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Obituaries, Fall 2005
Joseph Majeau
The Rev. Joseph Majeau died May 29, 2005, in an accidental drowning in Kenduskeag Stream in Hampden, Maine. He was 77.
Majeau was born December 29, 1927, in Northbridge, Massachusetts. He received an M.Div. degree from Bangor Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1980 by the First Parish in Framingham, Massachusetts. He served the Universalist Church of Westbrook, Maine, from 1981 until his retirement in 1993, when he was named minister emeritus.
Among those surviving Majeau are his wife of 22 years, Susan; two children; three grandchildren, and an extended stepfamily.
Thomas J. Maloney
The Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Maloney died May 6, 2005. He was 82.
Maloney was born November 16, 1922, in Arlington, Massachusetts. He received a B.S. from Northeastern University, an S.T.B. from Harvard University, and an A.M. and a Ph.D. from Washington University.
The First Unitarian Society of Whitman, Massachusetts, ordained Maloney in 1952. He served congregations in Davenport, Iowa; Quincy, Illinois; and Boulder, Colorado.
Maloney was an anthropology instructor at the University of Colorado, an assistant professor of anthropology and sociology at New Mexico Highlands University, and professor of anthropology at Ripon College and Southern Illinois University.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Betty (Elizabeth); four children; and seven grandchildren.
Howard Wayne Oliver
The Rev. Howard Wayne Oliver died March 20, 2005. He was 85.
Oliver was born August 26, 1919, in Athol, Massachusetts. He received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1949, an M.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1958, and an M.A. from the Graduate School of Religion at the University of Southern California in 1966.
He was ordained in 1964 by the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles and served churches in Berkeley, California; Silver Spring, Maryland; and Los Angeles.
Oliver joined the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 1973 and served as executive and national director until his retirement in 1986.
Oliver is survived by his wife of 50 years, Joyce; three children; and two grandchildren.Ralph N. Schmidt
The Rev. Dr. Ralph N. Schmidt Sr. died July 4, 2005. He was 94.
Schmidt was born November 25, 1910, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received a B.A. from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a master’s from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.
The Fellowship of the New York State Convention in Utica, New York, ordained him in 1950. He served congregations in Herkimer and Utica, New York. On his retirement in 1981, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Utica named him minister emeritus.
Schmidt was a college instructor and professor at Jamestown College in North Dakota; Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania; and Syracuse University.
Among Schmidt’s survivors are two sons; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Prescott B. Wintersteen
The Rev. Dr. Prescott B. Wintersteen died June 9, 2005. He was 92.
Wintersteen was born December 14, 1912, in Buffalo, New York, the son of Unitarian minister the Rev. Roy Brown Wintersteen and Bertha May Prescott Wintersteen. He received an A.B. and an S.T.B. from Harvard University, an L.H.D. from Curry College, a D.D. from Nasson College, and a D.D. from Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1939, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, by the American Unitarian Association in the Second Congregational Church (Unitarian).
He served congregations in Marblehead, Milton, Salem, and Stoughton, Massachusetts. The First Parish in Milton, Unitarian Universalist, where Wintersteen had served from 1961, named him minister emeritus in 1976.
Wintersteen had a long and distinguished career within the denomination and in the community at large. He once gave the invocation at the opening of the United States Senate. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Liberal Religion, the Christian Register, and U.S. Navy publications. He was the author of Christology in American Unitarianism.
Wintersteen is survived by three children and six grandchildren.
