Rev. Rudolph Roell, 99; led parish for a quarter century

REV. RUDOLPH ROELL

Before deciding ministry was his calling, the Rev. Rudolph Roell contemplated careers such as taking the Foreign Service exam, teaching fly-fishing, or giving educational bird lectures.

"In my youth I had attended church services and occasionally took part in church activities, but it was a surface thing which had no life-changing impact on me," he wrote in 1996 for his Princeton University class of 1933 newsletter. But a year after graduating from college, "I began to think that I ought to do something about this lack in my life."

The path he followed led to ordination to the Episcopal priesthood and to St. Paul's Church in Dedham, where he was rector for more than a quarter-century. Twenty days before turning 100, Rev. Roell died on Feb. 7 in Ellis Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Norwood.

Almost to the end he had lived in his house around the corner from St. Paul's, alone in the years since his wife died. Never one for doctors, Rev. Roell placed his health in the hands of the Lord and his body beneath the covers whenever his vigor faded.

"He was not a strong believer in modern medicine," said the Rev. Michael Hodges, current rector of St. Paul's. "He used to tell me that the way he dealt with illness in his life was basically to crawl into bed and sleep until he felt better. He believed if he rested, God would renew his strength. That was his cure-all."

Leading St. Paul's from 1947 to 1973, Rev. Roell presided as attendance grew and changes in society came knocking at the church door. Forward-looking in an understated way, he allowed the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" to be played over the sanctuary's sound system near the end of his tenure.

"He had to listen to it first, to be sure it was all right, and he said, 'That's OK,' and it really surprised us," said Sally Burt, a longtime parishioner. "Even though he was from a different era, if you convinced him, he was willing to come into the modern era."

That included taking care to not step on the toes of his successors, which included the Rev. Blayney Colmore, who was 32 and wore his hair long when he took over from Rev. Roell in 1973.

"He was an austere Yankee, and he scared the daylights out of me," Colmore, who in retirement divides his time between Jacksonville, Vt., and La Jolla, Calif., said of his initial impressions, which turned out to be wrong. "Rudy was portrayed to me by the calling committee as kind of cold and distant, but he was not."

Indeed, the incoming and outgoing rectors bonded initially over something they were not. Though both were Ivy Leaguers - Rev. Roell from Princeton, Colmore from the University of Pennsylvania - neither had played for the home team, as Harvard was seen in some Dedham circles.

"Rudy said he was glad I didn't go to Harvard," Colmore said. "He spent 26 years defending Princeton against all these crusty Harvard guys, and he was worried they would hire a Harvard guy to be the new rector."

Which is not to say Rev. Roell lacked any New England academic credentials. Born in Elizabeth, N.J., he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy before attending Princeton. The preaching life still wasn't on his mind when he first decided to attend Union Theological Seminary in New York City and went to speak with the school's president, the Rev. Henry Sloane Coffin.

"I told him frankly that I was not thinking about entering the ministry, but did want to study subjects in religion," he wrote in the Princeton newsletter.

That changed as he continued his studies, which included classes at General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City.

Ordained in 1937, he spent a couple of years as a curate at Christ Church in Ridgewood, N.J., then more than seven years as an assistant to the rector of St. James Church in New York City. While there, he met and married Elizabeth Johnson. The couple's only child, Eliza, died as an infant.

At St. Paul's in Dedham, Rev. Roell wrote for his class newsletter, "my hours were devoted to preparation for preaching, teaching, calling on the sick, conducting services, administration, and to a real effort to know my parishioners. It was a full-time job, but it was a work I loved."

To spend time with his flock, he looked beyond the church to the golf course and social gatherings. He was a member of Dedham Country and Polo Club and Riomar Country Club in Vero Beach, Fla., where he spent winters after retiring and was still playing nine holes a couple of years ago.

"In summer, the dominant conversation was not theology; it was golf," said George McCormick, a friend and neighbor for the past 11 years. "He was a golf fanatic."

And Rev. Roell "loved parties," Burt recalled. "He always said, 'Lovely party,' on the way out, even if there were only five people there."

Nearly a decade ago, ill health prevented Rev. Roell from attending his 65th reunion at Princeton, so he sent along an essay with a note that "if you decide to do nothing with it, it won't hurt my feelings because I've had the fun of writing it and it has helped to strengthen my own faith."

Having passed his 90th birthday, Rev. Roell ruminated about what might happen when his life ended. The essay was printed in the summer 1998 newsletter for his class.

"Our residence on this planet is something that, in our adult life, we have always known to be temporary," he wrote, "But as we grow older, it may be that we are beginning to think of this situation in a more serious way. . . . Let me say at once, I believe in an afterlife, because we are essentially spiritual beings. I think most of us have the feeling that our real selves are not merely the physical bodies we inhabit so briefly on this earth."

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today in St. Paul's Church in Dedham.