May Milestones 2012

Ackerman—Dorothy Hopkirk Ackerman, 90, on March 10, 2011, at home in Minneapolis, Minn. Dorothy was born on October 23, 1920, in New York City, to Ruth Hathaway and Howard Hopkirk. She received a BA in Art from Brown University/Rhode Island School of Design and an MA in Art Education from Columbia University. Raised as a Presbyterian, she became a member of Providence Friends Fellowship Meeting (now part of Providence [R.I.] Meeting) while studying at Brown. Dorothy and Eugene Ackerman, a member of Swarthmore (Pa.) Meeting, married under the care of Providence Friends Fellowship in 1943. During Gene’s Civilian Public Service in World War II, they lived in or near Indianapolis, Ind.; Powellsville, Md.; Trenton, N.Dak.; and Philadelphia, Pa. After his discharge, they moved to Madison, Wis., where their first two children were born, and joined Madison Meeting. Later they lived in East Camden, N.J., before moving to State College, Pa., where Gene taught at Pennsylvania State University. Dorothy and Gene adopted his niece Amy when her birth parents became terminally ill. Dorothy studied for an MFA at Penn State and taught art and ceramics there. In 1960 the family moved to Rochester, Minn., worshipping with a small group of Quakers in their living room and joining the evolving Twin Cities Meeting in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., where she served as co-clerk and on the Ministry and Counsel Committee, as well as taught high school youth. When they moved to Minneapolis for Gene’s work at University of Minnesota, Dorothy taught art and ceramics at local colleges and community schools, led art therapy workshops, exhibited sculptures and ceramics in state and local juried shows, and wrote two books of poetry, Poems and Sculpture and Poems on the Path. She served on Northern Yearly Meeting’s first Advancement and Outreach Committee in 1973 and enjoyed singing with the yearly meeting’s informal late-night singing group, The Nightingales. After studying in 1975 at Pendle Hill, she wrote Pendle Hill Pamphlet #207, A Quaker Looks at Yoga, in 1976. Dorothy served on FGC’s Central Committee and on subcommittees and worked as field secretary for several years, visiting Illinois, Pacific, and Northern Yearly Meetings. She attended almost every national gathering, offering workshops and establishing an art center, and in 1986 she influenced FGC to hold the first gathering west of the Mississippi, at Carleton College. She attended FWCC Triennial Meetings in Japan and Kenya and hosted Twin Cities Meeting’s first Quaker Crones luncheon, held in honor of Elizabeth Watson’s move to Minneapolis in 1991. Dorothy promoted intervisitation among meetings and often visited Minneapolis Meeting, and she served on NYM’s first Ministry and Nurture Committee in 2000. A spiritual seeker, Dorothy ministered frequently in meeting for worship, occasionally in song or dance, and introduced many evolving ideas and trends in spirituality, including yoga, past lives, right brain/left brain, life after life, and paranormal experience. She combined a sense of fun and spirituality and enjoyed wearing colorful dresses, scarves, and jewelry, which she often had made herself. Even as her health declined, she attended film izle NYM Annual Sessions and FGC Gatherings with the aid of Friends and granddaughters, and she was able to worship with Gene at Prospect Hill Meeting in St. Paul. She continued to enjoy reading and crosswords (often playing Scrabble with visitors) and attended music and theatre performances with the help of her aides. Dorothy was preceded in death by her brother Jack Hopkirk. She is survived by her husband, Gene Ackerman; two sons, Frank and Emmanuel Ackerman; a daughter, Amy de Canesie; four granddaughters; two great-grandchildren; and a sister, Eleanor Stevens.

