The Rev. Paul W. Sawyer

The Rev. Paul W. Sawyer, 75, died June 23, 2010 from pancreatic cancer. He had just finished his memoir, Untold Story: A Short Narrative History of Our Time. A graduate of Harvard College and Starr King, he served churches in CA, NJ, PA, WA, OR and Russia. The Pasadena Weekly called Paul “a tireless advocate for the dispossessed who often risked arrest in his opposition to war, capital punishment and nuclear energy.” The LA Times described him as “a scholar of American Transcendentalism and ancient Chinese texts, a founder of the Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace… [who] served on the boards of the UN Assn. and the Jackie Robinson Center in Pasadena.” He enjoyed jazz, politics and history. He is survived by his wife, Susan, and their son, Alexander, and by his first wife, Carolyn Colbert, and their daughters Sharlyn, Shanda and Katherine Sawyer, and his son Adam Sawyer, and Adam’s mother, Carole Selter Norris.