Milestones March 2013

Marriage

Harris and Smith—Jennifer Chapin-Smith (a member of Maryland’s Adelphi Meeting, nee Jennifer Chapin Harris) and Alexi Chapin-Smith (nee Alexi Elaine Smith) were legally married in Maryland Jan. 5, 2013 under the care of Adelphi Meeting.

The couple met as students at Northwestern University, where Jennifer got her master’s of science in journalism in 2001. They had a Quaker ceremony in 2006, but were not able to obtain a marriage license until this year. In 2007, the couple legally changed their last names.

The couple now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jennifer works as a writer for the Michigan House of Representatives. Alexi is a doctoral candidate in archaeology at the University of Michigan, from which she holds a master’s in archaeology. Jennifer is a sojourning member of Ann Arbor Friends Meeting and serves as co-clerk of its Religious Education committee. She is also a member of the Ministry and Counsel committee of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns.

BrettGertrude Allinson MacIntosh Brett, 87, on November 30, 2012, at her home in Haverford, Pa. Trudie, a Friend from birth, was born on January 10, 1925, in Haverford, Pa., to Margaret Taylor and Dr. Archibald MacIntosh. She was a graduate of Haverford Friends School and Westtown School, attended Bryn Mawr College, and graduated from McGill University in 1946. She subsequently received a master’s degree in education from Temple University and taught reading for a time at Haverford Friends School. Trudie was preceded in death by her husband, John Edward Brett. She is survived by her brother, Charles Archibald MacIntosh; two children, Elizabeth Allinson Brett and John Christopher Brett; four grandchildren and a great-grandson.

HofmannMargret Hofmann, 86, on February 2, 2012, in Austin, Tex., surrounded by family and friends. Margret was born Margarete Elisabeth Schultze on July 3, 1925, in Berlin, Germany. Her happy childhood was cut short by the rise of the Nazis and World War II, and she endured air raids, the firebombing of Dresden, and the death of her mother in Theresienstadt concentration camp. These experiences gave Margret a lifelong passion to teach nonviolence, a need to protect against tyranny through recognizing clever propaganda, and a wish to be active in civic affairs. In 1946, she immigrated to the United States and worked in a children’s hospital. She hitchhiked and bicycled across the United States, attending several AFSC seminars and work camps. In 1950, she married pipe organ builder Otto Hofmann and moved to Austin, Tex. They became active with AFSC peace and justice projects and were members of Friends Meeting of Austin almost from its beginning, joining in 1953. Both were active in Southwest Conference of Friends, the precursor to South Central Yearly Meeting, and were founding members of the yearly meeting. She served as archivist for both Friends Meeting of Austin and SCYM. Her lifelong community activism grew out of her belief that if you don’t speak up when you have a concern, soon you may no longer be able to make your voice heard. When she noticed children walking to school in the streets, she successfully campaigned for sidewalks. She was Austin area UNICEF chair for 25 years, worked to establish Think Trees Week, and served on several Austin city boards, including the Environmental Board. As an Austin City Council member from 1975 to 1977, she was instrumental in passing a number of initiatives, including a dog leash law and a tree ordinance. She was known as the Tree Lady because of her work to stop the destruction of the tree canopy in Austin. Margret and Otto divorced after 27 years of marriage, but they remained close friends. Following her adages, “Agree with people until you change their minds” and “Disagree without being disagreeable,” she communicated her message of nonviolence and peace in several books; countless articles and letters to the editor in local, national, and Quaker periodicals; and lectures in schools and religious congregations. She clerked both FMA and SCYM from 1982 to 1983 and headed FMA’s library committee, raising funds through book and yard sales for Friends Committee on National Legislation. She worked tirelessly in the 1980s and 1990s with organizations providing refugee support in Austin and around Texas. In 2006 Austin Church Women United honored Margret with their Human Rights Award, and in 2010 the city dedicated Margret Hofmann Oaks Park. Margret initiated and helped develop a memorial garden modeled on those she had seen in Germany, and her ashes are the first to be placed in this garden. When Margret’s health made it difficult for her to attend worship and other meeting events in her later years, Friends enjoyed visiting her in her home, where her sharp intellect and keen sense of justice led insightful discussions. Friends will miss her presence as a model and mentor and her steadfast belief in the ability to practice Quakerism to end war, establish justice, and preserve the beauty of the earth. Margret is survived by her children, Franz Hofmann (Linda Ottmers), Barbara Yerby (B. J.), Anna Powell (Steve), Heidi Veselka (Don), and Steve Hoffmann (Angela); fifteen grandchildren; two nieces; and several great-grandchildren.

