Alumni/ae Notes & News
Fall 2007
1950 – 1959
Herb Vetter BD '52 DD '83 answers the question: What's fun for this alum at 84? Read what Herb's been up to, here.
From Clark Kucheman, BD ’55: “After 46 years of teaching — beginning with 6 years at the University of Chicago Divinity School and ending with 40 years at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University — I am now retired. I continue to live in rural Riverside, California County with my wife Melody and 15 dogs.”
1960 – 1969
Rudi Gelsey, BD ’62, reports “I just returned from a one-week heritage trip to Croatia with my two sons, Andrew and Alexander. My great-grandfather in 1874 founded an industry in the province of Slavonia when the area was part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The lumber company, among other things, provided the ties for the building of railroads in central Europe. The good news is, despite harvesting trees for over 130 years, the raw material continues in great abundance due to constant reforestation. The company founded by my ancestors currently employs 3,500 people and specializes in paper recycling for the whole of Croatia. We were shown a city museum that honors and describes the history of my family, the industry, and the community. When, after World War II, Yugoslavia became Communist, the company was nationalized. The time when my family owned and operated the company was the past golden age. This was evidenced by the way people related to us during our visit. I lived in Croatia as a teenager from 1938-41 and, at the time, spoke the language fluently. Some of it came back during my visit.”
Jack Mendelsohn, DD ’62 has placed a great portion of his papers and files at the Library at Meadville. “I have lately been sorting many more of them for eventual placement in the ML Library,” he adds.
Ron Engel, BD ’64 and Professor Emeritus reports that he has “finished my year as Senior Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Marty Center last June, and that my Divinity School luncheon address, ‘Making the Earth Covenant at Chicago,’ will be published in the Fall 2007 issue of Criterion. In May I gave a paper on the theology of Douglas Sturm at the Social Ethics Seminar meeting at Princeton Seminary; in June I addressed the Ecological Integrity and a Sustainable Society Conference at Dalhousie University, Halifax; and in August gave a keynote address on ethics at the World Forum on Soils, Society and Global Change in Selfoss, Iceland. In September I convened a meeting of the World Conservation Union Commission on Environmental Law Ethics Specialist Group and the Chicago Wilderness Coalition to launch an international project on biosphere ethics.” Engel had the following published this year: "Seeds of Change: From Gary, Indiana to the Australian Wilderness." Invited Introductory Essay. Australian Wilderness Society Calendar, 2007; "The Covenant of Life" In Mission with the Marginalized: Life and Witness of Rev. Dr. Prasanna K. Samuel, pp. 456-471. Edited by Samuel W. Meshack. Tiruvalla, India: Christava Sahitya Samithi (CSS Books), 2007.
John H. Nichols, DMin '69 reports that Skinner House Books has published his book, A Wind Swept Over the Waters and it is now available at the UUA Bookstore among other places. “The book contains my brief reflections on sixty well-known scriptural passages, both Jewish and Christian scriptures. The reflections are not exegetical, but homiletic. This book can be mined for sermon ideas and readings.”
1970 – 1979
Vern Barnet, DMin ’70, played a critical part in the nation's first "Interfaith Academies," in partnership with Harvard University's Pluralism Project, Religions for Peace-USA at the United Nations Plaza, the Kansas City Interfaith Council, and the Saint Paul School of Theology, which hosted the international event. Barnet served on the 9-member faculty, arranged visits to local Buddhist, Christian Orthodox, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh sites and services, convened a panel of local and national print and electronic reporters and editors to discuss religion and the media, set up a film night for the academies and the public at a local theater to discuss religion and violence, and provided a number of other services that enriched the academic character of the Academies. Click here for more information, archives, and photos.
Wes Hromatko, DMin ’73 has received word from Prometheus Press that their New Encyclopedia of Unbelief has just been printed. The publication date on their web site is November. He has two articles in it, "Unitarianism to 1961," and "Hosea Ballou." Wes continues to speak from time to time in the Prairie Star District. Former Meadville Professor Robert Tapp also has an article in the Prometheus publication.