Albertson—Robert F. Albertson, 84, on August 18, 2011, at home in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., after a brief illness. Bob was born on November 16, 1926, in Westbury, N.Y., to a Friends family. He grew up on a farm in what is now Albertson village and became a money manager on Long Island, his last job being with Royal Bank of Canada. His integrity and love of numbers, sales, and people made him a business success. He was active in many local nonprofit organizations such as Grenville Baker Boys and Girls Club, the Locust Valley Rotary, Library Board of Locust Valley, Long Island Historical Society, North Shore Hospital, and the Creek Club. He served as president of the Flushing Cemetery Association for many years and oversaw a program to provide funds for the community cemetery. He was a member of Westbury (N.Y.) Meeting all his life. Bob served on Westbury Meeting’s Finance, Nominating, and Westbury Friends School committees, using his gifts as a financial advisor to guide investments through good times and hard times. He was president of the board of trustees of Friends Academy and a member of the board for 25 years. His wife, Betty, is donating a two-volume Albertson/Post history to Westbury Meeting. Bob met his responsibilities lovingly, diligently, and quietly in the manner of Friends. No matter how busy he was, he always made time for his family, listening attentively to them as he did to friends and colleagues, offering his reflections and advice. The family had a home at Buck Hill Falls, Pa., for many years, and he loved to travel and enjoyed playing golf and tennis. Family and friends fondly remember his sense of humor; although he and his wife had been married for 62 years, he lovingly referred to her as his bride. After he and Betty moved to Kendal at Sleepy Hollow, he attended the worship group there. He lived a peaceful, loving, and productive life filled with joy. Bob is survived by his wife, Betty Gredig Albertson; two daughters, Kim Ruth and Jill Mindas; and one grandson, Robbie Ruth.

Barnett—Virginia Doyle Norwood Barnett, 96, on March 11, 2010, in Turlock, Calif. Virginia was born on July 4, 1913, in Seattle, Wash., to Elizabeth Herren and William Robert Norwood. The last surviving founder of Seattle’s University Meeting, she lived in the Seattle area for most of her life, graduating from University of Washington with a major in Fine Arts. She met law student Arthur Barnett at the University, and they married in 1936. Arthur’s Scotch-Presbyterian ROTC background was very different from her more liberal upbringing, and they explored different churches together, settling on University District Worship Group, at that time affiliated with Seattle’s Friends Memorial Church. Virginia worked for the YWCA, and she and Arthur were active in the Friends Center run by the worship group. They became Quakers and helped to establish University Meeting in 1940. Their work at the Friends Center assisting Japanese-Americans torn from their homes led to the establishment of the AFSC Regional Office there. Virginia and Arthur became friends with many artists in Seattle whom Arthur represented as COs, including Morris Graves and Mark Tobey, and added the paintings Arthur often accepted as payment to their impressive art collection. Virginia taught the high school-aged Sunday School class in University Meeting, arranged course sequences and gave book reviews for the Women’s University Club, helped to organize yearly Interracial Family Camps, and served on the AFSC Indian Program to aid Northwest Tribal high school students in attending college. In 1960, the Barnetts moved from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. They developed a community on the land around them, calling it Fox Cove Lane and providing lots for a number of homes. It was in their home that the Bainbridge Island Worship Group first met, ultimately developing into Agate Passage Meeting in 1967. Virginia remained active with them as long as her health permitted, though she kept her membership in University Meeting. In 1962, again for the Indian Program, she led an effort to collect Indian crafts from all over the United States for exhibition and sale. In 1963-1965 she served as Acting Regional Executive Secretary after Regional Executive Secretary Harry Burks died in an auto accident. In addition to her work in the region, Virginia served on AFSC’s National Board and visited most of the other regional offices. During the 70s and 80s, she arranged tours for small groups of interested friends to Hawaii, Alaska, and Europe and visited Mark Tobey in Switzerland. Virginia’s mind remained sharp, but when Arthur’s memory began to fail and she became dependent on a wheelchair, they moved to a care facility on Bainbridge. She stayed on there for a time after Arthur’s death in 2003 and then moved to a facility in Turlock to be near one of her sons. Virginia’s last years were not happy ones. Soon after Arthur’s death her daughter, Molly, died, and this second blow was almost more than she could bear. She missed her Bainbridge community and, although she knew it was not possible, longed to return. Her sons visited regularly and her Turlock daughter-in-law gave her loving attention, but she spent most of her time with others with whom she found little in common. A person who had spent her life discussing books and ideas, she found herself, as she quietly complained, with women who had few interests beyond Bingo. Virginia’s last few months were spent in hospice care. She is survived by her sons, Gordon, John, and Frederick Barnett; eight grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren.

