Alumni News

Iris Thay Crossley (STH ’77)

By sthalum August 13th, 2023 in Alumni/ae Deaths

This obituary was originally posted by the Tribute Archive and can be found here.

Iris Thay Crossley was born on January 4, 1953, in Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, DC. She and sisters Marcia and Greta were raised in Southeast DC by their parents Garnett Crossley, a Library of Congress administrator, and Mazola Crossley, a U.S. Post Office supervisor, who instilled tChristian values in their daughters.

In 1974, Iris earned her bachelor’s degree in religion at Albright College, and in 1977 her master’s in theology at Boston University, the same college where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. earned his doctorate. Iris had a feminist perspective of theology, advocated for women’s leadership within the church, and was a member of the Black Seminarians who advocated for civil rights. In a more progressive era, Iris probably would have become a pastor, but that route was seldom available to women at that time. Instead, she was highly involved in church at various times in her life.

After graduate school, she worked in Chicago at a women’s prison creating programs for incarcerated women. At the encouragement of a friend, she moved to Northern California and lived in the Bay Area for more than 30 years. For about two decades, she was an academic advisor at various colleges including Dominican University, University of California, Berkeley, and Northern Virginia Community College.

In California, Iris found the perfect place for her trend-setting ways. Long before it became popular, Iris became a vegetarian, bought organic foods, and used natural cleaning and health products. She also loved to learn and took classes throughout her life, including Arabic, voiceover training, and singing.

Iris married Ron Thomas in DC in 1982. In 1992 she achieved her proudest accomplishment by giving birth to daughter Kali Crossley Thomas. At the time of Iris’ death they were not only mother and daughter, but also best friends. Kali and Iris discussed life’s joys and challenges, bonded over food, books, and podcasts, and gave each other advice. Kali is thankful to have a mom who supported her in all of her adventures and personal and professional goals.

After retiring, Iris moved back to DC to live with her sister, Greta. Iris took advantage of living in the nation’s capital by visiting museums and attending local events. In 2013, she protested every Monday in front of the White House to educate people about the need for gun control. She was a woman of routine so you could always find her at Whole Foods, Ross, walking around the U.S. National Arboretum, or at home cheering on the Washington Commanders.

Iris departed this life at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on July 7, 2023. Iris leaves cherished memories with: her daughter Kali Thomas; sister Greta Crossley; sister Marcia Powell, her husband Godfrey Powell; nephew Godfrey Powell Jr., his wife Stephanie Powel, and their children, Godfrey Powell III, Mireya Powell, Wolf Powell, and Naiyeli Powell; nephew Jared Powell; niece Kimberly McCain, her husband Desmond McCain, and their daughter Ava McCain, former husband Ron Thomas, and many friends.

Dr. Donald Eugene Bossart (STH’57, GRS’63)

By sthalum August 13th, 2023 in Alumni/ae Deaths

This obituary was originally posted by Horan & McConaty Funeral Services and Cremation and can be found here.

Don passed away on July 8, 2023 at 91 years old. Don was born and raised in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to Dana Eugene and Eva Mabel Crawford Bossart. Don went to grade school at the second ward school and then on to high school in Latrobe. He graduated from high school in 1950. While in high school, he won the PIAA tennis doubles championship in his junior year and the PIAA singles tennis championship in his senior year. He also played varsity basketball.

Don went on to college at Harvard University majoring in economics and graduated in 1954. He was a member of the Harvard University N.E. championship tennis team.

Don went into the Methodist ministry by entering Boston University School of Theology and graduated in 1957 with an STB (MA). He was inducted into the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Church. He continued his education by entering the PhD program at BU.

Don married Marion Gay Kent on June 9, 1957 in Medford, Oregon. They moved to Amherst, Massachusetts where Don was campus minister at the Wesley Foundation for the four colleges in the area. While in Amherst, two children, Kent Donald and Alan Dana, were born.  Don finished his PhD in 1963 and that year the family moved to Madison, Wisconsin where Don became campus minister for the University of Wisconsin. Their third child, Dona Gay, was born there.

