Milestones August 2012

CampbellDorothy Emily Carnell Campbell, 96, on September 19, 2011, in Mount San Antonio Gardens Health Center, Pomona, Calif., with her daughter at her side. Dotty was born on April 18, 1915, in Glasford, Ill., to Fannie and Herbert Carnell. The oldest of four children and the only daughter, Dotty grew up singing and playing piano and organ in the Baptist churches where her father served as pastor. In 1956, she and her husband, J. Arthur Campbell, moved to Claremont, Calif., where he was a founding chemistry professor at Harvey Mudd College. She was active in college and community affairs, welcoming and mentoring young faculty families and students, and while Art was sharing his scientific skills around the world, she immersed herself in the local culture of the countries they visited, learning about the foods and crafts and establishing cross-cultural bonds with people in all walks of life. She wore clothing and jewelry she had found on her travels as a world citizen with style and panache. Dotty and Art began attending Claremont Meeting in the mid-1970s, and she became a member in 1985. She served on several committees, including Flower Arranging and the Caring Committee. In later years she would sometimes offer ministry to Claremont Meeting about the verses of the old hymns, which she knew so well, when their melodies, played by the nearby Baptist Church bells, were audible during meeting for worship. She attended meeting regularly until the mid-2000s, when the frailties of age began to limit her mobility. Dotty’s life was long, loving, and gracious, and her HMC colleagues and her daughters’ high school classmates spoke fondly at her memorial meeting about the warmth and love she showed with her legendary cooking and hospitality. Dotty was predeceased by her husband, J. Arthur Campbell, and one grandchild. She is survived by two daughters, Ellae Elinwood and Christine North; six grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren.

EdingerSamuel Calvin Edinger, 95, on February 9, 2012, in Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital’s Rose House Hospice in Whittier, Calif. Cal was born on December 1, 1916, in Van Nuys, Calif., to Julia Augusta Halling and Paul Frederick Edinger and grew up as a Methodist in Monrovia and Sanger, Calif. He graduated from Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High School and Pasadena City College and received a bachelor’s degree from University of California Los Angeles and a master’s degree from California State University Los Angeles. He was a conscientious objector during World War II, undergoing sleep deprivation experiments and performing drafting and firefighting for the U.S. Forest Service in Glendora, Calif. He met Ruth Esther Hundley at Quaker Meadow camp during World War II, and they married in 1944 at First Friends Church of Whittier. Cal taught special education in Los Angeles City Schools and in Alhambra City Schools and for many years helped young people obtain their GEDs at La Casa Community Center in San Gabriel. He ended his service to youth with a long period of volunteer service to Pacific Ackworth Preschool in Temple City, Calif. A long-time member of Whitleaf Meeting in Whittier, Calif., he volunteered with and supported American Friends Service Committee, Pacific Yearly Meeting, Friends Committee on Legislation of California, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. He also visited prisoners at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution, following the Bible’s directive to “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them who suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body” (Hebrews 13:3). He felt that “if you greet only your brothers, what is there extraordinary about that? Even the heathen do as much” (Matthew 5:47-48). Cal and his father-in-law, Henry Felix Hundley, together built cabinets and interior furnishings, and Cal helped build five houses. He enjoyed month-long camping trips with his family, visiting Big Sur and World’s Fairs throughout the United States and Canada, and was also a railroad enthusiast who took pleasure in knowing the histories and schedules. Cal lived until a few weeks before his death in Rosemead, a house full of light and natural materials that he had built in South San Gabriel, with his daughter and son-in-law caring for him. He was preceded in death by his brother, Paul Frederick Edinger Jr., in 1937; his brother, David Halling Edinger, in 1941; his father, Paul Frederick Edinger, in 1955; his mother, Julia Augusta Halling Edinger, in 1967; and his wife, Ruth Esther Hundley Edinger, in 2004. He is survived by his brother, James Gilbert Edinger; four children, Paul Frederick Edinger (Nancy), David Howard Edinger (Virginia Matera), Linda Ann Edinger Flournoy (James), and Susan Edinger Marshall (Gerald); eight grandchildren, Kathleen Ann LaFramboise Goodman (Dan), Paul Allen Edinger (Kelly Douglass), Kerensa Ruth Edinger, Kevin Douglas Flournoy (Carrie Skulley), April Elaine Edinger Adams (Tristan), Mary Alise Edinger, Elizabeth June Marshall, and Nancy Jessamyn Marshall; and one great-grandchild, Piper Annabelle Edinger. His family asks that to honor his memory you do as Cal did: plant a tree to honor a loved one, donate to your favorite charity, and love thy neighbor as thyself.

