Natalie Webber Gulbrandsen, UUA Moderator 1985-1993.
John Buehrens and Denny Davidoff, newly elected President and Moderator, with Natalie Gulbrandsen and William F. Schulz, outgoing Moderator and President, at the 1993 General Assembly.
Current UUA Moderator Gini Courter and President William G. Sinkford with Natalie at the March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC, April 2004.
Natalie Webber Gulbrandsen: An Appreciation
October 19, 2007
Natalie Webber Gulbrandsen, fourth Moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association (1985–93), died October 17 at her home in Auburndale, MA, surrounded by her five children. She was 88 years old.Few people have served the Association and its related bodies with such devotion or in as many different positions as Natalie. An active member of the Unitarian Church [now Unitarian Universalist Society] of Wellesley Hills, MA, since 1946, Natalie served as Treasurer and then President (1977–81) of the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Women's Federation; as a member of the Council on Ministerial Finance, the Channing Bicentennial Birthday Celebration Committee, the American Unitarian Association Bicentennial Committee, the Emerson Centennial Committee, the Commission on Appraisal and the UU Peace Network; as President (1993–96) of the International Association for Religious Freedom; member of the Board and Chair (1996–98) of the Church of the Larger Fellowship; and Chair of the UU Women's Heritage Society, in addition to her service as Moderator. In 2002 she received the Award for Distinguished Service to the Cause of Unitarian Universalism.
Along with her husband of forty-eight years, Dr. Melvin Gulbrandsen, who died in 1991, Natalie was a well-recognized presence in her local community, having served on the Wellesley Human Relations Service, the Wellesley Youth Commission, the Wellesley Council of Girl Scouts, as a Town Meeting Member for twenty-four years and in many other positions. In 1981 she and Melvin were recognized by the Town of Wellesley with the Community Award for Distinguished Service.
But her interests and concerns reached far beyond Wellesley. She and her family hosted more than fifty international students; she was active in many environmental causes, recycling and composting in the 1950s long before these were common pursuits; being arrested in 1988 at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site in protest of ongoing U.S. testing of nuclear weapons; and traveling overseas frequently in the interests of liberal religion and religious freedom. For her remarkable contributions to a myriad of causes Natalie was awarded honorary doctoral degrees by both her alma mater, Bates College, and by Meadville Lombard Theological School.
Apart from all her achievements and honors, however, Natalie was a memorable combination of elegance and feistiness. She was a champion of women and an aficionado of humor. Ever ready to laugh at herself, she never was unkind to another even when she and that other disagreed. As one of her granddaughters observed, she was the "Queen of Moderation": she never swore or drank too much or wore her skirts either too long or too short but she was the essence of fairness and equitable procedure. In only two things was she immoderate: in her devotion to justice and the underdog and in her love for her family and her faith.
Perhaps most unusually, unlike many of us for whom leadership is almost always tinged with more than a touch of ego, that was never the way it was with Nat. It was never about her. More than any leader I have ever known, she was uninterested in her own glorification. It was always about the cause, the faith, the matter at hand, the religion she loved.
Natalie is survived by her children, Karen, Linda, Eric, Ellen and Kristin, twelve grandchildren, her brother, John Webber, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
The Gulbrandsen family will hold visiting hours at Doherty and Sons Funeral Home, 477 Washington Street in Wellesley, on Friday, November 9, from 5–8 p.m. A celebration of Natalie's life will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills, 309 Washington Street, on Saturday, November 10, at 10:30 a.m. to be followed by a luncheon reception at the Wellesley College Club. Cards and letters to the family may be addressed c/o Ms. Karen Bean, 489 North Road, Bethel, ME 04217.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Association marked "Gulbrandsen Scholarship Fund,” a fund that honors her commitment to strengthening international relations by providing Unitarian Universalist ministers and theological students with meaningful exposure to developing countries, so that their ministries might be informed by an understanding of the nature and consequences of poverty and of the economic differential between nations and regions of the world.
—William F. Schulz
For more information contact info @ uua.org.
Last updated on Tuesday, October 23, 2007.