Don’s next calling was for the campus ministry at the Wesley Foundation at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana from 1966-1970. In 1970, Don was called to the University of Denver for the Wesley Foundation. In 1974 he then joined The Iliff School of Theology as faculty administrator and later Assistant then Associate Professor of Interpersonal Ministry. Don retired from Iliff in 1997 and he and Gay stayed in Denver to enjoy retirement.

Don sang in church choirs as a tenor his whole life including singing in the Colorado Symphony Choir. He also continued his love of tennis playing until he was 85 years old. He and Gay loved the Colorado mountains and they traveled the world together. Don and Gay loved being grandparents. They (“Papa” and “Baba”) attended many school, sporting and scouting activities enjoying all of them!

Don is survived by Gay, his wife of 66 years, his three children Kent (Jackie), Alan (Kim), Dona (Matthew, deceased). He is also survived by his grandchildren: from Kent and Jackie, Douglas (Chloe) and Hope; from Alan and Kim, Kyle, Corey (Grace, and great grandson Stetson) and CJ; from Dona and Matt, Kenneth and John. Don is also survived by his nephew Roger Bossart (Della) and nephew Keith Mandic (Chris) and Jennifer Bossart (wife of nephew Greg, deceased).

Reverend Dr. Richard A. Vickery, Jr. (STH ’65, STH ’72)

By sthalum August 13th, 2023 in Alumni/ae Deaths

This obituary was originally posted by Legacy and can be found here.

Richard (Dick) Alexander Vickery, Jr. was born on December 12, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Elise (Marks) and Richard A. Vickery, the eldest of two children. Graduating from Hatboro-Horsham High School in 1957, Dick earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Dickerson College, Carlisle, PA (1961); a Bachelor of Sacred Theology and a Doctor of Theology degrees from Boston University School of Theology, Boston, MA. (1965 & 1972).

Dick was married to Mary Ann Witt on August 23, 1965. To them were born three children: Mary Ann (Mollie), Christianna (Christie): and Richard Alexander Vickery III (deceased) and five grandchildren.

Ordained a Deacon in the Philadelphia Annual Conference in 1962, Dick transferred to the Rocky Mountain Conference in 1965, ordained an Elder and admitted into full Conference membership. He served on the staffs of the Washington Park and Grace, Denver, Churches. He was appointed to the Jefferson Avenue Church (Wheatridge, CO), University Park Church (Denver, CO), Hope Church (Greenwood Village, CO), Evergreen Church (Evergreen, CO) as interim at Burns Church (Aurora, CO) and in retirement to St. James Church (Central City, CO).

Dick served the Rocky Mountain Conference Council of the Board of Ministry, Conference Secretary, member of the Conference Council Ministries, Conference Worship Chair, member of the Program & Arrangements Committee, the Rules Committee, Conference Session Petition Coordinator, Legislative Committee Chair, Editor of the Conference Journal and Psychological Assessment Coordinator for the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry.

In the communities he served, Dick was a member of the Salvation Army Service Extension Units and sang with the Evergreen Chorale, including performing in its Broadway musicals (2003 through 2013).

As a foster home, Dick served the Evergreen Protective Animal League (EPAL), rescuing over a hundred dogs, cats, goats and sheep as animal companions.

Dick died on July 16, 2023 at the age of 82.

Donations can be provided to; Evergreen Protective Animal League at EPAL.com or The Preservation Fund of St James Methodist Church (P.O. Box 42, Central City, CO. 80427).

C. Dean Freudenberger (STH’55, GRS’69)

By sthalum August 6th, 2023 in Alumni/ae Deaths

This obituary was originally posted by the Claremont Courier and can be found here.

Professor, agricultural and environmental ethicist, minister, great-grandfather

C. Dean Freudenberger died quietly on July 2 at age 93 with family present at home, Pilgrim Place.

Dean was born in Los Angeles on March 9, 1930 to Carl and Minerva Freudenberger. He attended LA schools, graduating from Dorsey High School in 1948. Though he entered Occidental College that fall, “history of civilization” was not for him, and he transferred to then all men’s Cal Poly, San Louis Obispo, where he majored in landscape design and crops, graduating in 1953.

Meanwhile, in 1952 his world was greatly enlarged when he was a member of a college student work team to war-torn Germany, helping to build an orphanage. During his Cal Poly years he also experienced a call to become an agriculturalist in the Belgian Congo with the Methodist Board of Missions. With fear and trembling he entered Boston University School of Theology in 1952, receiving complimentary Cs; he graduated in 1955 with As.