 

KightGrace Mildred Lentz Kight, 90, formerly of Concordville and Media, Pa., on April 25, 2012, in Kennett Square, Pa. Grace was born on August 6, 1921, in Philadelphia, Pa., to Selma Weber and Jacob T. Lentz, and grew up in North Philadelphia. She drew her love of learning from her father, a milk deliveryman, and her mother, who taught her to read at three. Grace graduated from Simon Gratz High School in 1938 and worked in the public library near her home on an assignment from the youth division of the WPA. She earned a BA from Temple University in 1942, followed by an MA and an MS from Columbia University in 1945, and worked as a reading specialist and master teacher at Ethical Culture Fieldston Lower School and at Food Trades Vocational High School, both in New York. In 1953 Grace married Stanford Steele Kight when they were teaching at Temple University. They and their two-year-old daughter, Kristin, traveled across the country in 1960 on behalf of American Friends Service Committee to assess the needs of Native Americans living on reservations. Grace served on the board of Pearl Buck’s Welcome House adoption agency, and she and Stanford adopted Tony, Tom, and Amy from Korea and Nicholas through domestic adoption. In 1975, she helped to find homes for Vietnamese children as part of Operation Babylift, arranging for Concord Meeting in Concordville, Pa., where she was a member, to house 20 children, and with more than 100 volunteers, taking in 46 others from the last flight out of Saigon to into her 17-room house while they were being placed with families. That year, the Media Rotary Club awarded her “Man of the Year” for this work. She also taught at Wilmington High School in Delaware, in Drexel University’s Management Development Laboratory, at The Lab at Krisheim, and at Delaware County Community College, from which she retired in 2001. Much of Grace’s work helping others didn’t come to public attention; she saw things that needed doing, problems that needed solving, tears that needed drying, and she did what she could think of to do. Grace’s siblings, Dorothy Weiss, Mabel Wiegner, Edith Hamilton, Catherine Lentz, and Ted Lentz, predeceased her. Her son, Tom Young Kight, died in 1973, and her husband, Stanford Kight, in 1994. Grace is survived by four children, Kristin S. Kight (Scott A. Beck), Tony K. Kight (Karen), Amy M. Toombs (Greg), and Nicholas A. Kight; seven grandchildren, Amy Bitner, Tara Bitner-Woolery, Kim Bitner-Bostwick, Warren Bitner, Matthew Kight-Law, Berit S. Beck, Tyler Kight, and Dana O. Beck; three nephews, Walter Wiegner, John Lentz, and Theodore Lentz; four nieces, Selma Wiegner, Dorothy Weaber, Christine Lentz, and Mildred Weiss; and seven great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, her family suggests donations to Grace M. Kight Memorial Scholarship Fund in care of Nicholas A. Kight, 116 W Fifth St., Media, PA 19063-2407.

 

