The Rev. Maurice W. Cobb

The Reverend Maurice W. Cobb of West Newfield, Maine — parish minister, religious educator, dedicated community social activist for justice and humanitarian causes, and DIY house builder — died in the Southern Maine Medical Center on 10 September 2015, aged 97.

The mainstay of his ministry was social action. His politics were as liberal as his theology, and ethics for him were situational. His friends attest to his giving and tolerant spirit; he was warm and witty, yet probing and perceptive. During his ministry in Brunswick, if anyone wanted access to help or services that were hard to come by, Maurice was known to be the one with the cosmic connection. He worked with those who back then were not well served by the system. Up until the day of his death he was aware that they are still with us, and they were in his thoughts.

Maurice Wendell Cobb was born on 4 March 1918 in Winchester, New Hampshire, but was raised in Brattleboro, Vermont, by his parents Richard Cobb and Lelia Lampson Cobb. His lifelong love of rural living began as he worked every summer on his grandfather’s farm — making hay, hitching up the horses to go to town, and bringing the cows home in the afternoon. Cold water in a tin cup was always Maurice’s favorite drink.

Mr. Cobb studied at the Crane Theological School of Tufts University and was ordained in 1943 at the White Street Universalist Church in East Boston, Massachusetts, where he had served as student minister the previous year and continued for an additional year. In 1944 he accepted a call to a yoked ministry with three churches in North Carolina’s Clinton Circuit — Hopewell, Clinton, and Red Hill — where he served until 1948. He took on an interim ministry in Derby Line, Vermont, in 1949, meanwhile studying for an M.A. in philosophy at the University of North Carolina, which he completed in 1953. Subsequent calls were to Attica-Belleville, Ohio (1953-57), Dolgeville and Salisbury Center, New York (1957-64), and Brunswick, Maine (1964-76).

The move to Brunswick in 1964 began a 12 year ministry, during which the Rev. Mr. Cobb helped the congregation grow and diversify, reaching out into the community with the social action organizations that meant so much to him: a suicide prevention program, the Bath-Brunswick food coop, and an Amnesty International group. Often at the head of a parade down Maine Street, he protested the wars and racial injustices of the era.

Leaving Brunswick in 1976, he went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, as assistant minister and religious education director (1976-79), and then to Billerica, Mass, as parish minister (1979-83), from which he retired in 1983 as Minister Emeritus. Returning to Maine, Maurice took a course in house design and construction at the Shelter Institute in Bath to prepare himself to build the only house he ever owned with the help of the Log Cabin Kits, in West Newfield. The construction was an adventure he never tired of retelling, and he dearly loved his home. There he remained for the rest of his life, interrupting his retirement just once for a part-time ministry to the nearby Sanford Unitarian Universalist Church (1998-2000).

Throughout his retirement he continued his life work, lending support to Peace Action Maine, Amnesty International, Native American advocacy, and AARP. Gardening, letter writing, and the Red Sox were the relaxing pursuits of a long happy retirement. “He was deeply at peace with himself,” affirms one of his nieces.

Notes of condolence may be sent to Martha Gottlieb: 93 Head Tide Road, Whitefield, Maine 04353, brother Lawrence Cobb, or niece Llynda Bigalow, both of the latter at 77 Cedar Ridge Drive, Shelburne, Vermont 05482.

A memorial service was held in Sanford, Maine at the Sanford Unitarian Universalist Church on 24 October 2015. Memorial donations are encouraged to the charity of the donor’s choosing.