He met his future wife Elsie Kittelsen while attending a Germany work team reunion in Altadena, California in December 1953. They were married on June 26, 1955, in Santa Ana, California. He was also ordained a Methodist elder in June 1955.

In preparation for serving in the Belgian Congo, the couple spent a year of graduate study at Boston University, followed by a year of French study in Brussels, Belgium. In 1957 he began agricultural work at Sandoa in the savanna area of then Belgian Congo. On June 30, 1960 the Belgian Congo became independent; by July 9, the army had mutinied. The couple’s third child, Anne, was born that morning. At noon a ham radio order was received: all Americans were to leave the newly independent country — the nation’s and the Freudenbergers’ world was turned upside down!

The family returned to Sandoa in 1962, where despite the political upheaval a branch of the Congo Polytechnique Institute had been formed. He became its director from 1964 to 1966.

He returned to Boston University in 1966 to complete his Ph.D. in social ethics and became a trainer and consultant for Peace Corps programs in French speaking West Africa. He saw the growing “desertification” of Africa, the effects of climate change, and the challenges and of world hunger as he traveled in the tropics and in the Sahelian regions.

He earned his Ph.D. in 1969. From 1969 to 1972 he traveled extensively, serving as the agricultural programs secretary of a quadrennial program of the Methodist Board of Missions, with work in 21 countries in Asia, South America, and Africa. He also consulted with the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, and with Agrimissio at the Vatican.

At the close of the Methodist quadrennial program, he accepted a teaching position at the Claremont School of Theology, with the challenge of “putting the school into the world, and the world into the school.” From 1973 to 1990 he taught in the areas of church and society, environmental ethics, and ecumenics, along with teaching occasional evening courses at Cal Poly, Pomona in the fields of tropical agricultural ecology, and agricultural development in the tropical world.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of Bread for the World as well as the Catholic Rural Life Conference; of the interdisciplinary design team that established the John Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly, Pomona, where for two years as an ethicist he was also a member of the animal welfare committee that evaluated research proposals. He also lectured at conferences and workshops on the many-faceted issues of hunger and the care of the earth.

In 1990 the couple decided it was time for another adventure, thus he accepted an invitation to teach at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota in the fields of church and society with an emphasis on rural ministry. He taught there for seven years until his retirement in 1997.

As he traveled and lectured in the Upper Midwest, he saw the ravages of the farm crisis, bankruptcies, the selling of family farms to corporate agriculture, and the rape of the land. In a memorable experience during a break at an ecumenical conference, he heard a woman telephone her husband and say, “You have to come to this conference. Losing the farm is not our fault; it’s the system’s fault!”

Recognizing it was time to return to Claremont, in 1999 the couple entered Pilgrim Place. Almost immediately he became a member of the plants and produce committee, growing vegetables, harvesting citrus, planting trees, and making over 100 tons of compost to enrich the soil. He was a founding member of the environmental committee, festival facilities coordinator, town meeting moderator, and a member of the Pilgrim Place Board of Directors.

He was the author of many journal articles and three books, “Global Dust Bowl: Is It too Late?” “Food for Tomorrow,” and “Christian Responsibility in a Hungry World.”

He received several awards, including Boston University’s School of Theology Distinguished Alumni Award in 1981, and Cal Poly, Pomona’s Dean’s Award from the College of Environmental Design in 1992.

“C. Dean Freudenberger is remembered as humble, a friend to all, visionary, passionate, prophet, practical, ahead of his times, compost maker, mentor, challenger, motivating teacher, listener, quiet humor, loving husband to Elsie and to his children,” his family and friends shared. “Dean and Elsie are admired as a true couple, working together, but at the same time following their own paths, for 68 years.”

He is survived by his wife Elsie; children Mark (Boston), Jane (Louisiana), and David and Anne (Australia); eight grandchildren in Louisiana, Colorado, New York City, Australia, Cambodia, and Madagascar; and three great-grandsons in Australia and Madagascar.

A celebration of life will be held at 3 p.m., Saturday, August 19, at Pilgrim Place’s Decker Hall, 665 Avery Road, Claremont 91711.