MacEwen—Sally Anne McVaugh MacEwen, 64, on March 15, 2012, in Atlanta, Ga., in her sleep, from ovarian cancer, which she had bravely faced for more than three years. Sally was born on January 5, 1948, in Abington, Pa., to Isabelle and Jack McVaugh, and grew up in Riverton, N.J. as a Friend from birth in Moorestown (N.J.) Meeting. She attended Westfield and Moorestown Friends Schools, excelling in lacrosse in high school and college. She studied classical languages and literature, receiving a BA from Mount Holyoke and a PhD from University of Pennsylvania. She became a Phillies fan, a softball player, and an avid Sporting News reader. While she was teaching Greek and Latin at University of Utah, she met her future life partner, Aaron Ruscetta. In 1982, she was hired as professor of Classical Languages and Literature at Agnes Scott College, impressing the department chair with her knowledge of Braves baseball. She joined Atlanta Meeting and served as clerk of several committees and as clerk of the meeting. She was concerned especially for educational equity and fair treatment of teachers. Aaron followed Sally to the Atlanta area in 1983, and they celebrated and stress-tested their life partnership commitment by driving motorcycles on a three-month, 10,000-mile, coast-to-coast “unhoneymoon” road trip across the U.S. and Canada. In 1986 they were gifted with the birth of Elaine Isabelle, whom Sally kept warmly and elegantly clothed by her skills in knitting and sewing. Wanting for Elaine the same kind of Quaker education that she had, Sally played a pivotal role in founding Friends School of Atlanta, serving as the clerk of the board of trustees for nearly 10 years. She wrote articulate op-eds in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and facilitated consensus, using diplomacy and patience as department chair to make Agnes Scott more inclusive, more just, and more compassionate. Her effervescent devotion to classical literature and her talent for revealing its universal truths, in courses like “Racism (or not) in Antiquity,” helped students understand the present. In her book Superheroes and Greek Tragedy: Comparing Cultural Icons, she showed how the heroic ideals of any culture reveal its values. In 2006 she joined her daughter and a colleague to lead a national Quaker conference workshop on respecting diverse experiences of The Divine within the Religious Society of Friends, a workshop that led Aaron to realize that Friends would welcome his views of The Divine just as they did traditional teachings. Sally’s Quaker upbringing informed everything of her life, from her early schooling to the planning of her final days, and her values shaped her career, her work for racial and gender justice, her activism for peace, her love as a parent and partner, and her service to Atlanta Meeting and to the wider Quaker community. She continued teaching into her final few weeks, waiting until spring break to take the time to joyously honor her life- partner vows in a public celebration of renewal on March 11, 2012, just four days before her passing, when she and Aaron legally married under the care of Atlanta Meeting in a Quaker ceremony officiated by their daughter. Her love and devotion to her family was boundless and enduring. She is survived by her life partner, Aaron Ruscetta; her daughter, Elaine Ruscetta; her mother, Isabelle McVaugh; and her siblings, Mary Shannon and Jay McVaugh. In lieu of flowers or personal gifts, the family asks that donations in Sally MacEwen’s honor be made to Friends School of Atlanta under care of the Legacy of Light Fund.

 

MorganKenneth William Morgan, 103, on December 23, 2011, in Middletown, Conn. Ken was born on October 15, 1908, in Great Falls, Mont. He earned a BA from Ohio Wesleyan and an STB from Harvard Divinity School in 1935, later helping to create the Center for World Religions there. Traveling extensively to study world religions, particularly Eastern religions, he lived in ashrams in India for a year during the 1930s, meeting Mohandas K. Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. He drew from what he had learned in India many times in the years that followed. At University of Michigan, Ken was director of the National Council on Religion in Higher Education and of religious activities, and during World War II, he was Director of Education for AFSC. He joined the faculty of Colgate University in 1946, and over the next three decades served as university chaplain and professor of religion, also directing Chapel House and the Fund for the Study of the Great Religions. He helped to found the American Academy of Religion and worked with the Hazan Foundation, making Asian perspectives on Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism available to American teachers and students. Ken retired from Colgate in 1974. The author of many books on religion and spirituality, including Reaching for the Moon (1990), he encouraged learning not only about other religions but from them. After retirement, Ken and his wife, Amy Cowing Scott, moved to Princeton, N.J., and became active in Princeton Meeting. Ken shared his scholarship and spiritual insights with the meeting and devoted countless hours to committee work and to developing a membership directory. He spent his final years in Middletown, Conn. Ken was predeceased by his wife, Amy Cowing Scott. He is survived by three sons, David Morgan, Scott Morgan, and Alan Morgan, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

 

