Milestones December 2012

Brennan—Spencer Brennan, 62, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on August 23, 2012, of complications arising from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Spencer was born on March 7, 1950, in Sudbury, Ontario. A member of Wooler Meeting in rural Codrington, Ontario, he met Larry Tayler in 1983 at the FGC Gathering in Slippery Rock, Pa., and was a loving husband, mentor, and teacher to him during their blessed 29 years together. Spencer was an adult educator and public speaker who  generously supported others in time of need, and all those who knew him recall his bracing, insightful feedback; his dazzling ability to teach facilitation skills; the way he pushed himself beyond his comfort zone as he reached out to others; his passionate challenges of racism, sexism, and homophobia wherever he encountered them; the self-effacing delight he took in the accomplishments of others; his  sense of humor; his encyclopedic knowledge of Motown music and Broadway musicals; and his radar for finding exactly the right shirt in a shopping mall. Toronto Meeting held a vibrant living celebration of his life on June 2, 2012. Family, Friends, colleagues, and friends in Canada, the United States, and his beloved Australia remember and miss him. Spencer is survived by his spouse, Larry Tayler, and his sister, Colleen McKay (David).

Ewert—Gregory Albert Ewert, 63, on August 10, 2012, in his home on Lopez Island, Wash., just before midnight, surrounded by his wife and daughters. Greg was born on February 11, 1949, in Lansing, Mich., where he grew up in a lively family of seven. In 1967 he left home to attend University of Washington, beginning a lifelong love of the Pacific Northwest. While in college, he took a kayak trip to the San Juan Islands that made him dream of living on Lopez Island. He earned a teaching degree in architecture at UW, and working with photographers there gave him skills that he later incorporated in his teaching. Beginning in 1977, he taught in Seattle at The Little School, in Ambler, Ark., and in Seattle at Lakeside School. He was a founder and continuing supporter of Coyote Central, a community-based program connecting middle school students with creative professionals. Greg met Nancy Schubert in 1987, and a year later, they married and moved to Lopez Island into a home he had designed. He taught for two years on neighboring Shaw Island in a one-room schoolhouse and then at the Lopez School, where over the years he taught fifth grade, in the Alternative K-5 program, and finally in Lopez Middle school. Students especially appreciated his ability in teaching math. While he found deep spiritual nourishment in the outdoors, he was involved in North Pacific Yearly Meeting and Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting, serving as Central Friends advisor, Junior Friends Advisor and with Nancy as facilitator at FGC. He and his family were founding members of Lopez Island Preparative Meeting in Washington. In 2002, the family went on a Fulbright teaching exchange to Exeter, England, where he taught at Stoke Canon School. Supporting experiential education and exemplifying its success, Greg believed that most important learning takes place outside the classroom, and he led students to believe in themselves and was a mentor and friend. As well as teaching all his daughters in the classroom, he led them to delight in the outdoors through mountain hikes, boating, and camping. He was most happy sleeping under the stars and only used a tent if he had to. Greg was a dreamer and a visionary, fulfilling many of his dreams but always having more. He traveled all over the U.S. and Canada in his youth, and in adulthood he went to Alaska, Russia, Japan, England, Europe, and Nicaragua. He photographed and co-published an award-winning book, Kindred Spirits, in 2001, and fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot in 2006. Diagnosed in August 2010 with a Glioblastoma brain tumor, Greg lived with his illness until the day he died, the same way he had lived the rest of his life: with courage, a sense of humor, and optimism. Noble and graceful as his body failed him, he left his mark on the world as a husband, father, friend, teacher, mentor, uncle, brother, photographer, juggler, outdoor adventurer, pilot, sailor, mountain climber, and table tennis player. Greg is survived by his wife, Nancy Schubert Ewert; three daughters, Emma Ewert, Lilly Ewert, and Clara Ewert; one brother, David Ewert; three sisters, Jane Ewert, Mary VanWylen, and Cathy Benson; and seven nieces and nephews, Erika Boll, Jessica Boll, Sarah Stafford, Christopher Ewert, Lauren Benson, Nick Benson, and Jack Benson. It was Greg’s wish that memorial contributions be made to the Lopez School Nicaragua Service Trip, 86 School Road, Lopez, WA 98261.