Brown—Ellen Morton Baily Brown, 91, on March 27, 2011, in Brunswick, Maine. Ellen was born on December 30, 1919, in Winnetka, Ill., to Helen S. and Albert L. Baily. In 1921 her family moved to Westtown, Pa., where her father taught for 35 years at Westtown School. She grew up in Westtown Meeting, attending Westtown School, except for one year at Northfield School, and graduating from Westtown in 1938. She attended Mills College for a year before transferring to Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now University of the Arts), graduating in 1942 with a degree in ceramics. She spent time in California at an AFSC workcamp, living in a co-op house in an evacuated Japanese-American home. She visited internees at Tanforman, taught art, and helped to care for children. On her way east in the spring, she visited a CPS camp in the Sierras where she met Charles Brown. Within a week they were engaged, and they married in 1944 after he was transferred to the CPS unit at Byberry State Hospital in Philadelphia. Ellen taught art in the lower school at William Penn Charter School and did graduate work at Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art until the birth of her first child. In 1947 the family moved to the campus of Westtown School, where Charles taught. In addition to caring for their children, she found time to train students to do make­up for entertainments at the school and to use the potter’s wheel. She served on many committees in Westtown Meeting. For 13 summers, Charles was on the staff of an NSF Teacher training program at Hamilton College. She was able to visit him only briefly during these six-week periods until the children became independent enough that she could join him. In 1957 they built a house within walking distance of the campus. She began making sculpture. Her first piece “Fisherman,” an otter, eventually had 100 copies in bronze, epoxy, and plaster. Her sculptures of animals were lifelike and caught in action. She was a member of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, and at one of its meetings she was introduced to paper cutting. In 1986, after Charles retired and they moved to Maine, she dealt with the lack of a pottery wheel by devoting herself to paper cutting, becoming an expert. She and Charles set up a booth at trade shows and fairs within a day’s drive from their home. Two of her pieces were in the opening show of the National Museum of the Guild of American Papercutters and are in the permanent collection. Until a stroke made it impossible for her to walk, she was a regular attender at Brunswick (Maine) Meeting. In her last years, though she could not talk clearly, her smile and wave from her wheelchair brought love to every person she met. Ellen is survived by her husband, Charles K. Brown III; two sons, C. Baird Brown (Carol) and David S. Brown (Paula); a daughter, Eliza M. Allison; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Ernst—Elizabeth Haines Ernst, 83, on October 10, 2011, in Montana City, Mont. Beth was born on November 23, 1927, in Hinsdale, N.H., to Elizabeth Todd and Charles Hart Haines. She attended Buckingham Friends School (where her mother taught for many years), George School, and University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in Physical Education and minored in Art. She also earned a Master’s in Physical Education from Penn. She married Eugene Conrad Ernst at Doylestown (Pa.) Meeting. Beth was a long time member of Arts Bridge Community and the Sunday Morning Painting Group and continued her art studies for many years at Bucks County Community College, concentrating in printmaking. In 2002, Doris Brandes featured her in “Artists of the River Towns: Their Works and Their Stories.” Beth and Eugene enjoyed travel and spent several years in Japan and in France in connection with Eugene’s military assignments. Beth’s great loves were her art, her family, and her friends. She loved the spoken word, and she often shared a story, poem, witticism, or word play, making the day a little lighter for her listeners. Her love of art and her skill as an artist have left memories in the hearts of all who knew her. Beth was preceded in death by her husband, Eugene Conrad Ernst. She is survived by a brother, a sister, four children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. There will be a memorial service on June 16, 2012, at 2:00 p.m. at Doylestown Meeting. Memorial donations may be made to the Elizabeth Todd Haines Scholarship Fund at Buckingham Friends School.

Heisler—Dorothea Reeder Kriebel Heisler, 90, on May 13, 2011, at Medford Leas, Medford, N.J. Dottie was born on December 15, 1921, in Mt. Holly, N.J., to Edith Gibbs and Walter Reeder and grew up on Bellevue Farm in Columbus, N.J. She graduated from George School and Earlham College and taught at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, studying at University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University and earning a master’s from University of Pennsylvania. Dottie married Howard Kriebel in 1949, and they settled in Wooster, Ohio, where Howard worked for the Ohio State Agricultural Experiment Station and she taught school. They attended Wooster Meeting there. The Kriebels traveled frequently, making a scrapbook for each trip they took. After Howard retired, they moved to Medford Leas and joined Rancocas (N.J.) Meeting. Dottie was a secretary for the school committee of Rancocas Friends School, and for many years she was in charge of the annual plant sale at Medford Leas. She liked flowers and gardening and worked to benefit Friends education, special education for children, and the Quaker settlement in Costa Rica, where her daughter Ann lived. Dottie corresponded with pen pals and educated herself about the world’s situation and how she could use her talents to make things better. Howard died in 2004, and Dottie married William Heisler, of Barrington, R.I., in 2006. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Howard Kriebel, and by two children, Sharon Kriebel and Ann Kriebel. Dottie is survived by her husband, William Heisler; one son, Christopher Kriebel; and two sisters, Edith Pray and Martha Palmer. Friends may contribute to AFSC or to National Association of Mental Illness in her name.

