Yale Divinity School

After retiring as Associate Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Reid Isaac ’49 B.D. spent ten years organizing and chairing the Cleveland Ecumenical Institute for Religious Studies which brought together teachers from local colleges and universities with lay persons from a wide variety of protestant and Catholic congregations. During the same period, Reid served as a volunteer with the Cleveland Board of Education’s GED program tutoring adults in writing. He continued mentoring an Education for Ministry Group, the University of the South’s four-year program of theological education for laypersons, which he retired from after 22 seasons. Reid entered the Judson Retirement Community in Cleveland in 1999 and continues to participate in church activities, attend the Cleveland Orchestra and spend summers in Ashfield, MA across the Mohawk Trail from his friends Dot and Dick Gary ’51 B.D. He sold his house in Massachusetts in 2003, because driving those miles was not something Dick wanted to do any more, but he exercises in the Judson Pool (three flights up) three times a week and is developing his bridge game and a new set of friends. He’ll spare you the organ recital, but at 82 he is surprisingly alive and continually grateful for those life-changing years at YDS. Reid is not sure he’ll make it to the 60th reunion, but he’ll think about it.

Eleanor and David Rowand ’49 M.Div. celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on June 5, 2008. David and Eleanor pastored churches in Vermont, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, and Michigan. After retirement in 1984, they did nine stints as interim pastors in Alabama, West Virginia, and Florida, where they retired. They have one daughter, Deborah, who is married and lives in Atlanta, GA. Eleanor is still recovering from a year of serious surgeries and uses a walker to get around. Rowand is still doing well health-wise and hopes to be around as long as the Good Lord allows him to be with his beloved wife and family. He keeps classmates in his thoughts and prayers.

After leaving YDS William H. Mackintosh ’49 M.Div. completed his M.A. work at Pennsylvania Univeristy before earning a D.Phil. at Oxford University; and in 1958 he became ordained in the Church of Scotland.  After serving churches in Edinburgh, London, and Denver, Mackintosh moved on to a professorship at Regis Unversity.  In 1983 he moved to pastor First Presbyterian Church in New Orleans and teach Media Arts at Tulane College.  In 1993, Mackintosh founded Interfaith Communications International in Denver, a non-profit corporation promoting unity among Roman Catholic, Protestant Reformed and Eastern Orthodox Churches through ecumenical prayer services and study groups.   In 2000, he moved back to New Orleans, where he continues his work with Interfaith Communications and serves at Our Lady of the Rosary Church.  He has four children with his first wife, Eva, now deceased and two step children by his wife Ruth, a Liturgical Artist whose company “Art & Design” creates glorious religious art and stained glass windows in scores of Churches in the South.

Harriet Van Riper Smith ’49 M.Div. participates in an ecumenical group of “main line” denominations that plan year by year for what is called “Lenten Renewal Week-End.” They seek outstanding speakers and invite the entire community to join in a Sunday worship service.  She is pleased to have a role in the planning of this event, which is significant for our coastal community of 8000 residents. She and her husband Dick continue to enjoy sharing the ministries of their sons:  Kirk, the Episcopal Bishop of AZ and Paul, a Presbyterian minister in a joint parish in WV and MD.  They also remain involved in their local Presbyterian congregation in many ways and are thankful for the years at YDS as they, too, contribute to their church life.