Our Heritage
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1955:
A small group meets in old Loussac Library to hear Monroe Husbands, from Unitarian Headquarters in Boston, explain Unitarianism and explore the possibility of forming a fellowship in Anchorage. Those present decide to establish a fellowship.
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1955-1962:
The fledgling fellowship first meets in the Chugach Electric Auditorium. Over the next 9 years, it meets at such places as the Legion Log Cabin, the Quonset Huts Grade School on E Street. Dr. Mill's reception room, a former nightclub on the old Seward Highway, The Kenai Studio, the Mountain View Elementary School, the Oddfellow's hall, and in the basement of the Tom Thumb School. Meetings and activities also take place in members' homes, such as those of Helge and Brownie Krogseng and Betsy and Lyman Woodman.
At the 1962 annual meeting, the congregation votes to change their name to "The Anchorage Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship (AUUF)."
Making up the Sunday speakers' roster during these early years are community activists, leaders, university professors and other professionals. A favorite speaker is the Rev. Richard R. Gay, professor of religion at Alaska Methodist University. Prof. Gay in 1961 becomes our ministerial consultant and is eventually hired to speak once a month.
1963:
Member, Captain Charles Dixon (USAF), finds that the Assembly of God wants to sell their Log Cabin Church at 602 10th Avenue. With only twenty pledging members and not enough money for the $3,500 down payment, the small AUUF group signs the earnest money agreement on July 22, 1963. To make up the deficit, board president Charles Ledbetter calls a special meeting to which he brings counter checks from every bank in town. He urges all members to reach deep and ever deeper into their pockets. After three rounds of pledges and much soul searching and agony, they raise the needed amount and soon after sign the closing papers.
Betsy Woodman persuades Dr. Dana McLean Greeley, National President of the Unitarian- Universalist Association, to include Anchorage in his planned globetrotting trip that fall. On September 11, 1963, he helps dedicate the first Unitarian-Universalist Church building in Alaska.
Rev. Robert Fulghum (of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten fame), speaks in the UU's new Anchorage church shortly after its dedication. He writes in the UU's Pacific Northwest Digest:
"This is a first-class fellowship with a bright future, an ambitious and dedicated membership, and strong leadership. A month after they moved into their new log church, they find it is too small. Ninety-three attended the Sunday I spoke; the Sunday school rooms were jammed. Using every inch of space, coffee is served from a former baptismal font and it's something to finish speaking, turn round, and see the curtains part to reveal the morning's coffee hostess standing there with a cup of the absolute water of life in her hands... "
Crowded or not, the little log cabin church proves to be a great improvement over various temporary quarters of the past. Its homey and rustic unpretentiousness fits with members' Unitarian and Alaskan values, and they quickly develop an affection for it.
April 1968:
AUUF President Allan Cayous and member Stan Erickson break a long tradition of nontaxation of Alaska church property by presenting the Anchorage Borough Assembly with a check for $112, beginning our continuing tradition of payment in lieu of taxes.
November 1969:
The congregation votes to accept a minister-at-large and attempts to become a church. In January 1970, the Rev. Arthur Olsen comes out of retirement to serve for three months.
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April 1970:
Beryl Johnson becomes the first, but not the last, female chairperson of the AUUF board.
November 1970:
AUUF calls its first full-time minister, the Rev. Sam A. Wright, naturalist and professor at Starr King Theological School - installed January 1971. His wife Billie, a Starr King graduate, is ordained a Unitarian minister at the log cabin church on November 7, 1971 - first UU minister and first female UU minister ordained in Alaska.
November 1972:
A suspicious fire causes $11,000 damage in the R.E. and nursery area of the Log Cabin Church.
Late fall 1975:
The AUUF board invites longtime friend, member, and ministerial consultant, Richard R. Gay, to become interim minister. He accepts, is installed December 13, 1975 - later becomes regular minister.
June 1978:
AUUF President Shirley Modemeyer is kidnapped from the Captain Cook Hotel parking garage and murdered. The murderer is never caught.
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January 13, 1980:
We begin our 25th anniversary celebration of AUUF. Our honored guest is Dr. Eugene Pickett, president of the Unitarian-Universalist Association of North America.
Spring 1980:
AUUF members instrumental in starting Free Voices, an organization designed to counteract Moral Majority's attempts to make their religious beliefs the law of the land.
August 1980:
The Rev. Rod Stewart, executive director of PNW District office in Vancouver, B.C., leads a retreat program, a further celebration of our silver anniversary year. Also taking part is the Rev. Ernest Penn (Irene Hyde's brother) minister of our sister church in Hull, England.
June 1986:
After 11 years as our minister and over 20 years of service to the AUUF, Richard R. Gay retires - is named Minister Emeritus.
February 1987:
Interim minister the Rev. Cynthia Edson installed - serves from February through December 1987.
Summer 1987:
AUUF decides to apply to Boston for an extension minister.
Fall 1987:
The Incipient Uni-Uni Choir starts rehearsing Christmas carols at Sylvia Short's house. The choir meets with intermittent but enthusiastic success.
May 1988:
Toastmaster's club is started within AUUF to improve Layleaders' and others' public speaking abilities.
May 1989:
Beatrice Hitchcock & Carla Grosch institute a second Sunday morning service (9 a.m.) with emphasis on spirituality. The 9:00 a.m. service continued until 1998.