SauerSvea Sauer, 98, on April 21, 2012, in Greensboro, N.C. Svea was born on April 18, 1914, in Pittsburgh, Pa. During the 1930s, she worked with AFSC in the Emergency Peace Campaign Section, and she and her husband, David E. Sauer, took part in one of the first New Deal projects, the Arthurdale, W.V. Federal Homestead, through which she was privileged to meet Eleanor Roosevelt. Later, she returned to Philadelphia to work with AFSC as a writer, and after living in several places in the eastern United States, in 1946 she moved to Texas, which she adopted as her home state. She wrote articles about central European relief, and for several years was a preschool counselor for the state Commission for the Blind. She worked in real estate in Austin, where she attended Austin Meeting, and during the Vietnam War was peace secretary for AFSC in Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Beginning in 1992, for 18 years she wrote a weekly opinion column for the Hays Free Press, focusing mostly on national and international issues. Svea moved in 1998 from Dripping Springs, Tex., to Greensboro, N.C., to live in Friends Homes of Guilford, where she volunteered for several years in the library and enjoyed drama, art, bridge, and reading. In Greensboro she attended Friendship Meeting. Svea said that her work for AFSC had been a major influence on her life of action on behalf of social and environmental causes, and she believed that working in community is the way to get things done. Svea was preceded in death by her husband, David E. Sauer. She is survived by one niece, Genevieve Snyder. Among the friends who will miss her are Priscilla and Mel Zuck, Lucinda Frost, Anne Kimball, Betty Dixon, Amy Stern, and Jeanette Williams.

SteinerDeborah Lantz Steiner, 103, on October 27, 2011, in her home at Pilgrim Place Health Center in Claremont, Calif. Deborah was born on March 1, 1908, in Pendleton, Ind., the only child of Elizabeth Morris and Frederick Lantz. She grew up as a Friend from birth in Fall Creek (Ind.) Meeting. After the death of her father, her maternal grandparents, and her mother’s sister, Deborah and her mother joined her uncle, Elwood Burdsall (whom she called her “second father”), and his three sons in Rye, N.Y., where they were active in Purchase (N.Y.) Meeting. Deborah boarded at George School near Philadelphia for one year and attended a private day- school for the rest of her school years. At 17, she met her future husband, Richard Steiner, on a cross-country train trip with cousins. When she got off the stopped train as it took on water, the 25-year-old Washington State College English professor jumped off the train to help her re-board as it unexpectedly began to move. She and Richard met again a few months later in New York and married at Purchase Meeting when Deborah was 18. They lived at first in Peoria and then in Chicago for Richard to attend University of Chicago Theological Seminary. For two years, while his father recovered from surgery, Richard taught his courses, and Deborah and he lived in Grinnell, Iowa. They raised their two sons in Portland, Oreg., where Richard was pastor of the First Unitarian Church. Deborah was active in church affairs and with gardening. When Richard retired 1966, the Portland Unitarians built a house for them at Pilgrim Place, a retirement community for Christian workers in Claremont, Calif. Deborah participated in residents’ council activities, including the annual Pilgrim Festival, and devoted much time to gardening. Following Richard’s death in 1975, she became more active in Claremont Meeting, where Richard’s stepmother, Elizabeth Perry Steiner (also a resident of Pilgrim Place) was a member. Deborah was an active and beloved member of Claremont Meeting for over one-third of her long life. Her loving and cheerful spirit never ebbed as she faced the restrictions of age. Her last room opened out on the courtyard garden she had helped to create, and she delighted in watching younger Pilgrims working there. On her wall was her hand copy of a quote attributed to the Talmud: “Every little blade of grass has its angel leaning over it whispering ‘Grow! Grow!’” As Deborah passed her 100th birthday, members of Claremont Meeting wheeled her to meeting for worship on most Sunday mornings. Friends at Claremont Meeting remember her service on the Property Committee and on the Caring Committee, for which her positive outlook and kindness were both helpful and comforting. At Deborah’s request, no Memorial Meeting was held. In addition to her two sons, Henry York Steiner and David Steiner and their wives, she leaves five grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and a devoted cousin, Martha Morris.

