The Reverend Dr. John Morgan—peace and civil rights activist, poet,
tenor chorister, and lifelong learner, who combined dedicated parish service with an academic and writing career—died on 23 June 2018, aged 99.

With work for peace going back to his college years, John’s community activity, wherever he lived and served, was guided by a hands-on theology of worldly engagement. He said that the church should always be answering the question, “What shall we do now with our world?” His commitment to peace and justice took him to Selma in 1965 and to the vice-presidency of the World Peace Council (1983–87), whose Joliet-Curie Gold Medal of Peace he was awarded in 1984. He had received the International Lenin Peace Prize the year before.

John Hanly Morgan was born on 28 November 1918 in New Albany, Indiana, to John Sidney and Vada Elizabeth (Dorn) Morgan. He earned his B.A. in Education from Ball State Teachers College, Muncie, IN (1943) and his ministerial degree from Harvard Divinity School (1946). He was forthwith ordained on 13 June 1946 by Waverly (MA) Unitarian Church, where he served until 1947.

Over the next 24 years, the Rev’d Mr. Morgan served churches in Charlotte (NC), Indianapolis, Flint (MI), South Bend (IN), and finally Toronto (ON), from which he took early retirement as minister emeritus in 1973. Meanwhile he taught philosophy at local colleges and, along the way, earned an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Michigan (1955). In 1979 he completed a Ph.D. dissertation in English Literature at University of South Florida. Over sixty years, starting at age 23, Mr. Morgan published eight books of poetry and prose, a history of the Toronto UU Church, and a memoir of his lifetime work for peace.

At his death, John was survived by his spouse Jeannette, children Lois Jean and David Hollis, nine grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.