Marshall Deutsch--the Man Who Started It All

The reason Marshall Emanuel Deutsch was the first person to sign the membership book of the newly formed Morristown Unitarian Fellowship on Dec. 18, 1955 was spelled out that month in a newspaper article. Another founder, Dan Weggeland noted Deutsch was given the honor for his key role in congregation's founding.

The spark plug in the Fellowship’s founding, Deutsch (Aug. 17, 1921-Dec. 23, 2017) showed an ample supply of energy and organizational skills at the age of 34 years old with a young wife, Judy, member No. 2, then 28 years old, a two-year old and an infant born in May. He was fresh from founding the Morristown Cooperative Nursery School.

Deutsch started the move toward the Fellowship’s formation in a letter on May 12, 1955 when he replied to a suggestion he and Judy join the Church of the Larger Fellowship. In a letter to the American Unitarian Society, Marshall wrote he wanted to form what he called a “Morristown Unitarian Fellowship”, the first time that name was used. It was the Deutsches who worked with Munroe Husbands, who led the Unitarian Fellowship movement, to set up the initial organizing meeting held Oct. 18, 1955..

And it was Deutsch who was responsible for the coordinated publicity effort using press releases, carefully timed letters to the editors and advertisements that promoted Husband’s appearance. There was a steady stream of news articles about the Fellowship in the last three months of 1955. He published the first four Fellowship newsletters, mimeographed works that started in December 1955, with the first published immediately before the Fellowship was formally organized.

Marshall was also on the first board of trustees elected in January 1956—but the possibility of his being the first president was vetoed by his wife. Judy would say in later interviews that was probably a mistake.

According to his obituary, Deutsch considered himself primarily an inventor of medical diagnostic tests. He held 60 patents, including two referred to in hundreds of subsequent patents of others, which introduced a simplified automatic system of assay that later was applied to home pregnancy tests. He worked at the former Warner-Chilcott, along with other founders, Arthur Babson, and John Doczi.

Born in Brooklyn, Deutsch received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the City College of New York and later earned his PhD in Physiological Sciences from New York University. He married June 25,1947 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. in Manhattan, N.Y. to a third cousin, Judith Green. They moved to Detroit, Michigan. in the early 1950s for a brief stay following Marshall’s career before moving to Morristown.

Their involvement with the Fellowship was relatively brief, leaving Morristown in 1958 for Hilsdale, N.J. and and then moving to Sudbury, Mass, where they lived for 51 years, then relocating to New Mexico where he died.

Deutsch’s interests were wide-ranging.

He authored many scientific and non-scientific articles and letters and his obituary reports he was especially proud of his letters in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Deutsch spoke on “Superbombs, Strontium 90 and Survivors” at meeting of the Plainfield Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy in 1960. In 1961, he served on the board of directors of the Morris County Urban League and appeared as a regular host on a radio program “Headlines in Chemistry” broadcast from Morristown. His obituary said he produced and presented more than 200 radio shows on nutrition and wrote on the topic for The Realist. He was a member of the New Jersey Committee of Veterans for Peace in Viet Nam.

Deutsch edited Boston Mycological Society’s Bulletin for decades although in his 90s, he said he was no longer practiced enough to distinguish mushrooms safe to eat. He also was a member of the International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics, which he said, “researched the impact of cholesterol and debunked the myth that it was bad”.

Deutsch wrote frequent letters to the editor of the Boston Globe on a broad range of subjects, including letters in support of fluoridating water, that exercise helps decrease appetite; noting the lack of the word for “yes” in Chinese, and the calculations of the average number of Fridays the 13 in any year. He wrote a letter scolding a newspaper for how its caption of a photo showing a vet drawing a urine sample from a cat was described inaccurately. He also authored a flaying of Congressional Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, calling him “His Majesty” for flying first class and bogging down boarding while Sen. Ted Kennedy flew coach.

His life was marked by wit and more than a little non-conformity. Leading a religious education class at the Fellowship, he dissected a frog and secured some sacramental wine from a priest friend that he shared with the older children. Deutsch noted the latter drew disapproval from some parents.