May Memorial

Unitarian Universalist Society

Our Glorious History

[For more information click here]

Our Various Names

May Memorial has had four names in its nearly 170 years. The first was the Unitarian Congregational Society. The second was the Church of the Messiah. Our third was May Memorial Unitarian Society in honor of our second minister, Rev. Samuel May. Finally, we became the May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society after the Unitarian and Universalist organizations merged.

May Memorial Settled Parish Ministers

We have had eleven settled male ministers and one settled female minister [this does not include our religious education leaders/ministers, assistant ministers, or interim ministers]. Following is a brief bio on each of the settled ministers (the years in parentheses after each person’s names represents their years of ministry in Syracuse). Click here for a biography of material written by or about various of our ministers. [Photos of settled ministers courtesy of Bob Burdick.] A beautiful display of these photos now resides in the Memorial Room of our church between the two large marble busts of Sam Calthrop and Sam May, along with descriptive information, past church religious and music leaders, past church presidents, and annual award winners. This “memories wall” was formally dedicated on August 12, 2007.

Rev. John Parker Boyd Storer (1838-1844)

Rev. Storer was our first minister. He was born in Portland, Maine, in 1794. He

graduated from Bowdoin College in 1812. He next became a theology student

at Bowdoin College that same year. He became a Tutor at Bowdoin College in

1816. He was ordained a minister in the Unitarian Church at Walpole,

Massachusetts, in 1826. He moved to Syracuse in 1839 to become minister of

the Unitarian Congregational Society (our first name). He died in Syracuse in

1844.

Rev. Samuel Joseph May (1845-1868)

Rev. May was our second minister. He was born in Boston in 1797. He was

educated at Chauncey Hall School and graduated from Harvard College in 1817.

He then taught school while attending Harvard Divinity School, graduating in

1820. He was ordained at King's Chapel in Boston, in 1822. He became minister

of the Unitarian Church, Brooklyn, Connecticut, in 1822. Next he was Minister

of the Unitarian Church, South Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1836. He became

Principal of the Female Normal School, Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1842. Click here to see a description of this role and a very early photo of Sam, without his trademark beard. He moved to Syracuse and was minister of the Church of the Messiah (our second name) in 1845. He retired in 1868 and died in Syracuse in 1871. Here is one of his famous writings entitled, What Do Unitarians Believe? Here are some of Rev. May’s views on the death penalty. Read one of his sermons entitled The Rights and Conditions of Women. Here is a paper written about Sam May, Heretic in Syracuse, a speech about him entitled, “The Remarkable Mr. May,” and Saint Before His Time: Samuel J. May and American Educational Reform—A 1964 master’s thesis, all three were by Dr. Catherine L. Covert. Permission to include them here were given by her estate executrix, Carolyn Stepanek Holmes. Here is a manuscript entitled, God’s Chore Boy by Dr. W. Freeman Galpin. Permission to include it here is given by his daughter, Harriet Galpin Hughes. Here is an interesting sermon about Sam May, Rev. May Has Shown Me the Way by the Rev. Richard (Rick) R. Davis, First Unitarian Society of Salem (Oregon). Here is a second sermon about Rev. May, Samuel J. May: The Peaceful Warrior, also by Rev. Richard (Rick) R. Davis. Here is a paper by Rev. Armida Alexander entitled, Abolitionist Minister: Samuel J. May Opposes the Fugitive Slave Law. Click here for information on the Sam May marble tablet memorial and a pictorial display of the hanging of the repaired tablet on our outside east wall. Here is a brief tribute to Sam May. Click here for information on 12 letters (eight of them by Sam May) written in 1852-1858 and now residing in the Syracuse University Archives. They pertain to Rev. May’s efforts to develop a school and farm for the benefit of youth on the Onondaga Reservation. They are worth reading. See the May Memorial web page for more information on Sam May. Finally, read a wonderful tribute to Sam May written about his death, funeral, and burial: In Memoriam. Samuel Joseph May.

