2019

29 January.  We celebrated John Harbison‘s 80th birthday in our Parish Hall with some of his jazz songs, a piece composed by Michael Gandolfi with libretto of Lloyd Schwartz‘ selections from John’s recently published book What Do We Make of Bach, and a tower of cupcakes wheeled in by Pat Krol, Executive Director of Emmanuel Music.

John Harbison at the piano provided by M. Steinert & Sons with Don Berman, Lynn Torgove, Pat Krol, and singers of Emmanuel Music.

  • Thanks to a generous grant from the City of Boston’s Community Preservation, Commission restoration work on our Newbury St. façade began under the direction of Vestry member Peter K. Johnson.  The multi-year project involved repair and refinishing of five sets of doors with their tympana, masonry work for our central entrance and several staircases, and roof work to prevent ice dams.

    The Rev. Tamra Tucker with our rector, deacon, and parishioners who attended her ordination at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.

  • Tamra Tucker was ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. She had been parish administrator when Penny Lane (on her right) was senior warden (2013-15). Also pictured are (left to right):  Pat Krol, Paul Guttry, Peter and Margaret Johnson, Joy Howard, Pam Werntzm Bob Greiner, Jenn Poole & Liz Levin.
  • Pendragon Press published Bringing Bach’s Music to Life, a compilation of Craig Smith‘s program notes for 24 cantatas, edited by Pamela Dellal, in its series of Monographs in Musicology.

    cover of book on Bach

    Craig Smith directing the orchestra with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on viola; Don Wilkinson, Paul Guttry et al. in the chorus.

2014

Dorothy A. Brown, 1963 (image credit: NQ, Boston Globe)

March 20.  Dorothy Addams Brown died in Gloucester MA.  She had been born on 29 May 1923 to parishioners Harriet Addams Young (1886-1952) and Lawrence Allyn Brown (1876-1937) and baptized here.  She resided for many year at 434 Marlborough St. with her brother Lawrence, Jr.. She served on our vestry (1962-4 & 1969-74) and our Finance & Budget and Long-Range Planning committees. She was a generous benefactor until her death at the age of 90.  She credited William Wolbach, President of the Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co., for hiring her as a clerk in 1944, when she graduated from Vassar.  She became the bank’s first woman trust officer and then Vice President.  Mary Meier of The Boston Globe (May 16, 1963) wrote an article about her entitled, “Banks Rarely Give Women Key Role.” When Dottie retired as chair of the New England Group of the National Association of Bank Women in 1965, she was the only senior investment officer in the Association.

Last issue of Voices was published with a farewell letter from its editor Margo Risk.

2009

PL WerntzOur vestry called The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz to be our twelfth rector.

 

bishopblessing253

 

 

 

 

The Rt. Rev. Gayle Harris blessed our new garden.

 

 

 

Brett Cook and others in Durham NC completed the installation of Face Up:  Telling Stories of Community Life, which includes five murals picturing The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray. Installed at 117 S. Buchanan Blvd. is “Soul Roots” with an inscription from Proud Shoes:  “It had taken me almost a lifetime to discover that true emancipation lies in the acceptance of the whole past, in deriving strength from all my roots, in facing up to the degradation as well as the dignity of my ancestors”.

2002

May 30. The Rev. Suzanne Radley  Hiatt, whose memorial statue stands on our pulpit, died.  See our discussion of her appreciation for Pauli Murray.

Under Rector Wm. Blaine-Wallace, Betsy Bunn served as Sr. Warden, Allen Thompson as Jr. Warden, and Bill White as Clerk of the Vestry.  They hired Elaine Construction to begin restoration of the nave, sacristry, and other parts of our building damaged by fire.

Betsy Bunn, Sr. Warden 2001-2003

1998

  • August 1. Nancy Granert began as organist.
  • Building Chair David Carlson wrote a grant proposal to the Mass. Historical Commission, which awarded us a $100K matching grant for restoration of the Lindsey Chapel.
  • Scenes of The Proposition with Kenneth Branagh as priest were filmed at Emmanuel.
  • Mary Eliot (Pat) Jackson served as junior warden with John Hsia as senior warden.  She edited Emmanuel News from 2000-01.

Mary Eliot (Pat) Jackson with her poodle Zephira in 2025

1944

Pauli Murray Roots & Soul Mural, Durham NC
credit: Brett Cook & Pauli Murray Project

Pauli Murray, first African American woman to attend Howard U. School of Law and later a vestry member of Emmanuel, received her J.D..  For its sesquicentennial Howard is hosting a TEDx conference on 9/15/1917: Singing of a New American”: Pauli Murray’s Legacy and Justice in the 21st Century.

See also:

1940

July 19.  Our fourth rector, The Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester, died at the age of 78.

Hollis French, warden 1914-1940. Credit:  Cleveland Museum of Art

Nov. 21.  Senior Warden Hollis French died. Born in Boston in 1868, he had served as Jr. Warden 1914-1936, when he became Sr. Warden under Rector P.E. Osgood, who is pictured below with Associate Rector Arthur Silver Payzant (served 1937-1945).

The Rev. Dr. Phillips Endecott Osgood (1882-1956) & The Rev. Arthur Silver Paysant (1884-1965) in 1938.

1938

    • The Rev. Samuel McComb, Associate Rector (1906-1916) died at the age of 74 in England.  Educated at colleges in N. Ireland and Oxford University, he became a Presbyterian minister in England, Ireland, and New York City. Ordained to the diaconate in our diocese by Bishop William Lawrence and to the priesthood in RI, he then worked with Rector Elwood Worcester to create the Emmanuel Movement. After serving as canon of the Episcopal cathedral in Baltimore, he taught at the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge MA. He finished his pastoral ministry as rector of the American Episcopal Church in Nice, France.  After having written (with Worcester) Religion & Medicine (1908), he published The Making of the English Bible (1909) and many other works. The New York Times published his obituary on Sept. 12.
    • Thanks to Nathaniel White Williams, Jr., we have these images of our choirs of men and boys, which were directed (c1930-1946) by Dr. Stone Thompson (2d from right in the banner image at the top of this page).


Nathaniel W. Williams, Jr. 1946 graduation photo, English High School, Boston

Nathaniel, (second from left in image above) born in 1929,  lived with his parents Rose and NWW, Sr. at 113 Poplar St., Roslindale (Boston) until 1952, according to research by Julian Bullitt, who digitized the above images and many of our archival images.

1937

15 Sept. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt mentioned in her diary My Day that Harriet Robeson was her guide at a convention of the American Hospital Association, which was held at Atlantic City NJ.  Harriet Allen Robeson (1882-1978) compiled our centennial history in 1960.  Namesake of an aunt who had died young in 1852, she was the granddaughter of our founders Andrew Robeson, Jr. (1817-1874) and Mary Allen Robeson (1819-1903).

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt & Harriet A. Robeson at Atlantic City NJ. Photo. Fred Hess

1931

Rosemary Dodge Hutcheson (1931-2000), 1957, Clerk of the Vestry (1971-72)

Rosemary Dodge was born in The Hague, Holland.  After graduating from Wellesley College and working in its admissions office, she married in 1957 a public-heath psychiatrist, Dr. Bellenden Hutcheson, and they had a son. In 1971 she became our first women officer as Clerk of the Vestry.