Knoop—Alice Buell Knoop, 98, on January 28, 2012, at the Moorings Park Chateau in Naples, Fla. Alice was born on May 8, 1913, in Herndon, Va. The youngest of three daughters and one son of Mable and Arthur Buell, she was raised Catholic by her mother. After graduating from George Washington University, she married Victor H. Knoop in the Herndon Congregational Church in 1936. As she raised her own children, she explored Episcopalian, Methodist, Congregational, and Unitarian/Universalist churches and finally found Quakers at the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Meeting when she visited her eldest daughter. Returning home to St. Louis, Mo., she visited St. Louis Meeting at Rock Hill and became a convinced Friend in 1968. Elise Boulding came to visit while pursuing her PhD with a Danforth Scholarship in St. Louis; she was instrumental in helping Alice see the wider value of Friends, which led to her becoming a Quaker. Active in the meeting and comforted by the quiet peace of Sunday worship, she found a religious home with Friends that lasted the rest of her life. When she came to Naples, Fla., in 1971 with her husband, there was no meeting nearby. Attending FGC with her eldest daughter and family in Ithaca, N.Y., in the early 70s, she met Paul W. Goulding; he suggested that she begin a meeting with help from his office and Southeastern Yearly Meeting. On Oct. 13, 1974, in a bank building in Bonita Springs, Fla., a worship group began meeting the second Sunday of every month. It was worship sharing, potluck, visiting, planning, and generally an all-day affair for Friends who traveled long distances once a month. Alice was the convener, the recorder, and the contact person for the group. During the winter months, a second meeting took place on the fourth Sunday. In 1988, as members died or moved away, Fort Myers Meeting was founded. Alice often provided a place for Friends visiting in St. Louis and Florida. She shared her life and love the last fifteen years of her life with Dr. Frank James Lepreau of Westport (Mass.) Meeting. They had known each other since they were four-year-olds in Herndon, Va., and only found each other again when their spouses died. Their relationship brought joy into their last years. He predeceased her by four days. Alice was also predeceased by her husband, Victor H. Knoop and by her son, Thomas Victor Knoop. Alice is survived by three daughters, Nancy Knoop Webster, Katherine Knoop Parry, and Judith Alice Knoop; four grandchildren, Matthew Victor Webster, Timothy Thomas Webster, Cody Kleppertknoop, and Lily Kleppertknoop; and six great-grandchildren.

Olmsted—Sterling Pitkin Olmsted, 96, on November 6, 2011, in Cohoes, N.Y., after a brief illness. Sterling was born on February 16, 1915, in East Hartford, Conn., the only child of Luella Grace Recor and Harry D. Olmsted. Sterling’s father died in 1916, and his maternal grandfather and father figure, a Civil War veteran, passed along stories to him. Sterling was valedictorian of his high school class when he graduated in 1932, and he was able to attend Rollins College with the help of a Miss Corning, who sponsored 20 young people from the Hartford area in the early Depression years. He was active in fencing, rowing, theater, and debate at Rollins, graduating in 1936. After teaching briefly at Hindman Settlement School in Kentucky, he studied at Yale and began teaching English in 1939 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, receiving his PhD from Yale in 1940. At Rensselaer he helped to set up the Technical Writers’ Institute and later chaired the Department of Language and Literature. Sterling met Barbara Starr, a YWCA social worker, on a hike climbing Bromley Mountain in Vermont, and they married in 1942. They first attended Albany (N.Y.) Meeting. Sterling served in the Army Air Corps beginning in late 1942, and after living in Ft. Sumner, N.M.; Deming, N.M.; and Kelly Field, Tex., he was discharged and returned to Troy, N.Y., and Rensselaer. With another professor, John Weske, he and Barbara formed Troy Meeting. The meeting, which sponsored released-time religious education classes for Quaker children, persisted until the early 1950s. During this period the family also attended Easton (N.Y.) Meeting and a Baptist church, working with its college student group and sending their daughter to their Sunday