Rev. Dr. Samuel Robert Calthrop (1868-1911)

Rev. Calthrop, our third minister, was born in Swineshead Abbey, Lincolnshire,

England, in 1829. He was educated at St. Paul's School in London and at Trinity

College in Cambridge. He moved to the U.S. in 1853. He became minister of the

Universalist Church in Southold (Long Island), New York, for three months. He

next ran a school for boys in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for six years. He was

ordained as a Unitarian minister in 1860. First he was a minister at Unitarian

churches in Marblehead and Newburyport, Massachusetts. He moved to Syracuse and became minister of the Church of the

Messiah in 1868 and then May Memorial when it was built in 1885. He became Pastor Emeritus in 1911. He received the L.H.D. from Syracuse University in June, 1900. He was an individual with many interests who contributed much to May Memorial and the Syracuse community. Click here to learn more about this renaissance man and here to see one of his earliest photos when he was the 1880 New York State chess champion. He died in Syracuse in 1917. Read some very interesting material about Sam’s boyhood years written by his daughter, Edith Calthrop Bump, in 1939. Finally, read this very delightful article written by a man who remembers Rev. Calthrop as a very important mentor: Recollections of the Old Master: Rev. Samuel Robert Calthrop. Click here to see Rev. Calthrop and his family’s burial headstones. Read one of his sermons entitled The Preacher of the Twentieth Century. Another one is entitled The Aid Given By Science to Religion During the Nineteenth Century.

Rev. Dr. John Henry Applebee (1911-1929)

Rev. Applebee, our fourth minister, was born in England in 1867. He moved to

the United States with his parents in 1878. He was educated at the Boston High

School and the Meadville Theological School, graduating in 1894. He first

served the Parkside Unitarian Church in Buffalo for four years. Next he was in

West Roxbury, Massachusetts, until 1905. His next assignment was for six years

at the Pilgrims Church in Attleboro, Massachusetts. He was the minister at May

Memorial from 1911 to 1929. He received an honorary doctorate from Meadville (1924). He died in Syracuse in 1938. Read

one of sermons entitled UNITARIANISM: What It is Not, and What It Is. Another one is entitled A Challenge to the Unitarian Church.

Rev. Dr. Wendelin Waldemar Weiland Argow (1930-1941)

Rev. Argow was our fifth minister. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1891. He

was educated at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and the Southern

Baptist Theological Seminary. He received a Doctor of Theology from that

seminary in 1921. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1913. He served the

Baptist church in Lorain, Ohio, from 1914 to 1919. He then became a pacifist

and resigned his ministry. Next he worked for two years at the 23rd Street

YMCA (New York City) while studying at New York University. He was accepted for Unitarian Fellowship in 1920. His first Unitarian ministry was the People's Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1921. He became minister of May Memorial in 1930. He became minister of the Unitarian Church in Baltimore from 1941 to 1961. He died in 1961 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Read one of his sermons entitled When Is a Person a Unitarian. Another one is entitled The Challenge of an Inheritance.

Rev. Robert Eldon Romig (1941-1946)

Rev. Romig, our sixth minister, was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1908. He

received the B.A. degree from the University of Denver in 1929. His theological

studies were at the Hoff School of Theology in Denver. He graduated from

Meadville Theological School in 1936. His first minister position was at the First

Unitarian Church, Duluth, Minnesota, in 1936. He became minister at May

Memorial in 1941. He was United War Fund Area field representative for New

York northern counties in 1944 and 1945. He resigned the ministry in 1946 to become an advocate for the United Nations. He returned to Syracuse in 1951 as Assistant to the President of the Davis Distributing Corporation. He died in Syracuse in 1986. Read one of his sermons entitled Can Modern Man Believe in Immortality?