Beginning in September 2007, Craig Schwalenberg, MDiv ’06, and Drew Kennedy, DMin ’74 serving the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, began offering three worship services and RE programs per weekend. After six weeks, adult attendance has averaged 24% higher than the average attendance of the previous three years. Registered guests are up 42%. The services are held at 8:45 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 5:00 p.m., and, except for the music and the candlelight in the evening service, they are essentially identical. “First Church” Milwaukee has grown steadily over Kennedy’s long tenure there from 269 to 740 members. Kennedy said, “Having Craig join me as a colleague here has been a godsend! I couldn’t be more delighted.”
1980 – 1989
Mary Strachan Scriver, MDiv ’84 will finally see "Bronze Inside and Out: A Biographical Memoir of Bob Scriver" in print and on the bookshelves in mid-November, 2007. Published by the University of Calgary Press. “If you've flown in or out of the Calgary airport, you've probably seen some of Bob's rodeo bronzes,” sasy Mary, who is now retired (meaning, "writing full time") in Valier, Montana.
Doug Reisner, DMin ’85 shares that he had the pleasure of accompany down the aisle and officiating at the wedding ceremony of his daughter, Rachel, who was part of the Meadville community in the 1980-85 period. She was married at First Unitarian Church of Chicago last July. “She wanted to be married there because the Chapel was our site of our services for the time we were in Chicago,” says Doug, “and the church was where she practiced as a member of the Chicago Children's Choir. Rachel is now an E. R. doctor in the Greater Chicago area.”
1990 – 1999
Charles Blustein Ortman, MDiv ’92 is serving as a commissioner on the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission. For more info.
Daniel O’Connell '96 has finished a mens' spirituality curriculum, "NuuMen" (link pdf) in June, and it is available for $50 via CD. It is programming for new or existing UU church men's groups, 6 sessions. Daniel also notes, “I was elected president of the Central Midwest District of the UUA in April, we are doing some visioning work now.
Bonnie Vegiard, MDiv '96 is beginning a DMin in theology program at Eden in St. Louis and is on sabbatical through December 2007.
Silvia Behrend, MDiv '97 DMin '05 will be teaching "Ministry and the Art of Presence" next August during the summer intensives at Meadville Lombard. “This new curriculum explores a wide variety of spiritual and secular practices that have 'presence' as a goal and uses stone carving as a means of experiencing the immediacy of presence,” says Behrend. “I am excited to be coming back to campus after several years absence.”
Roger Jones, MDiv ’97 completed 10 years of parish ministry in Sunnyvale, CA, in July 2007 and is now serving as interim minister at Minnesota Valley UU Fellowship, Bloomington, MN. Contact Roger here.
2000 – 2007
Cynthia Landrum, DMin ’01 was one of two U.S. UU women who attended an international conference on "Women in Ministry: Our Lives and Work" in June in Koloszvar, Romania, which included Transylvanian Unitarian, British Unitarian, and Dutch Remonstrant women ministers. “This was the first conference of its sort for the Transylvanian women, who now have the kind of numbers to have a conference, much as our denomination did when we had the first continental conference for UU women ministers at Grailville in 1978. I presented a paper on the history of women in our UU ministry at the conference and included some of that story of Grailville with them from Carolyn Owen-Towle's piece "Leadership: Women’s Impact on the UU Ministry" from Leaping From Our Spheres.”
Mark Stringer, MDiv '01, performed the first gay marriage ceremony in Iowa. For more on this, click here and here.
Kathryn Bert, MDiv ’02 reports that she will be celebrating the fifth anniversary of her ordination and installation at the UU Church of Greater Lansing. The Rev. Dr. Thandeka will be preaching for that event, November 11.
Jeanne Lloyd, MDiv '02 was voted in as parish minister of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Greenfield, Massachusetts by unanimous vote of the congregation, on June 11, 2007. She received final fellowship as a Unitarian Universalist minister in April 2006. She also continues in her role as affiliated community minister at Unitarian Universalist Society: East (Manchester, Connecticut). She has started her D.Min. program at Meadville Lombard. Jeanne resides, with her family, in Canton, Connecticut.