School. In the mid-1960s they joined Albany Meeting. At Rensselaer, Sterling published textbooks for technical writing and English composition and a series of studies on the humanities in engineering education that are still cited today. The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) gives an annual Sterling Olmsted Award in honor of this work. To be nearer to Barbara’s aging mother, he and Barbara moved in 1968 to Wilmington, Ohio, where Sterling became dean of faculty and then provost at Wilmington College, and they joined Campus Meeting in Wilmington. He taught global issues seminars and peace studies as well as writing and literature. A founding member of Friends Association for Higher Education, his academic and Quaker connections led to travel in India, England, the NATO countries, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Kenya. He served on the general committee of FCNL in the late 1970s and attended its annual meetings until the last three years of his life. Sterling retired from Wilmington College in 1980. In 1995, receiving a computer for his 80th birthday, he produced a book of the poetry he had written during his life and began a series of sourcebooks on nonviolence and social change, the most recent of which, Mohandas K. Gandhi: The Last 18 Years, was published in 2011 by the Wilmington College Peace Resource Center. In 1995, Barbara and Sterling began dividing their time between Wilmington and the capital district in New York, living first in an apartment in Schenectady, then in Coburg Village, where Sterling lived until he moved to a Green House® skilled nursing facility in April 2011. His wife, Barbara Starr Olmsted, died in 2004. He is survived by his daughter, Ruth Olmsted (Larry Syzdek); his brother-in-law, Robert Starr (DD Starr); and his nieces and nephews and their families.

Pysanky—Annelise Pysanky, 59, on Nov. 13, 2011, at home in Bellingham, Wash., surrounded by friends and family, after a two-year struggle with familial idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Annelise was born Elise Ann Kurutz on January 15, 1952, in Upland, Calif., to Bertha Baltuth and John William Kurutz. A founding member of Bellingham Meeting, she was first introduced to Quakers as a young adult at University of California at Irvine, where she helped start an anti-Vietnam War group. She named a St. Bernard puppy she adopted at that time “Mahatma,” after Gandhi. In 1973, Annelise moved to Bellingham and deepened her love of nature and community, supporting Bellingham Meeting and other progressive local and national groups. She was active in the Blackwell Women’s Health Collective, Northwest Passage alternative newspaper, the Community Food Coop, the Community Land Trust, and the Holy Smokers fire crew. For six summers she worked on fire suppression crews in Mt. Baker Snoqualmie for the U.S. Forest Service, the last two years as a Baker River Hot Shot firefighter. In 1979, after scoring 100 on the USPS test, she became a letter carrier. She loved her job and took pride in being an active union member, enthusiastically supporting the annual letter carriers Food Bank drive. Annelise made stunning decorative tiles and exquisite Ukrainian eggs, changing her name to Pysanky after the style of these hand-decorated eggs. She created beauty indoors and out; she loved to laugh, to garden, and to be with her dogs (Maya, Zoe, and Amelia came after Mahatma) and her pampered chickens. In 1989, she climbed Mount Baker, and she took a childlike delight in everything, from the changing maple leaves in the fall to the first shoots of asparagus emerging in her garden in spring. An outspoken and direct trailblazer who always wanted to “do something” about injustice, she was a gentle firebrand to the end. In December of 2010, when she was arrested with others in a peace demonstration in Washington, D.C., she chatted with the arresting officers, praising their courtesy to “little old ladies” like her. Annelise worked courageously all her life for peace, social justice, and equal rights for women. She was preceded in death by her mother, father, and two brothers; her father and brothers also died of pulmonary fibrosis. She is survived by a sister, Donna Bryant, and by her friends. Memorials may be made to AFSC and to Whatcom Hospice Foundation, 2901 Squalicum Parkway, Bellingham, WA 98225.

