As many of you know, Dick transitioned peacefully with his beloved wife Phyllis of 62 years, by his side and friends and family showering him with love, calls, visits, songs, prayers, and so much more in the weeks up to his passing. Please see lovely Obituary below. PLEASE add, photos of Dick, Phyllis, yourselves, along with memories of this spectacular man, peace warrior, and human being on the Memory Wall. Thank you.
Obituary
Richard K. Taylor, 91, of Philadelphia, lifelong world peace activist, founder and former
executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Delaware Valley, cofounder of Witness for
Peace and Movement for a NewSociety, author, mentor, and humanitarian, died Monday, Oct.14, of complications from age associated issues at KeystoneCare Home Health and Hospice in Wyndmoor.
Mr. Taylor was born in Philadelphia’s Germantown Hospital in 1933. He grew up in Elkins Park as a Quaker, found fellowship at Abington and Germantown Friends Meeting, embraced the Catholic Church in the 1980s, and spent his life traveling the world to promote peace, equality, and justice.
He founded the Fair Housing Council in 1959, and later cofounded Witness for Peace, Movement for a New Society,
the Philadelphia Life Center, and other social service and faith- based organizations to advance his efforts. He modeled Mahatma Gandhi, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day. His son, Dan, called him a
“warrior for peace, nonviolence, and social justice.”
He worked on dozens of betterment projects and publicly confronted questionable U.S. government policies, human rights violations, housing discrimination, violence and torture round the world, environmental and economic controversies, war, and racism. He was a field staffer in the 1960s for King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he walked in the 1963 March on Washington.
He spoke Spanish and traveled to war-torn Nicaragua and El Salvador, rural Mexico, Guatemala, South Africa, and elsewhere to help the underserved and be what he called a “nonvioent deterrent” to local brutality.
He was part of the 1971 nonviolent demonstrations against U.S. government policy regarding Pakistan and what became Ban-
gladesh, and featured in the 2016 documentary Blockade.
“I’m especially concerned about all the torture practiced by governments that our government supports,” he told The Inquirer in 1982. In 1985, he said: “We want to create a more positive American influence.”
He fought for fair housing through the Quaker-based American Friends Service Committee and served in El Salvador as a conscientious objector. He taught college classes on social justice and later worked nine years for the Philadelphia Arch-
diocesan Commission for World Peace and Justice.
In 1990, he was one of several activists who toured the former Soviet Union during its collapse.
His constant goal, his family said in a tribute, was to “bring truth to power.”
He and his wife, Phyllis, also a world peace activist, were featured in The Inquirer and other publications, and he spoke often
about social justice issues on radio shows and at rallies and protests. Nearly 100 of his articles, papers, and pamphlets were published, and he produced videos and wrote a dozen books, guides, and manuals, including 1977′s Blockade: A Guide to Non-
violent Intervention and 1994′s Training Manual for Nonviolent Defense Against the Coup d’État.
He and his wife helped the Baker family painfully integrate Folcroft in 1963, and he told listeners at a 1990 world peace demonstration in Philadelphia that God “cares deeply about what we do to each other here on Earth.” He served as parish
services coordinator and cochair of the African American Leadership Committee in the 1990s and helped integrate St. Vincent de
Paul Church. “He was a deep friend to so many,” his son said, “and mentor to thousands who heard his words, read his work, and
watched him lead.“
Richard Knight Taylor was born Feb. 25, 1933. He was reared by his father and grandparents, and graduated from Germantown Friends School. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Haverford College and a yearlong Rockefeller Brothers Theological Fellowship to the Yale Divinity School. He was interested in sociology and anthropology,and he studied at Cornell University and what is now the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
He met fellow activist Phyllis Brody at a civil rights event in 1962, and they married in 1963, and lived in Germantown, West Mount Airy, and West Philadelphia. They reared son Daniel and daughter Deborah, and welcomed dozens of other children and families into their home and orbits for more than 60 years.