Elizabeth B. Stevens, DD ’02 conducted the August 2007 annual service commemorating the 1st Pilgrim worship service on land in the new world. Clark's Island is located at the entrance to Plymouth Harbor.
Rosie Rimrodt, MDiv ’03 will be beginning a new position at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington/Normal on November 1 as their Assistant Minister for Religious Education.
Millie Rochester, MDiv ’03 says “I'm pleased to announce that the Rev. Dr. Lee Barker will preach at my Installation February 3, 2008, as the Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater called me last October to be Associate Minister.” Millie adds: “I highly recommend the winters here if you prefer warm clear skies over windy snowfall!”
Randy Hammer, DMin ’04 notes that his third book, The Talking Stick: 40 Children's Sermons With Activities, was published by Pilgrim Press earlier this year.
David Lysy, MDiv '04 is a Homeland Security & Justice Analyst with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, DC. GAO is the federal government's watchdog, and David conducts oversight investigations of the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice. He is now working on an engagement reviewing the post-Katrina revisions to the National Response Plan (NRP) -- the nation's emergency response playbook -- to ensure that the government is better able to respond to catastrophic emergencies and disasters in the future. David is also starting his third year on the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), and has been elected to serve on the Board's Executive Committee as Secretary. David lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife and his Newfoundland "Moose." If you're in the DC-area, he can be reached at david.lysy@alum.dartmouth.org or at 301-588-0762.
Marilyn Sewell DD ’04 announces the dedication of the First Unitarian Portland new church education and community center, the Buchan Building, September 16. “The Buchan Building is a substantial and beautiful space, with a sense of openness and grace that should make it a pleasing and practical setting for many gatherings, large and small, for generations to come,” says Marilyn. “We are pleased to offer it not just to our own congregation, but to the city of Portland, to serve a large and diverse population in ways that we have not even begun to imagine as yet.” Marilyn notes that the $7 million-plus raised to build the center was raised without the church taking out a mortgage. A recent article in The Oregonian noted the building will house The Peace & Justice Collaborative, offering administrative support to at least six local organizations whose missions revolve around issues compatible with UU values of justice, equity and compassion. Kate Lore MDiv ’07 is the Director of the Peace & Justice Collaborative, and she is quoted in The Oregonian, explaining who was selected for the Collaborative and why: "What I decided to do was handpick ones I thought shared our vision for a more just and peaceful world but didn't have many resources, like a paid staff or a nice office. What they have in common is that they are working hard at a critical time in history to make our world and our country a better place."
Colin Bossen, MDiv ’06 and his wife Sara Bossen announce the birth of Asa Max Bossen on 3/27/07. Colin adds that he has been settled at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Cleveland. “I received a grant from the Institute for Anarchist Studies for my project ‘The Chicago Couriers Union: A Case Study in Solidarity Unionism.’ I co-led a human rights delegation to Chiapas, Mexico for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and Colectivos de Apoyo, Solidaridad y Acción in August.”
Bill Neely, MDiv ’06 serving Neshoba Unitarian Universalist Church in Cordova Tennessee, was elected President of the Board of Directors of the Southeastern Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute (SUUSI) in July 2007. Bill will serve one year as President, followed by an additional year on the Board.
Jane A. Page, MDiv ’06 shares this picture of herself and her groom, Greg Brock, "minimizing our carbon footprints by walking to our ‘honeymoon’ in Statesboro, Georgia. We were married on August 18, 2007 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Statesboro, where I'm in my second year as minister." (Editor's note: Can we assume that those cans tied to the sign were later recycled?)
Lyn Oglesby, MDiv '05, Eliza Galaher, MDiv '07 and Fred Hammond, MDiv '07 joined the rally for Justice in Jena, Louisiana.
Archene Turner, MDiv ’07 will celebrate her ordination by All Souls Church, Unitarian DC and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington VA at 4 pm on December 9th, 2007 at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, DC.
Margaret Beard, MDiv ’07 is serving as Interim Minister at the UU Fellowship of Charlotte County, Florida while she is in search.