HogeAlfred Hoge, 89, of Albuquerque, N.M., on October 3, 2012. Al was born on May 28, 1923, in Springville, Iowa, the fifth of six children of Evalina and Arthur Hoge. His family were members of the Conservative Whittier Meeting in Springville, Iowa. His father was the oldest of four brothers who married and raised families within easy distance of one another, providing a warm and lively family and social life that influenced Al later as a father. After he graduated from high school in Iowa in 1941, he went to live with his oldest brother in Washington, D.C. A hearing loss from a chronic childhood illness prevented him from being drafted. He attended Friends Meeting of Washington, and there he met Marian Bradley Hussey, a young woman new to Quakers. They married in 1944 and in 1948 moved from Bethesda, Md., to Albuquerque, N.M., for him to work at Sandia National Laboratory. Al and Marian were attenders and founding members of Albuquerque Meeting, taking part also in yearly and regional meetings. He was a quiet, steady, positive member that all could count on. He often saw things that needed to be done around the building and did them with little fanfare. New people always felt comfortable with him. One young Friend who grew up in meeting said, “He had a gentle kindness. They were different from the other Quakers—they looked straight. Marian brought normal American-cooking-type dishes to potlucks.” When his children were young, the family took memorable annual trips to Vallecito Lake in Colorado, the mountains of Ruidoso, or other southwestern destinations. When his children grew up, his commitment to family life from his childhood encouraged the next generation to get together often enough that all the children would know one another. He had a lifelong interest in gardening, and children who grew up in meeting remember the delicious strawberries, carrots, and tomatoes that he grew behind the meetinghouse. He helped to make apple sauce, apple pie, and apple leather and pitted the sour cherries from the backyard with his cherry-pitter for Marian to make into preserves or pies. He enjoyed desserts so much that he sometimes put forth the hope for a potluck that turned out to be all dessert—a dream that on one occasion came true. Al was a creator, an inventor, a tinkerer. He created a composting machine with an easy way to turn the compost. Through work he held two patents on mechanical inventions; at home, he fashioned solutions for problems he saw around him, and at meeting he served on Building and Grounds, kept the lights lit in the parking lot, maintained the heat, took care of the swamp coolers, and helped to move a piano down a narrow curving staircase. Friends will miss this honest, kind, humorous, positive man. His gentle light brightened the Albuquerque Friends community for many years. Al was preceded in death by two children, Linn Hoge, age 7, and Michael Hoge, age 5, both of whom died in 1952 of polio. He was also preceded in death by his parents and all of his siblings. He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Marian Bradley Hussey Hoge; three children, Patrick Hoge (Brenda), Marta Franklin (Kirby), and Terry Teale (John); six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

HyeCynthia Anne Hye, 78, of Albuquerque, N.M., on April 24, 2012. Cynthia was born on June 7, 1933, in New Brunswick, N.J. She developed an eye for lovely things growing up when she worked in her father’s florist shop. Educated and raising her three children in New Jersey, she worked for AT&T, traveling throughout the United States and becoming one of their super saleswomen. She found her sobriety through AA in 1976 and continued that important connection throughout her life. Cynthia was active in the Albuquerque Meeting community before as well as after she became a member. She served as the assistant treasurer, as a clerk of Nominating Committee, and as a member of the Building and Grounds committee. She engaged in welcoming conversations with new attenders and helped them understand the role of Spirit and service to the meeting. Friends remember her leading to serve the homeless, collecting warm clothing and involving the meeting in this effort with faithfulness, creativity, and humor. Cynthia loved meeting and strove to learn as much as she could about the Religious Society of Friends. Her love of flowers continued throughout her life, as did her flair for color and design, which was evident in her personal style. She was a well-loved member of a close-knit golfing community even after she could no longer play. She cared lovingly for her patio garden as long as she could, and she had a special fondness for red geraniums. She also loved to bake and to share her creamy concoctions. Following a diagnosis of cancer, she chose not to undergo treatment, living her last year fully. Cynthia leaves a daughter, Diana McCague; two sons, Don Miller and T.J. Miller; four grandchildren; and many friends.