Russell—David John Russell, 82, on November 13, 2011, near Caspar, Calif., after being struck by a truck that drifted onto the shoulder where he was riding his bicycle. David was born on January 3, 1929, in Philadelphia, Pa., to Alice Drayton Farnham and John Walter Russell. His parents were divorced when David was very young, and his mother, a short story writer, moved her family often during the Depression. When David was six years old, she became unable to take care of her three children and placed them in an orphanage for two years. Later, she frequently left them on their own during the week while she worked, returning to be with them on weekends. These experiences strengthened the bonds among the children and developed their independence. In 1946, at 17, David enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as a cryptographer and librarian in Japan during the occupation. After he was discharged in 1948, he attended University of Chicago and University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) on the Gl Bill and worked as a land surveyor in the Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Public Service Company of New Mexico, and his own company. He married Sylvia Senior in New Mexico in 1951. The family spent a year in Okinawa while he worked for the Army Corps of Engineers and moved to Berkeley, Calif., in 1959; he joined Berkeley Meeting in 1962. David participated in the third civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965, and he and other Quakers started and maintained a weekly vigil outside the Oakland Induction Center to protest the Vietnam War. David also helped establish a Quaker school at a ranch outside Nevada City, did the land surveys for the school, and participated in many work parties to build the dining hall, cabins, and dormitory. David and Sylvia bicycled with their children around Berkeley and took them to the work parties, on camping trips along the Yuba River, and for picnics in Golden Gate Park and at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Sylvia and David later divorced, and he married his second wife, Jane, an artist and teacher, in Berkeley in 1971, and they moved to Mendocino, Calif., in 1975, where he helped to found Mendocino Worship Group in 1976 and became an active member of Mendocino Meeting. David was a fond stepfather of Geoffrey and Warren, Jane’s sons from a previous marriage. He and Jane went backpacking in the Sierra Nevada, boated and picnicked on Big River, and traveled across the country on back roads many times, camping in their van with their dog. David enjoyed testing himself with new and demanding activities, including scuba diving, spear fishing, sea kayaking, mountaineering, and international bicycle travel. He climbed Mount Saint Helens at 62 and Mount Hood at 65 in the Cascades, and Croagh Patrick in Ireland at 70. He rode in the one-day, 200-mile Davis Double Century five times, the last time at 70. In his late 70s, he led three generations of his family on an 800-km bicycle trip across the Pyrenees and along the historic paths of the Camino de Santiago in the north of Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Passionate about bicycling and photography, David was a member of the Saturday bicycle-to-breakfast group and published over 150 of his photographs in the Mendocino Beacon, The San Francisco Chronicle, Sports Illustrated, and American Girl. He admired the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department and photographed many of their activities from 1993 until late in 2011. He also served for many years on the Mendocino Community Services District. He had an unusual rapport with animals and was an avid reader interested in a wide variety of subjects, including music, history, natural history, science, exploration, travel, and fiction. David is survived by his wife, Jane Russell; his former wife, Sylvia Senior Russell; four children, Elizabeth Russell Bickford, Ann D. Russell, David P. Russell, and Peter F. Russell; and two stepchildren.

Sadler—Loren Gage Sadler, 84, on August 24, 2011, at Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, Pa. Loren was born on May 19, 1927, in Russell, Pa., to Ethel Gage and Leo G. Sadler. He grew up in United Brethren and United Methodist churches. After he graduated from Russell High School in 1945 and served in the Army Air Corps in communications for 18 months, he enrolled in Pennsylvania State University. At a fundraiser for the Christian Association, he met Joanna Bucknell, winning a date with her in a raffle and beginning a romance that lasted their lifetimes. Joanna, a Friend from birth, introduced him to her faith. He earned a BS in Agricultural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1951, and after post-graduate study there, he joined New Holland Machine Co. in 1952. In 1953 he and Joanna married at Westtown (Pa.) Meeting. At New Holland Machine Company, he became senior design engineer, working on 20 models of farm machinery and registering ten patents in his name. Feeling that having his hands in the soil was good for the soul, he and Joanna bought a farm. They became members of Lancaster (Pa.) Meeting, where Loren served on many committees and as clerk and overseer. He and Joanna raised sheep for 39 years and planted fruit, nut, and Christmas trees. Loren received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lancaster Honey Producers and five “Best of Show” awards for nuts at the state Farm Show. He became a beekeeper and an expert and teacher in bee culture and disease, providing bees for bee venom therapy for arthritis and other illnesses. He said that this work was the culmination of his beekeeping and that the Lord had prepared him for the work without his knowing it. He and Joanna hosted hayrides, corn roasts, and picnics, where he served homemade ice cream. They invited low-income families from Philadelphia to a day on the farm and took in countless people needing temporary shelter and support, a practice he never gave up in spite of their trust being betrayed at times. With his abundant good humor, he made children laugh by throwing them over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, reciting silly ditties, making animal sounds, and whistling and singing. He had endless curiosity about the activities and ideas of others, greeting all with affection and taking pleasure in learning about their interests. Loren was a great admirer of Peace Pilgrim and gave out hundreds of copies of her Steps to Inner Peace. He made engineering drawings for projects in Africa and South America and supported the Heifer Project. Friends remember his unfailing kindness and generosity, his integrity, his laughter, the twinkle in his eye, and his insistence that peace is the way. Loren is survived by his wife, Joanna Bucknell Sadler; a son, Lyndon Sadler (Cherie); three daughters, Rebecca Wakefield, Rosalie Bert, and Martha Sadler-Stine (William Stine); two sisters, Joyce McNaughton and June Jones (Tom); a brother, Martin Sadler (Elizabeth); six grandchildren, Shanaseth Boston, Jeremiah Wakefield, Rose Bert, Thea Bert, Daniel Bert, and Christian Bert; and two great-grandchildren, Mason Wakefield and Miah Wakefield.