“They were tethered by love and respect for each other, and social justice from Day One,” their son said. Her motto was:
“One leg is me. One leg is Dick.”
Mr. Taylor liked to hike, ski, canoe, and body surf. He was introspective and funny. He was good at skipping
stones, and he played guitar with “a sparkle in his eye,” his family said. He sang on buses and at demonstrations and detention centers. One of his favorite songs was “We Shall Overcome.”
“He was very moral, ethical, and dignified,” his wife said. “He had a presence around him.”
In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Taylor is survived by several grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and other
relatives.
Services are to be held at 1:30p.m., Saturday, Dec. 14, at Germantown Friends Meeting, 47W. Coulter St., Philadelphia, Pa.
19144.
Donations in his name may
be made to Face-to-Face, 123 E.
Price St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19144;
and Against Malaria Foundation,
Citibank NA, Box 7247-6370,
Philadelphia, Pa. 19170.
By Gary Miles
Staff Writer- Philadelphia Inquirer
2nd Obituary in CH Local
It is impossible to overstate the contributions to the causes of social justice made by Richard Knight Taylor, 91, who died Oct. 14 of complications from age-related illnesses at KeystoneCare Home Health and Hospice in Wyndmoor.
He served as a field worker for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference civil rights organization in the 1960s and was a local organizer for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's Poor People's campaign. Taylor founded the Fair Housing Council in 1959 and later started other faith-based and social service nonprofits. In the 1960s, Taylor marched with Dr. King.
“Dick was a person of great integrity,” said his wife Phyllis, who met her husband when they were involved in the civil rights movement. “He never backed away from injustice and always addressed it in a non-violent way.”
The Taylors were equally involved in numerous causes during their almost 62 years of marriage, 55 of which were spent living in Northwest Philadelphia, mostly in Mt. Airy. For the last 12 years, the couple lived at the Stapeley Retirement Home in Germantown, a diverse community that Phyllis Taylor calls a “wonderful place” with a “a real sense of community.”
Dr. Daniel Taylor, the Taylors’ son, described his father’s leadership as one approached with a “quiet focus,” and with unwavering dedication.
“His moral compass was unlike anyone else's I've ever met,” said Daniel Taylor, of Mt. Airy, a pediatrician at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. “When he saw injustice, he went all in to create systemic change but in an intelligent, thoughtful way. And he and my mom had a perfect partnership. They were always together mentally and in protests and in every other way. It was incredible to watch when I was growing up.”
I met Richard Knight Taylor and his wife more than 55 years ago while working as a volunteer with Amnesty International, writing many letters to the leaders of authoritarian countries, urging them to free political prisoners. It became immediately obvious that the Taylors were a force for good and that they were in it for the long haul. They just exuded love, selflessness and spirituality.
Taylor, who was born at Germantown Hospital into a family of Quakers, said in an earlier interview that he became a Catholic in the early 1980s because the church's "Christ-centered message" and teachings on social responsibility appealed to him. He said in 2005 that he was fearful of a large exodus of Catholics if significant changes were not made in the church.
Taylor, who participated in countless civil rights and peace demonstrations, traveled widely to countries including Nicaragua, South Africa, Mexico and the Soviet Union working with nonviolent movements in those countries to battle injustice and brutality. He taught classes on social justice and worked for nine years with the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Commission for World Peace and Justice. He produced videos and wrote countless books, articles, papers, manuals and pamphlets to publicize injustices in the U.S. and in countries he traveled to. The Swarthmore College Peace Collection is the official repository for the papers of Richard and Phyllis Taylor.
“One of the highlights of our lives was helping as members of Amnesty International to contribute to getting a female political prisoner out of prison in Argentina,” said Phyllis, who currently works with people who are incarcerated. “We were with her sister when we greeted her at the airport. We were all in tears.”
Phyllis Taylor emphasized that her family’s dedication to social justice did not interfere with their connection to each other.
