TRUSTEES OF FIRST CHURCH BOSTON
Oliver Filley Ames was born in Boston to John Stanley Ames & Nancy Filley Ames. in 1920, th youngest of three sons. He attended Dexter School and Milton Academy.
AB Harvard, 1943
Ames was a Naval Veteran of World War II.
His medals included the Bronze Star with Combat “V.”
His Navy Unit Commendation was the Asiatic-Pacific Area Campaign Ribbon with six battle stars.
He retired in 1964 as Captain USNR.
MA Harvard business School, 1951.
John Hancock, etc
In 1960, Ames married Esther Doolittle, Providence RI.
They had four children: Oliver Jr, 1962; Abby Ann, 1964; Samuel, 1969, and Mary Isabel, 1971.
Ames served eight years - 1962-70 - in the Massachusetts State Senate, representing the 3rd Suffolk District, Back Bay & Beacon Hill.
His business career was in finance and investment, serving for twenty years as a director of Fiduciary Trust Company of Boston.
Later, the family lived at Langwater Estate where they built Unity Church.
Ames ancestors had been the industrial founders of the Ames Shovel Company in Easton, MA, 1803-1953.
Frederick Law Olmsted Award.
Mass Horticultural Society. Boston Natural Areas Fund.
He was active as a philanthropist, with particular interest in preserving historic structures especially in North Easton, and the preservation of Easton’s history
which has many buildings of H H Richardson’s design.
As the Chair of the Trustees of the FCB, Mr. Ames was the soul of integrity and dedication for a full half a century.
His leadership after the disastrous fire of 1968 made it possible for the Society to worship in the present Paul Rudolph contemporary design.
Oliver Ames died in 2007 at the age of eighty-seven.
He was acclaimed as a thoughtful, considerate, and dignified man, a true gentleman in the old style.
Oliver F Ames possessed a keen sense of humor, and he was “the designated family patriach.”
Richard Donald Pierce (1915 - 1973) was born in Manchester, NH of Lewis Herbert and Eliza Ann Bradley. He was raised by his maiden aunts.
He attended Andover Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Congregational minister, but early on turned to Unitarianism.
“I am convinced that liberal religion is the only valid religious philosophy for educated persons in a scientific age.”
He said he wished to “face squarely and candidly the findings of science and scholarship without the impediment of creed or dogma.”
He was a Member of the First Church in Boston from 1948 until his death, and for many years its Moderator. As a member of the Trustees, he served as Clerk.
Pierce spent many years in the scholarly life of editor.
“A Catalogue of and Faculty Biographical Sketches of the Newton Theological Institution;”
“The Records of the First Church in Boston 1630-1868,” published as vols XXXIX-XLI of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1961;” and
“The Records of the First Church in Salem between 1629-1736.”
Dr. Pierce held another role in College Teaching & Administration.
He taught Church History at Andover-Newton Theological School, and during his years at Emerson College, he was Professor and Chair of History and Religion, Dean of the Chapel, Chair of the Faculty and Dean of the College.
www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/richardpierce.html
Judith Harding Anderson Sterling, Buffalo, NY (4/10/1928 - 5/22/2007), Norfolk, MA.
Parents: Gordon & Adeline Harding Anderson of Wellesley, MA..
Attended Master’s School, Dobbs Ferry, NY. Graduated from Dana Hall School,
Wellesley, MA, 1946. BA, Wellesley College, 1950. Major in Medieval Studies. Member Shakespeare Society. Wellesley Scholar. Assistant Director of Admissions.
Married Graham Sterling, 5/17/1952
Children: Arlie Graham Sterling III, Ellen Sterling Slater & Gordon Anderson Sterling.
Trustee Dana Hall School; Co-Chair (1982) Search Committee for Head Mistress. Officer of Wellesley College Class of 1950.
NORFOLK, MA
Secretary, Committee for Compliance, Americans with Disabilities Act.
Member, Staff of Town Elections Director.
Member, Friends of the Norfolk Public Library.
Member & President of Fox Hill Garden Club.
Member, First Church in Boston, 1971; Trustee, 1995-2005; Emeritus, 2005-07.
Eleanor Barnhart Williams; born in Frederick, MD.
Daughter of Eleanor & William Barnhart.
Graduate Goucher College, 1954; Fulbright Scholar to the Netherlands, 1954-5.
Married Rhys Williams, Minister, Unitarian Church, Charleston, SC, 1956.
[Twenty-second Minister, First Church in Boston, 1960-2000.]
Children: Rhys Hoyle Williams, Eleanor Pierce Williams.
Member, First Church Boston, 1960; Trustee, 2005-2011.
She was deeply involved in dealing with the aftermath of the total destruction of the Church by fire in 1968 until its rebuilding in 1972. Her Church-related activities included being active in the Women's Alliance; Member of the Archival Task Force; a founder of the John Winthrop School for Young Children, and Board member for 30 years; a Coordinator of ‘Area Dinners;’a Board member of Hale-Barnard Services. Hale House provides residential and supportive services for a diverse older population. It was founded by the First Church in Boston.
Community organizations:
Past President & Board member of Chickering Foundation; the Fragment Society; Vice-president, Lend-A-Hand Society; Board member Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, and the Unitarian Universalist Society for Ministerial Relief.
Rhys & Eleanor travelled widely, giving illustrated lectures in the 1970's & 80's.
Rhys & others often spoke of their being " a Ministerial Team." They each believed that the greatest gift is the gift of life and that each person should this use this gift wisely.
Eleanor said of Rhys: "He did not want people to worry about the next life, but to do what they could to improve this life."
Eleanor was editor of Rhys' book Triumphant Living ( Sermons from Five Decades Celebrating the Liberal Gospel), Pearson Publishing, Boston, 2003.