Lives Lived
This page records the lives of members of congregation who have passed on. Our love and respect for them is reflected in these memorials. Click on Read More to view the entire text and accompanying photos.
Tribute to The Rev. Dr. Charles W. Eddis
July 7, 1926-May 22, 2021
Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Charles attended St. Andrews College in Aurora, Ontario from 1937-1944. Though drawn to science and fascinated with radios, he decided in his senior year to give up the idea of a career in science, anticipating the age of nuclear weapons which would appear two years later. He completed high school focusing his studies on a modern history and languages instead. During a year of service in the Canadian navy he read extensively in philosophy and became a Unitarian. After the war, while attending the University of Toronto doing his BComm, he began attending the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto. In 1948, in charge of American Unitarian Youth (AUY) international relations, he attended conferences in Europe and visited Unitarian churches and youth groups in Eastern and Western Europe. He wrote and spoke about his experiences in “Peoples Democracies.” He rose to become the President of American Unitarian Youth (U.S. and Canada) in 1949. Associating with Universalist as well as Unitarian youth since 1948, he was present when the first steps were taken that would unite the two youth movements in Liberal Religious Youth in 1953. He served on the first Program Committee of the UUA for three years.
Tribute to Keith Robinson
Rev. Diane Rollert, 12 June 2016
Keith Robinson was born in Burnham-on-Crouch on September 15, 1928. He was just too young to serve in the Second World War and his father was just too old. He grew up sailing the River Crouch, and watched the German bombers falling from the skies. He went to technical school to become an electrical engineer. He was hired by Marconi, the British telecommunications and engineering company, and was sent to Iran to work.
While in Iran he fell in love with Kendal, a beautiful 19-year old American woman, on vacation with her mother and brother. They were married in Florida in 1961. Eventually, Marconi would send them to Montreal, where Keith would stay for the next forty years of his life. Together, Keith and Kendal had three sons in three years: Jeff, Scott and Stephen. He was a devoted father who taught his sons to sail. In the winter he would create a homemade ice rink for their hockey games. He was always generous and loving.
Eulogy for Sylvia Huekendorff, September 16, 1937 - February 24, 2016
Rev. Diane Rollert, March 16, 2016
There is so much I don’t know about Sylvia’s past. Her nephew Roy, who will speak in a few minutes, has his own earliest memories of his Aunt Beezy, but I think, even for him, it has taken a lot of research to fill in many of the unknowns. Sylvia wasn’t one to talk much about herself. She was very private.
What I do know is that this church was central to her life for many years. She served as a warden, she was secretary of the board, she served on the lay chaplaincy committee, she was a member of the art collective, often here helping to install new art shows in our small stairwell art gallery. Long ago, she would write new member profiles for the newsletter. Each year she’d offer a lunch and swim at her swim club as part of our BidNite service auction. She was the kind of person who’d be there for you in pinch, finding you a ride home and watching your car for you when the keys got locked inside, generously paying a young member to take care of her cat when that cat was dying of cancer and that young person was through a rough time financially. Sylvia would delight at the reports of the cat’s activities while she was out. Sylvia was someone who would step forward when needed and then quietly recede into the background.
So much of Sylvia’s life was a mystery, yet for me, these last months told me so much of what I needed to know.