Rev. Glenn Owen Canfield (1946-1952)

Rev. Canfield was our seventh minister. He was born in Topeka, Kansas, in

1907. He was educated at Texas Christian University and then at the McCormick

Theological Seminary in Chicago. He became a Presbyterian minister in

Woodstock (IL), Tulsa (OK), and Hobbs (NM). He then sought a more free

religion and became interested in social reform. He became a Unitarian minister

in Clinton and Berlin (MA) in 1945. He became the minister at May Memorial in

1946. In 1951 he became Minister-at-Large in Atlanta, Georgia. He started a racially integrated United Liberal Church in Atlanta in 1954. He was minister of the First Unitarian Church. Miami (FL) in 1956. He was Executive Secretary for UUA districts in New England and the Southwest from 1959 to 1969. He died in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1973. Read one of his sermons entitled Man’s Deepest Needs.

Rev. Dr. Robert Lee Zoerheide (1952-1961)

Rev. Zoerheide, our eighth minister, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in

1914. He received an A.B. from Western Michigan College in Kalamazoo,

Michigan. He graduated from Meadville Theological School in 1943. He was

ordained in 1943 by the First Unitarian Church of Chicago. He did graduate

study at Harvard and later received the D.D. from Meadville Lombard. He was

minister of the Universalist church in Hoopestown (IL). Next he was minister for

Unitarian students in greater Boston and worked with the Unitarian Service Committee. He ran a hostel for Japanese-Americans in

Boston in 1945. He was minister of the Unitarian Church in Peterborough (NH) in 1946. He became minister of May Memorial in 1952. He was minister of Cedar Lane Unitarian Church in Bethesda (MD) in 1961. He was minister of First Parish in Lexington (MA) in 1971. He became minister of First Unitarian Church in Baltimore in 1978. He retired in 1985 in Baltimore. He died in Baltimore in 2003. Read one of his sermons entitled New Dimensions of Unitarianism. Another one is entitled Unitarianism – An Opportunity.

Rev. John Channing Fuller (1961-1973)

Rev. Fuller, our ninth minister, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1921.

He graduated from Williams College in 1943. He served in the Navy during

World War II. He graduated from Meadville Theological School in 1949. He

also did graduate studies at the University of Basel in Switzerland and

Cambridge University in England. He became minister of the Unitarian church

in New London, Connecticut, in 1951. He was minister of the Unitarian church

in Orlando, Florida, in 1953. He became minister of May Memorial in 1961. Finally, he became minister of the Unitarian Church,

Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1973. He died in Scituate in 1974. Read one of his sermons entitled Why I Am a Unitarian. Another one is entitled, The Good Doctors Calthrop, Applebee, and Argow.

Rev. Dr. Nicholas C. Cardell, Jr. (1974-1995)

Rev. Cardell was our tenth minister. He was born in Smith's Falls, Ontario,

Canada, in 1925. He moved to New York City in 1928. He had Army service in

World War II, including time spent in a German prison camp. He graduated

from Columbia College, New York City, in 1952, and from Meadville

Theological School in 1957. He received a D.O. from Meadville in 1987. He

was ordained a minister at First Unitarian Society, Plainfield, New Jersey, in

1957. He then was minister of First Unitarian Society, Albany, New York, in 1962. He moved to Syracuse and was minister of May Memorial in 1974 until his retirement in 1995 He was then Minister Emeritus until his death in 2002. Read one of his sermons entitled The Most Original Sin. Read another sermon entitled, Judas by Proxy. Click here to read the opening words he used for most Sunday morning services.

Rev. Dr. Elizabeth May Strong (1988-2001)

See the section devoted to Rev. Strong shown just below the information on Rev. Taylor.

Rev. Scott E. Tayler (1997-2004)

Rev. Taylor is a Midwesterner whose father was a minister. He often describes

himself as a spiritual non-theist who believes in grace. Scott's ministry

emphasizes the importance of spiritual development and is shaped significantly

by his Christian upbringing which stressed the power of kindness, humility, and

service. He became the minister of May Memorial (his first church) in 1997 and

served in that role until 2004. Scott also has a family therapy degree. He and his

wife, Kaaren, also a UU minister, now have a co-ministry at First Unitarian

Church of Rochester (New York). They are parents to three children, Nils, Solveig, and Neva. Read his candidating sermon,

The God In-Between.

