Frederick Morgan Hart

The Reverend Frederick Morgan Hart passed peacefully and painlessly just before midnight on August 10th, with family members at his side. Fred was a mountaineer, a sailor, a cyclist, a mathematician, a chemist, an Episcopal priest, a lover of poodles, a teller of tales, a father of six, and a devoted husband.

Fred's first career was as an industrial chemist. Trained at West Virginia Wesleyan College, as his father had been before him, he worked as a chemist for U.S. Steel, the USDA, Bjorksten Research Labs and the Glidden Company before being hired by Dr. David Pall to run his new pilot plant for the manufacture of fine filters at Pall Corporation in Long Island, New York, where he was to stay until his retirement. Over the years, his research in chemistry resulted in several U.S. patents and scientific journal publications.

Yet Fred's true calling was as a member of the clergy. Graduated in 1985 from the Mercer School of Theology of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, he was ordained a deacon in 1987 and a priest in 1989. Serving as Assistant, Interim and Associate Priest at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Farmingdale, New York, he continued on as Rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Riverhead, New York, and as Rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Union City, Tennessee.

Father Fred's ministries went beyond the walls of the church. He served as chaplain with the International Order of St. Luke the Physician and the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and as an advisory council member with the Salvation Army. He was active in the Cursillo Movement, serving variously as head spiritual advisor, rector, musician and team member on many Cursillo weekends, and contributed to the Cursillo Songbook as editor and songwriter. He also served as Chairman of the Northport Refugee Resettlement Group and Secretary of the Long Island Refugee Resettlement Council, helping countless families find new homes and new lives here in the U.S. He devoted his time and care to youth communities as well, volunteering as bible teacher at Camp DeWolfe, the Diocesan youth summer camp in Wading River, New York, as a Den Leader with Cub Pack 115, and as an Assistant Scout Master with Troop 12 in Huntington, New York.

Fred loved the water and the mountains. He maintained several boats over the years, including a twenty-foot sloop he built by hand with his best friend. An active member of the Mountaineers of Washington State, Fred led several climbs around the Olympics, the Cascades and Mount Rainier. He contributed frequently to the club's magazine Mountaineer with photographs and accounts of climbing trips, and served on the publication committee for the third edition of the tome Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. Though the height of his climbing career was summiting Mt. Aconcagua, the highest peak in both the western and southern hemispheres, he never left the mountains, even after making a reluctant departure from the rugged beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Summers on the east coast were spent camping with his family in the Adirondacks and rock climbing in the Gunks, and after retiring from his final post as rector, he headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina to enjoy many wonderful years at the Bear Den with Mama Jean. Ever yearning to return to the mountains and water of the northwest, they eventually moved back to Washington, finding a quiet little home on the Kitsap Peninsula overlooking the Hood Canal, with a glorious view of the Olympic Mountains from the back porch.

Fred's final meal was a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream, his favorite. His last words were, "Well, I think I've said everything there needs to be said."

The Reverend Frederick Morgan Hart is survived by wife Jean, brothers Philip and William, daughters Sarah, Laura, Elizabeth and Susannah, sons Thomas and William, grandchildren Ethan, Maggie, Layla, Tom, Lucy, Sam, Eloise and Fred, and poodle Bernie.