Hoskins—Gertrude Elizabeth Augur Hoskins, 91, on June 29, 2012, at Medford Leas, in Medford, N.J. Betsey was born on February 1, 1921, in Davao, Mindanao, the Philippines, one of three daughters born to missionary parents. While attending Hartford Theological Seminary, Betsey met and married Lewis Wendell Hoskins, who was recorded as a minister and served as a Quaker pastor, and they married in 1944. She earned a degree in Library Science, and together she and Lewis served Quaker meetings in the Midwest, New York State, and New England, aiding each other as partners. Betsey served as librarian for the New Jersey Training School in Jamesburg, N.J., for many years, with Lewis also serving the school as a psychiatric social worker. In addition to using her skills as an administrator and teacher, Betsey often designed and sewed her own clothes. She also devoted time and talent to children and loved singing and doing arts and crafts with them. A long-time member of Shrewsbury (N.J.) Meeting, Betsey is remembered for her many roles in caring for the meeting, whether as clerk, as First Day School teacher, as the compiler of the newsletter, as hospitality organizer, as greeter of guests (in costume on special occasions), and as mentor and supporter of the work of others. She was also clerk of the Nominating Committee of New York Yearly Meeting and served on committees in NYYM, AFSC, and Friends Committee on National Legislation. For many years after moving to Medford Leas, she and Lewis attended meeting at Shrewsbury regularly. During the last years of her life, Friends had missed her at meeting, but they were always glad to have news of her and to know that she was thinking of them. Her close friend, Margaret Brzostoski, was with her the evening before she died. Betsey’s husband, Lewis Hoskins, died in 2001. She is survived by two sisters, the Rev. Fidelia Lane (the Rev. Robert C. Lane) and Caroline Schneider.

Hyde—Simeon Hyde Jr. 92, on December 26, 2011, in Portland, Oreg. Simeon was born on February 25, 1919, in Charleston, S.C., and grew up surrounded by many kinfolk. To avoid yellow fever, his family spent summers at his grandparents’ homes on Folly Island off the coast of Charleston, or in Flat Rock in the mountains of North Carolina. When he was twelve, his family moved to Rye, N.Y., and there Simeon came to love the sea. He raced and cruised sailboats during the summers except during his sophomore year at Phillips Academy in Andover, when he joined schoolmates at a Native American  archeology dig in Maine.  Simeon majored in modern languages at Princeton and graduated in 1941. He had enlisted in the U.S. Navy 90-Day Wonder program during his junior year, and after he graduated he served on a ship that was torpedoed and sunk. During a three-week period at home for rest and relaxation, he married Ann Mills. For two years he served on the destroyer Eaton.  After the war, he earned a Master’s in English from Harvard and taught briefly at Cambridge School in Weston, Mass., before going on to a 23-year career at Phillips Academy in Andover as a teacher, administrator, and acting Headmaster. He spent five summers building a vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard, the family sleeping in an old Army tent during the first summer and cooking their meals on a grill. To his satisfaction, the house always remained a work in progress.  In 1973 he left Andover for graduate school in architecture at University of New Mexico. He and Ann, who was finishing up her last two years of college, enjoyed being students again. They made the most of college vacations: camping, skiing, exploring, and studying the art and rich traditions of the southwestern Indians. Simeon worked for two years in an architecture firm, designing several small office buildings, a Navajo Community Center, and an Albuquerque Senior Center. The dry air of New Mexico did not agree with Simeon, so he and Ann joined family members in San Diego, Calif., in 1988. After due thought and deliberation, he and Ann became Quakers, joining La Jolla Meeting.  He and Ann enjoyed sailing once again, and he revived his interest in painting. In 1993 they followed family members to Portland, Oreg., joining Multnomah Meeting. He was clerk of the Peace and Social Concerns Committee and the Ministry and Worship committee, a faithful participant at business meeting, and a welcome voice in meeting for worship. Simeon designed the meetinghouse remodeling that took place in 2006–2007. In addition to watercolors, he created oils, acrylics, and three dimensional multimedia pieces, and in February of 2011 he and two other artists exhibited their work in a show called “Three Over Eighty” at Artspace in Portland. Simeon is survived by his wife, Ann Simeon; three children, Elizabeth Washburn (Ted), Simeon Hyde III, and Cutty Hyde (Diane); three grandchildren, Sally Washburn, Julia Hyde, and Benjamin Hyde; and a sister, Anne Hyde Long.