LeggSamuel Bradford Legg II, 95, on October 2, 2012, in Cockeysville, Md., in his sleep. Sam was born on November 10, 1916, in Hackensack, N.J., the youngest of three children of Alicia Bell Dowling and Samuel Bradford Legg. He graduated from Yale University in 1940 with a degree in French. Having grown up as a Catholic, he converted to Quakerism in 1941. During World War II, he served from August 1941 to October 1945 with Civilian Public Service, riding fence as a cowboy on a ranch in Montana, fighting forest fires in northern California, and serving as an orderly in a hospital ward in Minneapolis. While an orderly, he volunteered to take part in a U.S. government starvation experiment to determine how few calories a soldier could subsist on in the field and what the dietary requirements of European refugees were. Life magazine featured pictures showing his emaciation. Affected by the mental aspects of starvation, he distractedly cut off the fingers of his left hand while chopping wood. After the war, he worked for AFSC with refugees in Paris, where he met another AFSC volunteer, Edna Nichols Pusey, of West Chester, Pa. They married in Paris in 1948 and later settled in Baltimore’s Roland Park neighborhood. Sam and Edna taught at Friends School of Baltimore and became active with Stony Run Meeting in Baltimore. During their summer vacations, they participated in Quaker work projects, digging wells and installing irrigation for a farming village in rural Mexico. In January of 1954, Sam and Edna adopted Bruce, age five, and Nancy, age six. Sam was appointed assistant headmaster of Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie N.Y., in 1956 and served for four years. In September of 1960, he and a committee from Sandy Spring (Md.) Meeting founded Sandy Spring Friends School. The family returned to Baltimore in the fall of 1964, and Sam became dean of foreign students and admissions counselor at Morgan State College (now University). He marched in Selma, Ala., with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., protested the Vietnam War, and was arrested many times, including once while sitting in a tiger cage at the Pentagon. In 1975, Sam and Edna retired from teaching and moved to Gex, France, just outside Geneva, Switzerland. He taught international young Friends about the United Nations and non-governmental organizations in the annual summer school organized by British Friends. Active in the Geneva Monthly and France Yearly Meetings, he traveled around Europe supporting the works of Quaker committees and visiting shut-in Friends. Edna died in Geneva in June of 1984. In 1987, Sam returned to the United States and moved into the Broadmead retirement community with his sister, Alicia Bell Legg. Sam and Alicia quickly established themselves in the Broadmead community, and Sam continued his energetic support of Quaker causes, serving on the board of Friends Journal from 1991 to 1994 as well as attending meeting for worship at Stony Run Meeting, where his favorite seat was a rocking chair against the eastern wall of the worship room. Sam’s daughter, Nancy, died in December 2011. He is survived by his son, Bruce Michael Legg, and numerous nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.

TaylorRichard Wirth Taylor, 89, on October 6, 2012, in Oberlin, Ohio, peacefully and in the company of Friends. Richard was born on January 15, 1923, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Irmgard Wirth and Robert Gray Taylor, who had met while doing hunger relief work with American Friends Service Committee after World War I in Germany, Irmgard’s native land. During his first 13 years, Richard lived alternately in Germany and Philadelphia, Pa. He attended the Waldschule in Kronberg im Taunus for two years (1935-1946). In Philadelphia, he attended the School in Rose Valley, a Friends school his parents had co-founded, and then Westtown School, from which he graduated in 1941. At Guilford College, he met Sadie White, the love of his life. During World War II, he did Civilian Public Service conservation and mental health care work. He and Sadie married in 1946 under the joint care of Bethel Meeting in Asheboro, N.C., (Friends United Meeting) and Arch Street Meeting in Philadelphia. They sang, studied, camped, Quaker work-camped, bickered, laughed, loved, raised four children, climbed mountains, marched on Washington (and other places), taught, and traveled. Richard earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate from University of Illinois in political science and taught political theory and philosophy at many colleges. As a researcher in political science, he was primarily interested in non-governmental influences on government and in conflict resolution. He put theory into practice as Friend in Washington for the Friends Committee on National Legislation from 1963-1964, working to lobby for the legislation that eventually became the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He traveled tirelessly around the country to keep Friends abreast of the developments in the struggle for racial justice. In his work for peace, he was especially committed to disarmament and advised many young people about conscientious objection. Richard retired from Kent State University in 1973. He maintained his interest in German politics and European models of conflict resolution, interviewing ombudsmen and other government officials who responded to citizen petitions. In 1990 he and Sadie went on a university exchange to Leipzig, where they marched for regime change and were present at die Wende—the collapse of the East German government and the reunification of Germany. Richard was a member of Oberlin (Ohio) Meeting. After his retirement, he and Sadie were among the first residents of Kendal at Oberlin Quaker retirement community, where they were active and beloved members of the worship group and the residential community. He and Sadie renewed their marriage in the manner of Friends in their beloved Colorado on their 60th anniversary in 2006. As long as he was able, Richard continued to write letters against the death penalty and to stand on street corners witnessing for peace at Oberlin’s weekly vigils. Sadie died in 2010. Richard is survived by a sister, Sylvia Fen; four children, Peter Taylor (Kathleen Wilson Taylor), Stephen Taylor (Linda), Mark Taylor, and Karla Taylor (Gary Beckman); nine grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. Memorial contributions may be directed to the Friends Committee on National Legislation, where they may help to revive the Friend in Washington program (http://fcnl.org; 245 Second Street NE, Washington, DC 20002); or to Ohioans to Stop Executions (www.otse.org), 4697 W. 130th St, Cleveland, OH.

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