The Reverend Gene Kreves—greatly admired for passionate preaching on humanistic liberalism and social justice and remembered by his daughter Joy for his “impish sense of humor”—died on 11 December 2017, at the age of 96.

Eugene William Kreves was born on 24 May 1921 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Mary and Joseph Kreves. While at Ohio Wesleyan University he met fellow student Corrine Strong, to whom he was married in 1942. He earned a B.A. in English in 1945 and a B.D. from Hartford Theological Seminary in 1949, and was ordained in the United Church of Christ.

During his service to the First Congregational Church in Lisle, IL, the church became riven by debates over “Freedom of Conscience” and its records report “disunity becoming rampant in the church.” In early 1955 the Rev’d Mr. Kreves resigned, having meanwhile been admitted to American Unitarian Association ministerial fellowship. He took with him a substantial number of “followers” who chartered a Unitarian congregation (now the DuPage UU Church) in the nearby town of Naperville. Gene served that church for 24 years, was active in both the local ACLU and the DuPage Valley Peace Center, and was a proud signer of the second Humanist Manifesto (1973). On retirement he was named Minister Emeritus; in 1994 the church dedicated its new Kreves Hall in his honor.

At the time of Gene’s death, survivors included children Tim, Dawn, and Joy, four grand- children, and two great-grandchildren. Spouse Corinne died in 2000. Memorial donations are encouraged to the Lakota People’s Law Project and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.