reverend Al Henriksen—parish minister, anti-racist activist, lover of dance, jazz, theater, and travel—died on 24 June 2017, aged 95.

Early in his ministry the Rev’d Mr. Henriksen showed himself to be a hands-on pioneer in “walking the talk” of social justice rhetoric. During his ministry in Iowa City in the mid-1950s, Al is remembered for accompanying African-American college students to local barber shops that practiced segregation.

Alfred James Norman Henriksen was born in Boston on 21 January 1922 to James and Anna Syversen Henriksen and grew up in nearby Quincy, MA. He attended Baptist and Lutheran churches as a child but in his teens discovered Quincy’s Wollaston Unitarian Church. After a B.A. from Tufts in 1945, he completed his ministerial degree in 1947 at Crane Theological School with a thesis on religious humanism.

In 1946 Mr. Henriksen was called to All Souls Church of Augusta, ME, where he was ordained on 10 October 1946 and served until 1951. He was then settled at the First Unitarian Society of Iowa City, followed by the Unitarian Fellowship of Corpus Christi (TX), and finally at the Pacific Unitarian Church in Rancho Palos Verdes (CA), where he would remain for 24 years. The congregation named its auditorium in his honor and elected him Minister Emeritus in 1987. In retirement, the Rev’d Mr. Henriksen capped his parish career with four interim ministries (1987-91).

Al Henriksen is survived by his second spouse (of 23 years) Georgianne Declercq, three children, six grandchildren, two stepdaughters & their children, and four great-grandchildren. His first spouse, Ruth Baxter Henriksen, died in 1987.