Natalie W. Gulbrandsen; helped scouts, battled nuclear tests

NATALIE W. GULBRANDSEN

When age kept Natalie Webber Gulbrandsen from traveling across the country and around the world supporting social justice causes, she stayed home and opened her checkbook.

"In the last couple of years, when I was trying to help my mother organize her finances, she was giving to every organization under the sun," said her daughter Karen Bean of Bethel, Maine. "I said, 'You don't have to give to everyone,' and she said to me, 'Well, you know, I've had so much in my life that I have a responsibility to give back.' "

From wielding the gavel as national moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association to being led away in handcuffs while protesting at Nevada Nuclear Test Site to guiding young girl scouts and boy scouts in suburban Boston, Mrs. Gulbrandsen devoted her life to giving and to leaving behind a better world than the one she inherited.

Mrs. Gulbrandsen, who held the Unitarian Universalist Association's highest lay post for eight years, died at her home in Newton Oct. 17 after a period of failing health. She was 88 and had previously lived for many years in Wellesley.

With two honorary doctorates - one from Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago for her work with the Unitarian Universalist Association, the other from Bates College, her alma mater in Lewiston, Maine - Mrs. Gulbrandsen was no stranger to recognition. She found such honors superfluous, however.

"For her, the cause was what was most important," said William F. Schulz of Gloucester, who was president of the Unitarian Universalist Association when Mrs. Gulbrandsen was moderator. "She was not fussy about receiving personal notice or acclaim. It was about the success of the movement or the organization."

Bean said her mother believed that "if you don't like something, go out there and do something. You have to act on the things you want to see changed. Talking isn't going to cut the mustard."

The eldest of five children, Natalie Webber was born in Beverly. She graduated from Beverly High School, where she met Melvin Gulbrandsen, who was a year younger. They became a couple while attending Bates College, where she majored in sociology.

After graduating in 1942, she was a social worker, placing some children in foster homes and removing other children from abusive homes.

In 1943 she married Melvin Gulbrandsen and started working for the Girl Scouts of America while her husband attended dental school. Three years later, they moved to Wellesley and began attending what was then the local Unitarian church. Mrs. Gulbrandsen found her calling as she brought up her children.

From teaching Sunday school it was a quick leap to a serving on committees and holding posts such as treasurer and then president of the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation and president of the International Association for Religious Freedom.

She and her husband also served on a Wellesley committee that helped bring the Metco program - the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity - to their community when minority students were bused from Boston to attend school in the affluent suburb.

In addition, the Gulbrandsens hosted dozens of international students through the years.

"She believed in education and she believed that by educating people, you could change the world," their daughter said. "And so they gave a home to international students. Family was about something greater than your children and grandchildren, it was about providing a home to anyone who needed one."

Volunteering didn't stop at church and schools, however. Mrs. Gulbrandsen was an early promoter of environmental causes.

"She was hugging trees before the rest of us knew trees needed to be hugged," Schulz said.

In the late 1980s, she traveled to Nevada and joined the protests at the nuclear test site, sending a message with her presence and the image it left.

"She was always rather pleased that a, quote, proper, unquote, New England lady had been arrested at the test site, put in handcuffs, and taken away," Schulz said.

At around the same time, Mrs. Gulbrandsen was involved in reviving a program of partner churches in the United States and abroad. She and others had planned a trip to Romania before the overthrow and execution of the country's dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. With his death, the trip took on new meaning.

In 1990, Mrs. Gulbrandsen talked about her journey while speaking to the general assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association and recalled visiting a church.

"As I looked around at those faces, I tried to imagine what this Sunday meant to them," she said, according to an excerpt of her speech posted on the Internet. "This, you remember, was only the third Sunday after the revolution and the sniper fire had just stopped a day or two before. . . . Tears were streaming down the faces of both the men and the women."

The following year her husband died. Mrs. Gulbrandsen continued her work with the church and other organizations and by example showed how best to lead.

"She had a strict moral compass and a finger to point the way," Schulz said. "You always knew where you stood with Natalie. She was a very direct person, she was a feisty person, she was an amusing person. She had her views and you always knew what they were. I always found her delightful."

Five years ago, at its 41st General Assembly, the Unitarian Universalist Association gave her the distinguished service award.

"I have never wavered from the UU faith," she said in remarks quoted on an association website. "It is the bulwark of strength in my life."

In addition to her daughter Karen Bean, Mrs. Gulbrandsen leaves three other daughters, Linda Goldsmith of Newton, Ellen Williams of Raymond, Maine, and Kristen Morgan of Holliston; a son, Eric of Lovell, Maine; a brother, John Webber of Danvers; six grandsons; and five granddaughters.

A service has been held.