“You do not have to give up your family to do social justice work,” Phyllis Taylor said. “It is important not to forget the people close to you. Dick was a deeply spiritual person and a man of honor.”
In addition to his wife and son, Taylor is survived by daughter, Deborah Minja Taylor Wagner, many other children and families that were welcomed into the Taylors' home for more than 50 years, several grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other relatives.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, Dec. 14, 1:30 p.m., at Germantown Friends Meeting, 47 W. Coulter St. in Germantown. Donations in Taylor's name may be made to Face to Face, 123 E. Price St., Phila., PA 19144; and Against Malaria Foundation, Citibank NA, Box 7247-6370, Phila., PA 19170.
Kristin Holmes contributed to this article. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com
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I stayed in touch with them through the years, especially after becoming a colleague and good friend of their son Dan who carries their "torch" in his own extraordinary way. Their lessons have became a part of who I am.
I last saw Dick a few years back when I joined him, Phyllis and Dan at dusk on cool fall evening to watch Chimney Swifts whirl in a flock and dramatically drop one by one into the Chimney of the Houston Elementary School where they had chosen to rest for the night. It was a peaceful and beautiful affirmation of the presence Nature asserts even in the urban environment.
That moment has stayed with me and gave me an excuse to look for a fitting quotation about birds that speaks to my feelings about Dick!
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” — Maya Angelou
Dick's song, I know, will stay with many of us for the rest of our lives.
Terry Trudeau
by David Hartsough
Dick Taylor has been a Spiritual Giant in my life since the late 1960s. He lived a life of love and service and nonviolent action, building a more just and peaceful world all his life. It has been a joy to be on this journey with Dick. Here are some of my special memories:
Dick and Phyllis, Deb and Dan, Jan and I and Peter and Heidi and Bill Moyer and Sue Carroll went to the Grand Tetons together, camped and cooked, hiked and canoed and drank in the beauty of the Grand Teton mountains. We became dear friends.
*Dick and Phyllis invited Jan, me, Peter and Heidi to live with them together with Deb and Dan and Bill Moyer and Sue Carroll 1971-73 at Daybreak in the Life Center in Philadelphia. where we sang, prayed, cooked, ate together, and strategized together, We lived together, supported one another, shared childcare and caused "good trouble" - including the People's Blockade of bombs going to Vietnam, sending Bill Moyer to Wounded Knee to support Native Americans who were being threatened by the Federal government, and working together on AFSC's New Society Working Party. We did our best to Live the Revolution together. This was the beginning of the Movement for a New Society.
* Remembering Dick who had organized a worship service at the Naval Weapons Station in Leonado NJ where Dick was hit by the train as he tried to block the train. Dick was lying between the tracks under the train which carried bombs to the ship USS Nitro to be dropped on the people in Vietnam. Dick had risked his life because of his love for the people of Vietnam. We were all so very glad Dick was still alive!!!!
*Leading a Nonviolent training with Dick at George Fox College in Oregon. We then drove down the beautiful Oregon coast and whenever either of us wanted to stop to take in the beauty at a deeper level, we would stop and walk and drink in the beauty for as long as we wanted. We averaged about three miles an hour for several days so it was slow, but how nourishing for our souls!.
*Working together on the strategy group of Witness for Peace in Nicaragua. Dick was a very good strategist and great facilitator of groups
*Working together on the Shakertown Pledge encouraging all people to live more simply and to work for a more equitable sharing of the world's resources.
Dick's books including Blockade and Economics of the Gospel, Both very powerful books and an inspiration to me..
Dick's work for racial Justice in Philadelphia and the suburbs which helped build a more just Philadelphia area.
After we moved to San Francisco in 1973, we have kept in close contact with Dick and Phyllis over the years often by phone and when we could, visiting one another in Phila or San Francisco. We have felt deeply that we are one family!
