The Committee That Steered the Fellowship’s Start

The Morristown Unitarian Fellowship raced from a meeting held on Oct. 18, 1955 to ascertain local interest in forming a Unitarian congregation to approving the bylaws and having the first members formally join on December 18.

How the group achieved that quick start was the work of a steering committee that first met on October 23 and went about setting up a complete list of the committees needed to organize the body.

The steering committee received its due in the first newsletter, issued sometime before December 17 by Marshall Deutsch, one of its members, and he published thumbnail sketches of the members, eight men and two women. Three of the men and their wives would resign their membership in the Fellowship before the end of 1956

The male members of the committee had very much the same profile as the male members of the new congregation—young, only two were more than 50 years old, only three more than 40—most were veterans of World War II and most were heavily involved in science and technology. Of the eight, two were chemists, two engineers and two technicians with the two female members both married to chemists. Among of women, on at 29 years old , was among the six youngest founding members.

Playing a key role was steering committee chair, Winfield Scott Greenleaf (May 22, 1916-April 21, 2005), an electronics technician at Ballantine Laboratories, who would later start a business designing custom mailboxes. Greenleaf, who served in Burma during World War II was one of the few vets who was actually in a combat area during the War.

Very importantly, he was on the board of trustees of the Morristown YMCA and chaired its membership committee and it seems likely he was behind the fellowship’s ability to nab the Y as its home in time for the first sermon on Oct. 30, 1955.. After the first two years, his job changed and his involvement with the Fellowship plummeted. Greenleaf’s wife Martha later joined the Fellowship but was not a founding member.

John Zieger (March 31, 1898-September 1977), who also worked at Ballantine, was a laboratory technician there and was a German immigrant who was booted from the priesthood in New York before taking his final vows. Zieger took over the Program Committee chairmanship for the steering committee after Vincent Richards resigned.

Zieger resigned his Fellowship membersship, probably before 1957, probably in a huff, judging from an interview with his daughter. His wife, Grace, was also a founding member, who also resigned about the same time.

Marshall Deutsch, member No. 1, (Aug. 17, 1921-Dec. 23, 2017), who spurred the effort to found the Fellowship was a senior scientist at Warner Chilcott, later Warner Lambert, as was Arthur Babson, whose wife Doris served on the steering committee. The head of the publicity committee, Deutsch produced the first four newsletters and was responsible for bringing Munroe Husbands to speak at the October 18 organizing meeting. Deutsch considered himself an inventor of medical devices. A World War II veteran, he would joined a veteran’s group opposed to the Vietnam War. His wife, Judith, later the Rev. Judith Deustch, was active in the organization of the October 18 meeting. She is still alive in New Mexico.

Doris Marcia Babson (b. 8 April 1926), who married to founder Art Babson, the Fellowship’s first president, was chair of the membership and hospitality committee. She had worked in the public relations industry but dropped those activities to take care of her two children. After she and Babson divorced, Doris married Albert Thomas in 1979, apparently becoming a Methodist. She was alive in California when her daughter Betsy died on March 15, 2019, and may still be alive there as no record of her death has been found since.

Marsh Steiding (Nov. 15, 1920-Sep. 25, 1962), who became the Fellowship’s first president in January 1956, headed the committee that produced the first bylaws and chaired its publications committee. A technical sales engineer at R-B-H Dispersions, Division of Interchemical Corp. at the time, Steiding had been an explosives chemist before that (and not the only explosives expert at the Fellowship). He was also an organist and choir director for the local Episcopal Church and was able to maintain that role because when the Fellowship met at the Y services were on Sunday evening if a minister spoke. Early orders of service show he could handle heavy duty classical music. His wife, Jane, was named as Sunday School director by the committee in late October or November 1955.. She was left a widow with four young children when Steiding died.

Eleanor Mason (Dec. 9, 1919-Jan. 16, 2014), the last founder active in the Fellowship was the steering committee’s secretary and helped recruit prospects of the October 18 meeting via telephone calls. Married to another founder and chemist, Robert Mason, Mason was a physical education instructor at Barnard College and the University of Delaware, before moving to New Jersey, where she joined Drew University, becoming an assistant profesor. She would spearhead efforts to organize social justice programs at the Fellowship early on.

Robert McCready (May 16, 1911-Dec. 23, 1995) was the Fellowship’s first historian and was its resident humorist. A map editor, his credits include editing the Humble Vacation Guide USA in 1971 and the Exxon Travel Club guide in 1974. Treasurer of the steering committee, he became the Fellowship’s first vice president for a four-month term in January 1956, did not seek re-election to a full term then, but later served as Fellowship president. McCready wrote “A Light-Hearted Look at the History of the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship”, in February 1968 and a multi-part history published in newsletters late in 1962 and in early 1963. His wife, Evelyn, was also a founding member.

Gerald Quinlan (Oct. 23, 1903-May 8, 1985) had a strong start at the Fellowship, joining the steering committee and becoming chair of the Sunday School Committee. He and wife Rosa would resign in September 1956 but rejoined by 1958. Quinlan was an English teacher whose tenures included Morristown High School but was also a professional flautist who conducted the children’s program for the Colonial Little Symphony, sponsored by Drew University, and occasionally conducted the orchestra. He ended his career as a manager the Haynes Flute Co.

Anthony Parella (originally Anthony Laparella) (July 9, 1921-March 23, 2015) probably had the most unusual career path. He was described as a psychology technician during World War II and worked at Picatinny Arsenal. But by 1955 he had become a beautician, along with his wife, Elizabeth, a founder was not on the steering committee, and he would handle some publicity and take over the newsletter. They moved to Arizona where he became a real estate developer and they divorced.

Vincent Richards (May 10, 1917- May 2, 2004), who gave the Fellowship’s first sermon was born in Wales. Richards served in the British Army and later was a bomber navigator in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Richards first chair the Program Committee formed by the steering committee but resigned. He worked at Lever brothers and then was a mechanical engineer for Colgate-Palmolive by 1955 and later moved to Louisiana and worked at Dow Chemical. He and wife, Wilda, also a founding member, resigned in September 1956. After they divorced in Florida, he would end up as a member of the Central Unitarian Church in Bergen County.