OLD SOUTH CHURCH
Capsule Biographies for
SLATE OF NOMINEES FOR ELECTION AT THE
2006 ANNUAL MEETING

By Order of the Church Council, the 336th Annual Meeting of the Old South
Church in Boston will take place in Mary Norton Hall following morning
worship on Sunday, February 5, 2006.
The congregation will elect officers for the ensuing year and transact other
business as may properly come before it. The slate of officers to be
recommended by the Leadership Committee has been publicized and posted in
the elevator lobby.An all-church luncheon will precede the meeting. Child
care will be provided.

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Presented by the Leadership Committee of Old South

Moderator: Jeff Makholm–
Jeff Makholm joined Old South in 1989 with his wife, Mercedes Ridao just before the baptism of their then 1-year-old child, Lauren. He served Old South as Stewardship chair from 1998 through 2001 and remained as a member of the Stewardship Committee through 2003. He also served on Council as Chair of the Music Committee from 1998 through 2001. Jeff was elected as a member of the Board of Trustees in 2001 for a five year term, serving as Secretary to the Board since 2002. He was a member of the Old South Ringers for three years. Jeff and Mercedes’ children, Lauren, Karla and Daniel, have all attended Old South Preschool and have been active members of the Church School and Youth Groups.

Treasurer: James Monsma –
Jim joined OSC with his wife Janice in the fall of 1980. He first served as a Deacon (as Secretary) in 1984, moving to Senior Deacon in 1985. He served on a number of committees in the 1980s (including Housing and Outreach) and as Clerk of Council from 1988 to 1996.

Clerk: David Clark –
David Clark has been a member of Old South for a little over 12 years and serves on the Communications Committee. Raised in the UCC in Connecticut, David continued his congregational affiliation during his college years at UC Berkeley. He is a firm believer in the inclusiveness of the Old South community while honoring its rich heritage. David is a self-employed technical consultant and lives in Back Bay.

Historian: Susan Campbell –
Suze joined OSC in 1979. She is currently the church historian. She taught Church School, produced three Christmas Pageants, served as a Deacon, as Chair of the Religion and the Arts Committee, and the Publications Committee. She has been a member of Leadership, Operations, Heritage, and Long Range Planning Committees, and in 1994 was Chair and producer of the OSC 325th Anniversary celebrations.

Council At-Large: Ian Holland –
Ian is finishing his four year term as a Deacon of Old South. He and his wife Pamela have been attending OSC since 1989 and were married in the church in 1991. Their children, Aine (8), and Nolan (11) attend Sunday school. The family has a historic link to the Old South Church through Pamela's grandmother, the late Catherine Dauber, the church's first woman moderator and long time member. Ian is Vice President of Architecture and Systems Engineering for Kronos, a local software company. Ian is also currently a student at Andover Newton Theological School. The Hollands live in Westford, MA.

Council At-Large: Scott Palmer–
Scott Palmer teaches political science and international relations at Boston University. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru and directed Latin American Studies at the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute. He lives in Belmont with his wife, Diane. Their seven children and six grandchildren are scattered across the U.S. (5 & 1) & Europe (2 & 5).

Council At-Large: Lise Beane–
Lise joined OSC in 1998. She currently serves on the Christian Service & Outreach and Religion and Arts committees. She is also the co-chair of the Caritas II-Back Bay/Beacon Hill fellowship group. Lise is a frequent greeter and usher.

Council At-Large: Eric Butler –
Eric was baptized here at OSC as an infant. He attended the Church School until his confirmation in 1974, and regularly serves as an usher.

Council At-Large: Ruth Purtilo –
Ruth joined Old South in March, 2005 with her husband Vard Johnson. She works as a medical ethicist and currently serves as a Director and Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute of Health Professions. Before moving back to Boston last fall, Ruth worked for twelve years as the Director of the Center for Health Policy & Ethics at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Deacon: Terry Wells–
Terry was born in upstate New York and graduated from Emerson College in 1985. He has lived in Jamaica Plain since 1989 and currently works in the office of Career Services at Suffolk University. He is very grateful for the kindness and support he has been shown at Old South Church.

Deacon: Margaret Sablove–
A member of Old South since 1996 (but a long time visitor before that), Margaret has served on the Christian Education Committee and is a participant in Women at the Well and Friends of Music. She is the parent of two children in the Church School.

Deacon: Jim McDonnel–
Jim started attending Old South and joined in 1984. He has been involved in many different ways over the decades, including serving two terms as a Deacon. Currently Jim serves as the AIDS Walk coordinator for our congregation and is employed at Old South as an Evening/Weekend Receptionist.