 

StevensHolly Suzanne Jennings Stevens, 54, on October 18, 2011, in Stokesdale, N.C. Holly was born on December 20, 1955, in Memphis, Tenn., to Thelma and Mathews Allen and grew up in Richmond, Va. She began her journey with Friends while in high school with the support of her Presbyterian minister father, finding her way to Richmond (Va.) Meeting and later joining Winston-Salem (N.C.) Meeting. She graduated with a BA in English from St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, N.C. and in 1978, took a second degree in special education with additional courses in journalism. Holly was a writer and editor for Wachovia Bank, nonprofits in Minnesota, newspapers in North Dakota and Washington, and the Greensboro News and Record, for which she was a columnist.  She also published a history of the recording process for pastoral ministers in the Religious Society of Friends, articles in Friends Journal and Quaker Life, and Undertaken with Love, a manual for congregations and communities about family-directed funerals. Over the years she took part in the three main branches of Friends, attending Friends meetings in Minneapolis, Minn., Fargo, N.D., and Portland, Oreg., as well as Friends General Conference annual gatherings. At her death she was a member of New Garden Meeting in Greensboro, N.C., where she had moved in 2003 to marry William Stevens, a retired pastor of First Friends Meeting in Greensboro. Having dated briefly in 1982 and remaining friends through the years, they reconnected as a couple in 2001, marrying at New Garden Meeting in 2004. Holly had been diagnosed with cancer when her two sons (from a first marriage) were preschoolers, and her bout with the disease continued throughout the remaining third of her life, eventually rendering her paraplegic. Nevertheless, her radiant attitude and courage transformed that twenty-year struggle into a fruitful source of creativity, activism, and inspiration. In her final decade, she used the Internet to promote liberal Christian views through such online sites as Café Press and advocated storytelling as a vehicle for change on her website, the Storyteller and Listener. One of her key achievements, motivated by her interest in end-of-life issues, was leading the effort to establish in 2007 the Funeral Consumers Association of the Piedmont, a non-profit organization focusing on education and advocacy. Despite the burdens of ongoing medical care, she considered her final nine years with Bill in Greensboro to be the happiest of her life. Holly was preceded in death by her father, Mathews Allen, and her sister, Vicki Allen. She is survived by her husband, William P.H. Stevens, Jr.; her sons, Samuel Jennings (Claire) and Noah Jennings; her mother, Thelma Allen; her sister, Janice Allen (Ken Brinkman); her stepdaughter, Kristina Stevens; her stepson, Will Stevens (Christina); and Will and Christina’s daughters, Phoebe and Chloe Stevens.

 

Wink—Walter Wink, 76, on May 10, 2012, in Sandisfield, Mass. Walter was born on May 21, 1935, in Dallas, Tex. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1956 and was ordained a United Methodist minister in 1961, serving as pastor of First United Methodist Church in Hitchcock, Tex., in 1962–67. He earned Master of Divinity and PhD degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he taught until 1976. After leaving Union he taught briefly at Hartford Seminary. Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City from 1976 until he retired as Professor Emeritus in 2005, Walter wrote over a dozen books, including the award-winning Naming the Powers (1982), Unmasking the Powers (1986), Engaging the Powers (1992), When the Powers Fall (1998), and The Human Being (2002). His work focused on the biblical “principalities and powers,” the psycho-socio-political structures governing society throughout history, and the Christian response to these powers. Walter was a major contributor to progressive Christian thinking on political and cultural issues. He wrote about non-violence; lectured and conducted training around the world, including apartheid-era South Africa; and coined the phrase “the myth of redemptive violence.” A groundbreaking figure in New Testament theology, he also wrote and spoke on topics such as homosexuality and the Bible, psychology and biblical studies, and Jesus as a historical figure. His teaching focused on his pioneering method of Bible study incorporating Jungian interpretation, meditation, artwork, and movement. Most of his workshops were presented jointly with his wife, June Keener Wink, who specializes in creative movement. This method and its rationale were first presented in his controversial book The Bible in Human Transformation (1973), which has since found wide acceptance. He received many awards for his work as a scholar and activist, including the Unitas Award from Union Theological Seminary, the Peace Fellowship from the United States Institute for Peace, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. For many years he attended South Berkshire Meeting in Great Barrington, Mass. Walter is survived by his wife, June Keener Wink; one brother, Richard Wink; two sons, Stephen Wink and Christopher Wink; a daughter, Rebecca Barnes, two stepsons, Kim Wink and Kurt Wink; and eight grandchildren.

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