In Memory of David Hicks MacPherson (September 23, 1928 – September 25, 2020)

We offer our condolences to the family and colleagues of the Rev. David Hicks MacPherson who died on September 25, 2020 at the age of 92.

David was born on September 23, 1928 in Somerville, MA, to Harold and Doris (Hicks) MacPherson, as the youngest of three sons. In 1929, he was christened in the West Somerville Universalist Church, a congregation David attended throughout his childhood and teen years.

David was a fifth-generation Universalist. “About the time I could attend church and begin to get something out of it,” he recalled, the congregation began reciting the 1935 Universalist Avowal of Faith. Known as the Washington Declaration, this public witness of faith was paraphrased by David throughout his ministerial career as: People of Good Will and Sacrificial Spirit WILL Overcome ALL Evil and Progressively Create the Kingdom of Heaven on This Earth!

David took that declaration to heart; it shaped the rest of his life and ministry—though he identified as a Universalist humanist, not finding God a personally “useful” concept. By the time he was fifteen, he took on multiple leadership roles in the West Somerville Universalist Youth Fellowship and the Middlesex League of the Universalist Youth Fellowship. As a high school student, David attended youth institutes at Ferry Beach, Maine, where he met Dorothy Alice Barber in 1945. Four years later they were married, and Dottie would remain David’s partner until her death in 2005.

Dave enrolled in Tufts College in 1946 (before the institution became Tufts University), which offered a combined, 5-year degree: Dave graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in History in 1950, received his preaching license, and completed two student pastorates: one at Marlboro Universalist Church, and the second at the Foxboro Universalist Church. In 1952 David earned a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) degree. In keeping with the practice of the time, he was ordained by the Universalist Church of America on June 11, 1952 at Tuft’s Crane Chapel.

Rev. MacPherson served as the Minster-at-Large for the Universalist Church of America from 1952 to 1959. He left to start two Unitarian Universalist congregations: in 1959, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring (MD) and in 1962, Towson (MD) Unitarian Universalist Church, where he served for thirteen years.

In 1975, Rev. MacPherson was called to the First Unitarian Church of Richmond (VA), a congregation which would ultimately designate him Minister Emeritus, in 1998. David held a “sincere conviction that all effective ministries have a limit,” and accepted a call to the Unitarian Universalist Church West, in Brookfield, WI in 1987. He retired from full-time ministry in 1993 but accepted a final call to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Waynesboro, VA, where he served part-time until 1996. David continued to serve as guest minister to various congregations until preaching his last sermon on his 90th birthday in 2018.

“Rev. Dave,” as he was called in his later years, held deep convictions about social justice and civil rights of all marginalized people. While in Maryland, Rev. MacPherson served as a chaplain to UU students at three colleges; served on the Board and as President of the Suburban Maryland Memorial Society; participated in clergy seminars in public and private mental hospitals; served as President of the Towson Fair Housing Council; served on the Board of the Metropolitan Baltimore Mental Health Association; and served as chairperson of the Housing Task Force of the Maryland Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Some of his proudest moments were attending the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and being arrested during protests to desegregate the Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Woodlawn, MD in 1963.

In Virginia, Rev. MacPherson served again with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; was on the Board of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy; served as Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the Virginia Treatment Center for Children; served on the Public Affairs Committee of the Planned Parenthood League of Virginia; worked for fair billing practices of the VA Undertakers’ Association; and was involved with the Richmond Peace/Education Center.

In Wisconsin, he served as President of the Greater Milwaukee Funeral and Memorial Society, and as Secretary of the Interfaith Committee on the Family. He also defended the women’s clinic there on numerous occasions.

Throughout his career, Rev. MacPherson created meditations, readings, and church school curricula for children and adults to suit the needs of whatever was needed at the time, including working on the joint sex-ed curriculum created with United Church of Christ, About Your Sexuality, the precursor for Our Whole Lives. Rev. MacPherson mentored countless interns, charging each with changing the world through love. He fervently believed that Unitarian Universalism requires “persons who will give their lives to seeking, living in, and spreading the realm of love and life to the whole human family.” He loved talking about history and fighting for freedom, and the giant Black Lives Matter pin that he wore “was not just a decoration—it was a call to action.”

David is survived by son Duncan MacPherson and daughter Dianna MacPherson, her husband Greg Greenway, and Dianna’s children Erin and Ian; niece Leslie MacPherson; and a host of extended family.

David was predeceased by his wife, Dorothy “Dottie” (Barber) MacPherson, in 2005 and his son Douglas in 2016.