Moore—J. Floyd Moore, 94, on August 25, 2012, in Greensboro, N.C. Pete, as he was known, was born on May 20, 1918, to Annie Houston and Walter Moore, and grew up in the Revolution community of Greensboro, where his father worked for Cone Mills. His mother loved music, read the Bible, made quilts, and insisted that he get a good education, and as a student at Bessemer High School, he had a paper route and worked as a lifeguard at the Cone YMCA. He attended Guilford College at the invitation of Dr. Clyde Milner, directing Camp Herman and writing sports stories for the Greensboro Daily News as he worked his way through. He became a Friend and a Conscientious Objector, studying Quakerism at Pendle Hill and, in 1943, received a graduate degree in Divinity from Hartford Seminary. While at Hartford Seminary, he met and married Lucretia Phillips of Flint, Mich. After earning a Doctorate in Theology from Boston University, in 1944 he began 40 years of teaching religion, biblical literature, and philosophy at Guilford College. He and Lucretia served two years at the Friends School in Ramallah, Palestine in 1946–48, and Pete served with AFSC as a Quiet Helper in Koblenz, Germany in 1948. He traveled worldwide, often recruiting international students to Guilford College, and served as a part-time minister for Lynn Meeting in Boston, Science Hill Meeting in Asheboro, N.C., and Cedar Square Meetings in Archdale, N.C. He wrote a booklet called Friends in the Carolinas and organized the Fourth World Conference of Friends in 1967. Pete loved music, playing with children, and all sports (he was a lifelong Red Sox fan). He and Lucretia worked for peace, justice, and equality in their daily lives and through favorite organizations in accordance with their belief that there is that of God in every person. Pete was preceded in death by his parents; his sister and her husband, Hattie and Russell Grogan; his brother and sister-in-law, William and Delcia Moore; his wife, Lucretia Phillips Moore; his wife’s sister, Maude Phillips Stafford and her husband, David Stafford; and his son, Randolph Thomas Moore. He is survived by one daughter, Abigail Sebastian (Bobby); one son, Douglas Moore (Barbara); three grandchildren, Sarah Holeman (Chris), Teresa Sebastian, and Brian Sebastian; two great-grandchildren, Adam Holeman and Caleb Holeman; and many nieces and nephews from the Moore, Grogan, Cheek, and Stafford families. The family suggests that donations could be made to three organizations Pete  loved: New Garden Friends Meeting, 801 New Garden Road, Greensboro, NC 27410; the Guilford College Library, 5800 W. Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27410; and AFSC, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1403.