September 1989:
Extension minister the Rev. Arthur Curtis begins his tenure.
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October-November 1990:
A capital fund drive, chaired by Steve Dondanville, obtained three-year pledges totaling over $200,000. An energetic consultant from Seattle, the Rev. John Gibson, helped us organize it.
Late 1990:
Stan Truelson ushered the fellowship into the computer age by setting up a database to handle membership records and financial transactions and records. He continues to give us informative, accurate and complete monthly financial reports and balance sheets.
May-Sept. 1991:
Having heard that the Anchorage Wesleyan Church building on Turnagain St. was up for sale, the building search committee and board quickly inspected it and made an offer. It was accepted a few days later and soon approved by the congregation. Under the leadership of President Fred Hillman the purchase was completed, the Log Cabin Church was sold and a new roof was put on our new building.
On the first Sunday in September we held a short service in the Log Cabin Church and bid it good-bye.
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Since it was a beautifully clear, sunny day we then marched along the park strip, across the lagoon, and down Forest Park Drive and Barbara St.to our new building, carrying banners. |
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| By the time we arrived two energetic members had already dismantled our sign and reconstructed it on our new site, so we felt very much at home. |
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With two and a half times as much space as the Log Cabin Church the new building offered us the chance to become once again a family church, as we were in the early 1970's.
1992-93:
The social justice committee, under the leadership of Sylvia Short, undertook to furnish and manage a four-plex owned by the city in the Mountain View neighborhood. This became transitional housing for women, once homeless or on drugs, who wanted to become independent again. A separate corporation, Unitarian Universalist Community Services, was established in 1992 to carry out this project. It became an official affiliate of the fellowship and later undertook to support the Anchorage Youth Action Group, directed by Carol Jackson, which has provided tutuoring, sports, workshops, child care, computer education and summer activities for youth in Mountain View.
February 1993:
Carol Dee became Administrative Assistant, succeeding Donna Huguelet.
March 1993:
In a memorable Covenant Ceremony and Pageant the congregation established a covenant with the Reverend Arthur E. Curtis and thereby installed him as "called minister" after his four years as extension minister. All available past presidents of the fellowship were present on the stage and recounted high points of their presidencies.
Spring 1993:
A renovation of the southeast side of our building relocated the staircase, enlarged the front lobby, doubled the size of the administrative office, and created a new room on what had once been the front door landing.
October 1993:
The fellowship acquired a Macintosh computer, which the staff gradually learned how to use, thus transforming our administrative operations.
August 1994:
Our member Beatrice Coffee Hitchcock became our first intern minister (student minister), a final step toward her Master of Divinity from the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California.
February 1996:
Dorothy Zappa organized the first meeting of a Sunday morning forum. It prospered under her leadership and continues to meet at 9:00 a.m., featuring a wide variety of speakers from the fellowship and community. The forum uses a format centered on speaker plus discussion which characterized the Sunday services in the fellowship's early days.
August 1996:
Carol Dee became quarter-time Director of Religious Education, following other recent directors Beatrice Hitchcock (1989-90), Shirley Harris (1991-92), Anne McKay Bryson (1992-94) and Kyle Vietti (1994-96). In the summer of 1997 the fellowship decided to make this a half-time position. Under these capable directors the RE program has expanded in numbers of children, classes and activities, and has undertaken many creative projects. By 1998 over twenty adults were involved in the program as teachers, resource persons or helpers. Our fellowship directory, which listed 17 children, ages 0-16, in 1991, now includes nearly a hundred.
March 9, 1997:
The first celebration of International Women's Day in a Sunday service was a great success, and started a new tradition. The 1997 service included poetry, music, dance and an art exhibit.
May 18,1997:
The congregation ordained Beatrice Coffee Hitchcock. Local ministers of various denominations joined in blessing her ministry and a friend of the fellowship made her a beautiful stole. The Reverend Beatrice Hitchcock soon moved with her husband, Jim, to Seward, Alaska, where she has organized a new UU fellowship.
June 1997:
Micaela Dover was employed as Administrative Assistant.
1998:
An accessibility renovation project provided us with a concrete pad, ramp and railing outside the front door, a ramp and railing in the lobby, two handicap-accessible restrooms, and a chair glide on the stairway.
Oct. 11, 1998:
A vespers service was tried on Sunday evening and has continued since then, every other Sunday (except summer).
January 15-16,1999:
Our fellowship hosted the first gathering of the Alaska UU fellowships and groups (eight of the nine were present). Five of them have formed within the last four years. An Alaska UU Council is in the process of formation.
March 7, 1999:
The congregation voted to proceed with a project to beautify the auditorium (sanctuary), replace many of the pews with chairs, create a large social room out of three upstairs rooms, and create more rooms and doorways downstairs. This will make the lower floor more usable and pleasant for religious education, which has recently been renamed "religious exploration". We are all now religious explorers, young and old.
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June 3, 2001:
After almost 12 years as our minister, Arthur E. Curtis retired.
October 1, 2001:
Interim minister, the Rev. Jane Bramadat, installed.
April 28, 2002:
Fran Dearman is called as the AUUF settled minister by a vote of the Fellowship members; 113 for, 0 against, and 0 abstensions. Fran accepted the call.
Postscript:
This brief history is written mainly for people unacquainted with our fellowship. It has therefore named only a few of the many leaders, RE teachers, committee chairs, volunteers, and supporters which have given this fellowship its vitality.
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