He was born May 14, 1924, in Stratford, CT., to the Rev. Robert Charles Whitehead and Miriam Macy Whitehead. His ties to Maine were established by his family’s involvement in the cooperative summer community called Brightwater in Phippsburg. He dedicated most of his adult life to helping others: through his work in postwar Europe, a career as a Congregational minister and later as a counselor, therapist and hospital chaplain. He was especially gifted at working with children and young adults and spent much of his career involved with youth.
It was in Phippsburg that he met future wife, Edie Lamb. They remained deeply committed to each other over the 60 years of their marriage, sharing interests in music, theater, animals, the outdoors, and most especially the lives of their children and grandchildren. They became an inseparable team, sharing in the challenges of raising four children in often very difficult environments, and working together in the communities they lived in. Though Macy was often the more public figure, in the pulpit and elsewhere, Edie was both the rock and the glue that held everything together.
Macy always looked to the positive and spent his life inspiring people to move forward through pain, prejudice, disaster and personal tragedy. He touched countless people with his deep spirituality, natural creativity and joy of life. His great love of music, theater and story telling was a constant inspiration to both himself and the people around him, and he always found ways to incorporate these talents into both his work and his personal life.
Macy loved animals, raising horses, angora rabbits, and countless family dogs. He shared his knowledge and great respect of the earth with his children and grandchildren by composting and growing organic vegetables for food; trees, shrubs and perennials from slips; and harvesting dye plants to enhance his hand knit creations. He believed in living gently and simply on the earth — chopping wood, spinning and knitting were his meditations.
He is survived by his wife, Edie, their four children Deirdre, Harris, Heather and Tom; daughters-in-law Camilla and Carla; son-in-law Phil; and five grandchildren Celia, Kai, Sam, Bevan and Lionel.
A celebration of Macy Whitehead’s life, in the manner of Friends, will be held Friday, May 25, at the Phippsburg Center Congregational Church UCC, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. A reception will follow.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Macy Whitehead’s honor to The American Friends Service Committee, AFSC Development, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA, 19102. Please make check payable to “AFSC.”
“If there was an opportunity to work in a different way, to heal the wounds of war and to show a different attitude toward people, that was important for me to do that. I didn’t want to just have a free ride through this. If I didn’t participate in the destruction, I wanted to be part of the reconstruction.” — Macy Whitehead, 2007.
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