Smith—Robert Morris Smith, 84, on March 13, 2012, in Southeast Portland, Oreg. Robert was born on August 10, 1927, in Crawfordsville, Ind., to Madge Catterlin and Morris Smith. His farming parents and grandparents cherished spiritual values, relationships to the land, and progressive ideas, operating a family grocery store as Democrats in the otherwise Republican town of Crawfordsville, and he was raised with respect for minority views and civil rights. He graduated in 1949 from Indiana University, where he played French horn in the marching band and the symphony. Although his family had Quaker roots (his Quaker ancestor Thomas A. Farnsworth of York, England, founded Bordentown, N.J., in 1677), he was a Friend by convincement. In the early 1950s, he spent two years in alternate service at Manchester College with the Brethren Service Commission as a conscientious objector to the Korean War, participating in an unprogrammed worship group affiliated with the Lake Erie Association of Friends (now Lake Erie Yearly Meeting). A member of First Friends Church of Indianapolis (Friends United meeting) until he resigned in protest of the meeting’s refusal to accept as members an African American family, Robert moved to Portland in 1963 and became active in politics, working toward the election of progressive candidates and chairing the city’s first march protesting the Vietnam War. He also worked for gay rights, serving as regional vice chair of the Gay and Lesbian Caucus of the Democratic National Party in 1980 and obtaining the charter for the Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club of Oregon. He was a founding member of the Portland Town Council, the AIDS Foundation, Right to Privacy, and Love Makes a Family. Robert attended Multnomah Meeting once he moved to Portland, but remained a member of Lanthorn Meeting in Indianapolis (since laid down) in Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting (Friends General Conference) until 1991, when he joined Multnomah Meeting. He represented Quakers on the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon (EMO) board as treasurer and as a member of the public policy committee. He also served as treasurer of the regional Fellowship of Reconciliation, as a founding board member of the Oregon Peace Institute, and as both a member of the Peace Committee and a board member for the Northwest Region of AFSC. As part of the AFSC Peace Project to the Middle East, he met in 1992 with Yasser Arafat and the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In 2006, EMO honored him with the Vollum Ecumenical Humanitarian Award for outstanding service to the community. He chaired the Multnomah County Commission on the Aging (now Elders in Action) and was treasurer for the National Day Care and Child Development Council of America. Robert had a strong character, and those who spent time with him were treated to conversations of impressive depth and breadth. His memory for names, places, and events and his probing interest in history, religion, politics, and world affairs were unparalleled. He was warm, appreciative, and gracious to those who moved through his life. Robert did not have any survivors.

Wagner—Paul William Wagner, 91, on July 25, 2012, at home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with his wife, Carolyn Treadway, at his side. Paul was born on July 23, 1921, in Trotwood, Ohio, to Myrtle Marie and Warren William Wagner. He grew up in the Church of the Brethren. As a child he fished with his father in Wolf Creek, built kites and small vehicles, and helped in the family business, which designed and built camping trailers. He directed his church choir and played the trumpet in his high school band, sometimes as student director, and in the orchestra at Antioch College, where because of his persistence he graduated in engineering despite dyslexia. He earned a Master of Science in Engineering from University of Cincinnati, and while in graduate school, he met and married Betty Lavell. During World War II he worked in Civilian Public Service in forestry and taught high school electrical shop in the Virgin Islands. The family lived in Puerto Rico while he taught at University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez and settled in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1949. He worked in the research and development of casting materials for Morris Bean and Company, advancing to management, and in his spare time enjoyed boating, owning and modifying several sailboats and power boats. He had a knack for solving problems both in hands-on work and in thinking problems through. He was especially adept at making something work and fit in the small spaces on a boat. At 70, Betty and Paul took up ballroom dancing, and until Betty died in 2005, they sailed in the summers and danced in the winters. A year after Betty’s death, Paul met and married Carolyn Treadway, and they rented a sailboat so he could show her the Canadian waters that he loved so much. He served on the school board in Yellow Springs, and he led in envisioning, founding, and supporting Friends Care Community. When Yellow Springs Meeting asked him to find space for a literature rack in tiny Rockford Chapel, he concluded that rather than a literature rack, the meeting place needed an addition, and both Friends and those outside the meeting have benefitted from the resulting structure. Meticulous and (in his mother’s words) persnickety, Paul was both patient and impatient. When radiation for skin cancer on his shins in late 2011 resulted in severe burns that would not heal and left him nearly wheelchair bound and in constant, excruciating pain, Paul chose, after much practical and spiritual thought, to end his life by ceasing to eat and drink. His wife and children, his hospice team and Yellow Springs Meeting supported his decision. During his final days, at peace with his choice, he expressed gratitude for his life; his loving family, friends, and community; and the beauty that surrounded him. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Betty Lavell, and his younger brother, Richard Wagner. He is survived by his wife, Carolyn Treadway; three children, Gordon “Pop” Wagner (Thea Johansen), Gary “Bodie” Wagner,  and Suzanne Morand (Tim); one grandson, Jackson Wagner; Jackson’s mother, Martha Harper; Betty’s sisters, Carol Proudfit, Peggy Isaak, and Joan O’Connor (Jack); Carolyn’s children, Dan Treadway, Brian Treadway (Geraldine Glodek), Irving Treadway, Dorothy Matthews (Sam), and Jennifer Peters (Vince); Carolyn’s grandchildren, Stephen Matthews, Philip Matthews, Mary Matthews, Joseph Matthews, Tina Peters, and Andy Peters; several nieces, nephews, and their offspring; and many friends. Memorial contributions may be made to one of the following: The Friends Care Community, 150 E Herman Street, Yellow Springs, OH 45387; The Friends Meeting, c/o Cad Champney, 340 S. High Street, Yellow Springs, OH 45387; and The Friends Music Camp, c/o Peggy Champney, P.O. box 412, Yellow Springs, OH 45387.