Deacon: Anna Yoder–
Anna joined Old South in 1991. She was very involved in the Caritas neighborhood groups and has sung in the choir. Anna is an avid reader and enjoys walking, movies and time with good friends.

Trustee: David Vogan –
David Vogan grew up in central Pennsylvania, where he married Lois Corman (long ago, in a galaxy far far away). They have a son Jonathan and a daughter Ali, and two cats. David teaches math at MIT, and likes to cook anything with chocolate in it. At Old South he's been on Deacons, the Outreach Committee, the Finance Committee, Council, and Trustees. His favorite job is ringing the tower bell, which he's done about sixty thousand times.

Trustee: Phil Stern
Phil has been a member of Old South since 1998. He served last year on the Trustees and before that served on the Christian Education Committee from 1999. He started and continues to direct the Children's Chime Choir, in which his daughter Emma and son Ben are participants. Phil's wife Susan sings in the Choir and Emma and Ben are in the Church School. In addition, both children previously attended the Old South Preschool.

Christian Education Committee Chair: Wayne Davis –
Wayne joined the church in 1984. He served as Senior Deacon, on the Board of Trustees and as a member of the Christian Ed committee for the past five years. Wayne has also taught Sunday School for the past decade. Wayne is a financial advisor with UBS Financial Services in downtown Boston. He and his wife Ann Merrifield have three children; Ben, Libbey and Nate.

Christian Service & Outreach Committee Chair: Maggie Mode –
Maggie has been a member of Old South for over fifteen years. She has served as a Deacon, along with being a member of numerous other Old South committees including Pastoral Care and Membership. She also started the Old South Mothers Group last year. Maggie was married at Old South in 1999 and lives in Newton with her husband, Darrell Byers and son, Sam.

Operations Committee Chair: Thomas Bulkeley –
Tom and his wife Nancy joined OSC in 2000. He currently serves as a member of the Operations Committee. He has two children in the Church School, Isabella and Henry.

Music Committee Chair: Mike Hand –
Mike joined OSC along with his wife Karen in June 2002 and has been a member of the OSC Choir since 2001. Prior to becoming a member of OSC, Mike was an active member of a Presbyterian Church where he held several elected positions.

Communications Committee: Evan Shu –
Evan Shu joined OSC in 1988. He is currently chair of the Communications Committee, administrator of the church’s web site and e-mail forum and is active in the Church School (with his wife Annamarie and children Amanda and Nate). He served on Deacons and as Senior Deacon from 1989-93 and as Moderator of Council from 1993-6. He has been a member of Young Adults, TAOS and the church Choir.
 
 

Leadership Committee Member: Dick Yeo
Dick and his wife Elinor joined the church in 2000 following Dick’s retirement as director of the Walker Center in Newton. He has served much of that time on the Membership Committee with responsibility for coordinating the Welcome Table and Docents. Dick has also been a member of the Senior Pastor Search Committee. For several years, he sang with the summer choir until it became apparent that this was a distraction from congregational worship! Dick is now retired from a dual career in the managing of philanthropic and church institutions.
 

Leadership Committee Member: Judy Fisher
Judy has been a member of Old South since 1994. She served on Council and has just completed a four-year term as Deacon, where she coordinated the Sunday flowers and the scheduling of ushers and greeters. She has also been weekly church office volunteer for the past several years.
 

Leadership Committee Member: Russ Gregg –
Russ and his wife Marcia have been members of OSC since 1994 and are church school parents of Christina and William. He has served as Moderator, a member-at-large of Council, on the By-Law Review Task Force, and as Chair of the Vision Planning Process Committee.
 

Finance Committee Chair: Larry Bowers –
Since Larry joined the church in 1974, he has been Moderator, Trustee, Deacon, Church School teacher, Chair of the By-Laws Review Committee and a member of the Young Adults fellowship. He most recently served as Clerk of Council and before that as the Chair of the Senior Minister Search Committee. Larry has also served as Chair, Metropolitan Boston Association Minister Search Committee; Moderator of the MBA; Board member of the City Mission Society.
 

Stewardship Committee Chair: Darrell Byers –
Darrell joined Old South in 2000. He is married to member Maggie Mode and their son Sam is in the Church School. He has served on the Stewardship Committee, as a member at-large on Council and on the Search Committee for the Assistant Minister.
 

Religion and Arts Committee Chair: Thomas Keydel –
Thomas Keydel has been a member of OSC for approximately 20 years. He has been a member of the Publications and Religion and Arts committees. Tom has chaired the
Theater at Old South twice and has been an active member of that group ever since its inception. He is also a participant in the LGBT & Friends Fellowship, serving on their planning committee.