Dick's sense of humor. He never gave up. Building a just and peaceful world is a long term project.
Dick will live on in all of us who loved him and those who were touched by his life and love. Thank you Dick for your love and your life, a life truly lived as a Child of God!
In later years, since 2004 when I returned to Philly, I became a spiritual confidant with Dick. What an awesome privilege! Imagine my sitting across from this great and humble man (in his wheelchair most recently) and having him share his soul (Quaker and Catholic!), and then having him listen to my spiritual struggles.
In his last weeks, I had the privilege of being with Phyllis and Dan as we anointed him, read his psalms, and he got ready to go to God. The last time I saw him--a week before he died--he was only dressed in a diaper (like Jesus, I thought). I leaned down and we kissed each others cheeks as he lay upon his bed. With that same winsome smile, he said goodbye. I knew I was saying goodbye to a saint. Be with us now, dear Dick. We need you now more than ever!
I am grateful for his presence in my work, in my life.
One memory, though, has stood out for the past 25 years. A few days after my soul friend and husband, Jim Lafferty died…very young and very suddenly…in June of 1999, Dick and Phyllis arrived at my home bearing love, comfort, and again, from Dick’s fertile pocket, a small, rolled white bundle. Dick led me and my three teenage children out to our back deck for a little privacy.
And there, as we gathered around him at a picnic table, he began to slowly unfurl the white handkerchief in which he had stored treasures, balm for our souls, a message about life, and death, that has stayed with me ever since.
In Quakerly, spacious Silence, Dick unrolled the fabric, revealing what he had gathered earlier that day: every sequential stage of a dandelion’s life: from seed to sprout, bud to bloom, ending in puffy seed head, and finally, the exhausted seed pod.....all the seeds dispersed to birth new life in another season.
Dick’s intimate connection to the more-than-human-world allowed him to do what so few of us humans can do: be silent, let the truth of Life and Rebirth be spoken in another, universal language, a language older than words. Presence like this gets emblazoned on the heart. When I told one of my daughters that Dick’s earthly walk was over, her immediate response was, “I’ll never forget when he brought the dandelions over after Dad died.”
So Dick is living on in me, in us. I hope to honor his life by gratefully remembering all he taught me, living into it, and passing it on. Love is Eternal.
Presente!
When I came to St. Vincent's nearly 13 years ago, It was a time of transition and pain in the parish. Dick and Phylis were the only people to write me beforehand welcoming me to St. Vincent's and its Mission for Justice.
I would love to just sit at the feet of Dick and learn from him how to be prophetic, how to be courageous, how to be true to God and my Faith.
One of St. Vincent's favorite songs is "There's a s
Sweet Sweet Spirit in this place". Whenever I would visit Dick and listen to him and pray with him, I would definitely feel that Spirit.
Thank You Dick!!!
Fr. Sy
Much later, I remember Dick’s deep concern and empathy when forming a committee to strategize ways to retain members of our church community whose numbers were dwindling. Dick referred to these members as those “hanging on by their fingertips,” and he worked tirelessly to renew their hope in our experience of faith and community.
There is a face of Dick that I will always remember. As a representative of the Leader of Prayer ministry, a group of mostly women charged to lead certain allowable parts of the liturgy, I attended weekly meetings to review the liturgy of the past week and prepare for upcoming liturgies. A specific liturgical practice was discussed over the course of several weeks and a decision reached by the committee as to what the liturgical practice would be in our community. When the liturgy happened, however, the priests in power ignored the decision of the group. The liturgical practice was altered, the voice of committee members silenced. Collaboration was an absolute bust and trust was broken. I processed this difficult experience with Dick, asking how we survive such leadership and why we should bother pretending to collaborate as a church community. He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, “But, Joanie, you are our priests.” That was Dick, always calling forth the priestly ministry that is ours in baptism; empathetic to one’s pain but challenging us beyond our personal experience into the communal faith journey. I am ever grateful for his companionship and wisdom along the road.