Wood—Galen Theodore Wood, 82, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, on December 21, 2011, of cancer of the tongue. Ted was born on February 7, 1929, in Philadelphia, Pa., the youngest of four children of Friends Verna Martha Way and Galen Wood. He earned a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering in 1951 and a Doctorate in Physics in 1956, both from Washington University in St. Louis. There he met his future wife, Kathryn Jantzen, who was earning a Master’s in Physics, and they married in 1955 at Quaker House in Chicago. Ted completed his post-doctoral research at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. He joined Cleveland Meeting in 1969. He was a professor of physics at Cleveland State University for over forty years and especially enjoyed teaching acoustics. An avid musician, he played viola, violin, trumpet, piano, and harpsichord (having built the latter). For 40 years, he and Kathy were members of the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, Ted playing viola and Kathy violin, and they took part in the Interlochen National Music Camp in Michigan more than 30 times. Ted often ran several marathons a year, even in his 80s, and he could often be seen on inline skates on the streets around town. He enjoyed planting a garden and eating the vegetables, and he gathered and ate black walnuts, butternuts, and wild berries. Over the years he served Cleveland Meeting in nearly every capacity, especially in maintaining the meetinghouse. He knew its heating and plumbing systems intimately, and Friends all held their breath as he climbed around fixing slate shingles on the roof. For years he printed the meeting’s newsletter, somehow finding parts, ink, and paper to keep the aged mimeograph machine going long after such technology had been replaced elsewhere. As his hearing grew increasingly impaired and Kathy was immobilized with arthritis, they became unable to participate in meeting as they had done. Ted’s wife, Kathryn Jantzen Wood, died eight months before him. He is survived by his sister, Lucretia Evans; three children, Stephen Wood (Eileen), Janet Wood Felty (James), and Kenneth Wood (Clara); eight grandchildren, Ronin Wood, Micah Wood, Jamie Felty (Natalie), Jennifer Upperco (Steve), Jeremy Felty, Johnny Felty, Karen Ho, and Megan Wood; four great-grandchildren, Brody Felty, Jax Felty, Owen Upperco, and Carson Upperco, a sister-in-law, Gertrude Wood; a brother-in-law, Robert Stark, and many nieces and nephews.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Maximum of 400 words or 2000 characters.

Comments on Friendsjournal.org may be used in the Forum of the print magazine and may be edited for length and clarity.