Rev. Dr. Elizabeth May Strong

Minister of Religious Education; 1988-2001

Our First Settled Female Minister

Rev. Strong is a third generation active UU. She began teaching religious

education at the Old Stone Universalist church in Schuyler Lake, NY when she

was in the eighth grade. She is now a mother and grandmother. She became

involved professional and was named Director of Religious Education for First

Unitarian of Rochester, NY, in 1978. She was ordained a Minister of Religious

Education there in 1983. She became Minister of Religious Education at

MMUUS in 1988 and served us until 2001. Along the way she earned a doctoral

degree. Currently, she is a UUA Religious Education Program Coordinator for

the Massachusetts Bay District. Her son, Douglas Taylor is a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Bingham, NY. Read one of her MMUUS sermons entitled MMUUS History and Legends.

Rev. Elizabeth Padgham – An MMUUS Favorite Daughter

One of our own became a well beloved and respected Unitarian minister. Elizabeth

Padgham was born on June 10, 1874. Her father, Amos Padgham, was very active in

May Memorial, serving for many years as clerk and treasurer. Professionally he was a

County Supervisor in Onondaga County. Elizabeth grew up in the May Memorial

church and later noted that Rev. Calthrop was a role model. She graduated from

Meadville in 1901 and was ordained at May Memorial on September 17, 1901.

Delivering the ordination sermon was Rev. Marie Jenney, who also grew up in the May

Memorial church and who was a childhood friend of Elizabeth.

Rev. Padgham’s first church was in Perry, Iowa, in that same year. While there she

overcame a life threatening problem involving a cherry seed and her appendix. She

moved to the Unitarian Church in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1905. After her retirement

in 1927 she moved back to Syracuse and once again became active at May Memorial.

Besides occasional sermons, she was a lay delegate 1928-1930 and became a trustee in

1933. She retired from the Board of Trustees in 1946. She died on December 4, 1952.

In her will she bequeathed much of the furniture now residing in the memorial room from

her own home and also left significant funds to May Memorial.

Read her very interesting sermon delivered at May Memorial in December, 1929, entitled When Half-Gods Go.

May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society - Our Church Buildings - 1838-2006

“From East Genesee St. to East Genesee St.”

May Memorial’s first church building was on East Genesee Street in Syracuse, NY. After a couple of moves to new buildings, the last move to our fifth and current building was back to a new location and new building on East Genesee Street. Click here to find out more information or here to see information about the process of building our current church. Here is a brief tribute to the May Memorial church buildings. Finally, on August 12, 2007, the History Committee under the leadership of Rog Hiemstra and Harsey Leonard conducted the Sunday Service that focused on the history of our church buildings. Here is a photo of the cornerstone for our James Street church. Click here for the order of service and click here for the supplemental information sheet distributed that day.

Miscellaneous Information

Currently MMUUS has considerable information at the Syracuse University Library’s Arents archive and at the church, itself. There is much research potential for scholars interested in church history. In addition, here an historical sketch of the May Memorial church from 1838-1938, entitled A Backward Glance O’er Traveled Roads. There is a booklet on the dedication, October 20, 1885, of the May Memorial Church on James Street. Here is a portrayal of our church history through 1988 in a web enhanced version of the book, May No One Be A Stranger. Check here to find a list of the MMUUS annual award winners. Check here to correct or add to the list of past Associate Ministers, Interim Ministers, Religious Education Leaders, and Music Directors. Here is a list of the tremendous men and women who have served as church president as representatives of all the wonderful people who provide leadership in some way to May Memorial. To examine the archives of past Marvelous History Corner newsletter articles, click here. Finally, here is a peak at the repaired Sam May Marble tablet.

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Created by Roger Hiemstra, Chair MMUUS’ History Committee.

Updated September 26, 2008