Dick invited me to visit him at the Life Center, the community base for the Movement for a New Society. This was the place for me! I joined shortly thereafter and for several years lived with Dick and Phyllis and Danny and Debby, and a variety of other non-violent-social-change "radicals."
We travelled together, we demonstrated together, we delved deeply into spiritual belief and practice. My wife, Susan Corson, first met me at a demonstration in Washington DC that Dick helped organize.. So he was our Cupid!
In 1981 Susan and I joined Germantown Meeting, becoming Quakers, and that was the same meeting that Dick and Phyllis belonged to. See what I mean about following him around?
Our families have been close ever since. In his closing years, I visited him often, and we went for drives and shared memories. I took him several times to his grandparents' house in Elkins Park where he told me about his life as a very adventurous teenager, one who loved bicycling and sledding and hiding out in the bushes with his friends to spy on people.
I recently saw the film Bonhoffer. The spirit of that man, who lost his life trying to break the Nazi hold on Germany--that was the spirit that I saw in Richard Taylor. Dick had the same obsessive drive to fight injustice, even at significant personal risk. His spirit was aligned with Martin Luther King, with Ghandi, with Archbishop Oscar Romero, and with Jesus of Nazareth. Like them, Dick had a charisma that inspired others to join in the struggle, and to "speak truth to Power."
I loved Dick Taylor, and in his last days I was able to say that to him as he slowly passed away. Don't think that was the first time. We both considered ourselves as brothers. My one regret is that he won't be there at my memorial in person. I am sure he will be there in spirit.
It was the 80’s ( interpret the Reagan/Bush years), and we were lucky enough to find St. Vincent’s church and especially a remarkable group of like minded people
people to know and love. And we still do.
We have many years of memories of Dick, but the standout one for us is his “schtik” at parties and gatherings. He arrived with his shirt pocket stuffed with notecards and papers. Upon first seeing for the first time, we thought he must be a nerdy egghead.
……in fact his pocket was filled with jokes, stories and songs that he delivered with such great style and effect that it turned a gathering into a fiesta!
One favorite was The Capitol Steps songs and limericks
(called LIRTY DIES …..look it up! ). These were talented young ex Capitol interns and staffers who formed a left leaning group whose music cut through those dark Republican years with music, wit and satire.
Their music was like Tom Lehrer’s but more like show tunes.
and Dick was a master of these amazing cameos when he would perform these dark political lyrics juxtaposed with a cheery title and chorus.
This memory is fixed in our minds of Dick, a man of high principle and right action, who also loved to laugh, sing and dance with people in the midst of the full catastrophe.
Check out the albums by the Capitol Steps:
I’M SO INDITED
and
FOOLS ON THE HILL
Frank and Kathye Torrisi
One of those that he recited was the 63rd Psalm. This is part of it:
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
2
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
He knew these not just by memory but literally "by his heart" which he would put his hand on when he said it. And it gave him strength in difficult times.
Whether he showed up for a meeting or a march or worship or singing showtunes around the piano, he added something tangible even though he wasn’t a showboat. There was a degree of availability in Dick that made the occasion fuller, more real. I experienced him as very Quakerly in his lack of pretension while not holding back in sharing his wide knowledge. Also in his care with accuracy while working with something controversial we were trying to figure out, and pitching a viewpoint that didn’t shut down the views of others.
Dick inspired me. He knew we wouldn’t get justice and peace without fierce, courageous struggle, and believed we’d get farther if we exercised care with comrades. I’m grateful to have known him.
Still now, after his death, he is listening, giving me answers, to the glorious, infinite, complicated, world around us. What a gift.
Service
We will come together to remember and pay tribute to the wonderful person. While we mourn the loss of our dear, we also aim to cherish the moments shared and the joy brought into our lives. Your presence would mean a great deal to us during this time of remembrance and reflection.
19144.
Time: Dec 14, 2024 01:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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