The Reverend Carolyn Wood Colbert—artist, teacher, poet, parish minister, community organizer, justice activist, and lover of nature—died on 4 June 2019, at the age of 85.

Carolyn lived with beauty, artistry, and passion. Whenever there was a protest for peace, for reproductive rights, or a task force on domestic violence, she was there, planning, organizing, or speaking. Her sarcastic wit was an ever-present delight. During a “question box” sermon, when a congregant boldly asked about her love life, she answered demurely, “I don’t like to speak of small electric appliances in public.”

Carolyn Helen Colbert was born on 24 May 1934, in Oakland, California, to Horton Richard Colbert, a Universalist minister, and Lynette Wood Colbert. (She later adopted her mother’s birth name in place of Helen.) Married at age 19 to Paul Sawyer, and then divorced at age 33, she undertook extensive training and then teaching and leadership in awareness techniques, group process, Gestalt therapy, and human development theory, both in private practice and on Starr King School’s adjunct faculty. In 1978 the teacher became the student, and she was graduated from Starr King with her M.Div. in 1982.

Ordained on 10 June 1984 by the Unitarian Church of Davis, CA, the Rev’d Ms. Colbert served as an extension minister at the Community UU Church, Kennewick, WA. She then took calls to the UUs of San Luis Obispo, CA, and to the UU Church in Eugene, OR, with a number of interim ministries in between. On formal retirement in 2006, she was elected minister emerita by the Eugene church. After retirement, she served additional interim ministries in Los Gatos, CA, Livermore, CA and Rogue Valley, OR.

In final retirement, Carolyn lived for several years in El Cerrito, CA, where, to her delight, deer came to visit the creek that ran through her backyard. She is survived by daughters Charlin, Shanda, and Katherine Sawyer, her beloved black cat Layla, and innumerable friends and colleagues.