Smith—Reed Meredith Smith, 91, on June 14, 2011, in State College, Pa. Reed was born on February 26, 1920, in Johnstown, Pa., to Elizabeth May Wiggins and Ray Patton Smith. As a child, he was influenced toward peace by his family’s actions, including their support of a controversial Memorial Day speech by their Lutheran minister encouraging people to look for peaceful solutions as well as honor the fallen soldiers. Struck by his brother’s school essay on alternatives to war, as a fifth-grader Reed gave a talk about disarmament at Parents’ Night. Reed began to love gardening and grafting when he worked in the family apple orchard, and at 13, piano and organ became lifelong passions and sources of joy for him and those for whom he played. He majored in political science at Oberlin College, establishing the student Peace Action Council in 1939. In early 1941, he hitchhiked to Washington, D.C., for a peace rally. During his Civilian Public Service experiences in Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina, and New Jersey, he became drawn to Quakerism. In 1946, he did relief and reconstruction work in France and Poland for 15 months with the American Friends Service Committee, and became a Quaker in 1950. He met Marjorie Arvilla Allen, a Quaker, social worker, and peace activist, in 1950 at State College (Pa.) Meeting, and they married in 1951. They were charter members of Powelton Meeting in Philadelphia and helped to establish meetings also in Berea, Ohio; Peoria, Ill.; and Dayton, Ohio. A graduate of Oberlin College (BA), Penn State University (MA), and Columbia University (MA, PhD), Reed was a professor of Political Science in New York, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. While in Dayton in 1969-1995, he took part in activities ranging from Amnesty International and Dayton Citizens for Global Security to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. At Wright State University in Dayton, Reed taught the university’s first classes in Peace Studies and established a consortium of Peace Studies programs in Ohio colleges and universities that held an annual conference. After moving to Foxdale Village in State College in 1995, Reed and Marjorie worked with others to establish the State College Peace Center and helped to organize a weekly Saturday silent peace demonstration against the Iraq war at the Penn State gates that lasted until 2010. A weekly vigil at the Peace Center was still ongoing in June of 2011. He was also active in the Pennsylvania Prison Society and with efforts to oppose the death penalty. State College Friends loved to sing along to Reed’s spirited playing of hymns at the rise of meeting, and residents gathered often to enjoy his piano and organ impromptus. In his last years at Foxdale, Reed had many health challenges, yet, against all odds, he demonstrated a will to get better and stronger. His children were inspired by his inner strength, optimism, humility, and joie de vivre. He loved music, people, gardening, and working for peace and justice. Reed’s wife, Marjorie Arvilla Allen Smith, died in 2006. Reed is survived by four children, Allen Smith, Diana Smith-Barker, Gregory Smith, and Laura Henderson; eight grandchildren; one great-granddaughter; and one brother, Harlan Smith.

Snyder—L. Audrey Snyder, 94, on January 21, 2012, at her Tamarac Farm home in Whiting, Maine. Audrey was born on February 1, 1917, in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., to Lillian Roberts and Henry W. Siebert. She was a tenth generation New Yorker, who attended Bay Ridge High School in Brooklyn and Sweet Briar College. Earning her MA from Columbia University, she began her teaching career at the Fassifern School in Hendersonville, N.C., and shortly after taught at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn. After she moved with her family to White Plains, N.Y., in 1955, she worked as a speech pathologist at the Board of Cooperative Education Services of Westchester County and then in the White Plains Public Schools. She was a long-time member of Purchase (N.Y.) Meeting and a lifelong supporter and activist for Native American causes. Audrey loved music and enjoyed playing the piano, mandolin, and guitar. She also loved flowers, and her family and friends would frequently find dried, pressed snowdrops, violets, or daffodils with the newsy, hand-written letters she wrote. She liked sending photographs of spring’s first blossoms freshly making their appearance through the rugged Maine soil. After her retirement to Maine, Audrey devoted much of her time to establishing Cobscook Meeting in Whiting, Maine, which now stands on land that she and her husband donated. Always a creative, cheerful, and loving spirit, she was an active quilter and often passed along her handiwork to friends and family. Audrey was preceded in death by her husband, Harry H. Snyder Jr. She is survived by her three children, Harry Snyder, Chris Snyder, and Cora Lee; and by two grandchildren, Sarah E. Snyder and Hayley H. Snyder.

Trayer—Raymond S. Trayer, 95, on January 25, 2012, in Mt. Joy, Pa., Ray was born on December 24, 1916, in Harrisburg, Pa., to Myrtle Steiger and Clarence Trayer of Mercersburg, Pa. An Eagle Scout, he grew up in the Fourth Reformed Church of Christ and served in AFSC workcamps, including the Mississippi Delta Co-op Farm in 1938. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Franklin & Marshall College in 1940 with a degree in philosophy and religion, and he was a graduate assistant at Springfield College. Ray married Dorothy Coldren, a lab technician from Lancaster, Pa., in 1941, and at Pendle Hill that summer, he gardened and Dottie was secretary to Anna Brinton. His plans for graduate school at Haverford were interrupted when he was drafted in August, and he served in Civilian Public Service (CPS) camps under the auspices of AFSC on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Buck Creek, N.C.; at a state mental institution in Concord, N.H.; with the U.S. Forest Service in Cooperstown, N.Y.; and at an agricultural testing station in Ames, Iowa. In 1945, he and Dottie served as house parents at Milton Hershey School before returning to Pendle Hill. In an article in Friends Intelligencer, he described how the workcamps, Pendle Hill, and CPS Camps gave practical expression to his religion, comparing the way we absorb influences to the way a tree takes in the sun and rain before producing fruit, and recognizing that just as trees may undergo a long winter, or even suffer blight, spring will come with renewed vigor and resistance. He saw gradualness as the only non-violence and became a Quaker in 1946. In 1946-1951 he and Dottie taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Then the family lived on a farm west of Richmond, Ind., where the family was part of Clear Creek Meeting and he served on the agriculture faculty at Earlham College, completing course work for a master’s degree at Ohio State University. After Earlham dropped agriculture from its curriculum in 1958, Ray sold VW Beetles and worked on the development of a herringbone milking system for a dairy equipment company before becoming account supervisor and manager for the Pennsylvania Farmers Association. The family moved to Hershey, Pa., in 1961 and joined Harrisburg Meeting. In 1971, Dottie died from amyloidosis. After that Ray met a friend of Dottie’s, Lorie Matter of Manheim, Pa., and they married and together parented Ray’s younger children. He retired in 1978, and they led a farm tour to Europe and enjoyed reading, traveling, attending elder hostels, and participating in Lancaster (Pa.) Meeting. In 1994 they moved to Homestead Village Retirement Community in Lancaster. Even well into in his 90s, he traveled to the family’s farm to help make hay and—although he never relished eating them—to raise vegetables. He volunteered for Meals on Wheels at the Mennonite Home and sorted heritage seeds at Landis Valley Museum. Lorie died in 2004, and in time, he and longtime Quaker friend Berta Hardy became loving companions until her death in 2006. Despite losses that weighed heavily on him, he inspired all who knew him and lived independently until a fall a few months before his death led to complications with Parkinson’s and congestive heart failure. Known for his daily bike rides and his active mind, his memory and game-playing skills were sharp. He loved concerts, sudoku puzzles, Phillies games, and a daily dish of ice cream. A life-long pacifist, he stood in a silent peace vigil on the Lancaster courthouse step on most Saturdays since 2003. Ray is survived by his five children, Susan Kummer (Todd), John Trayer (Alex), Timothy Trayer (Deb Jo), Charles Trayer (Donna), and Deborah Perry (Jim); Lorie’s children, Catherine Gumlock (Bob) and John Matter (Kathy) and their families; 14 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

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