Frances Fairfax (Keller) Barr, 99, a historian of the Episcopal Church, author, and lecturer, died July 13, at 99. She was a native and lifelong resident of Lexington, Kentucky, and a graduate of the University of North Carolina and the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Kentucky.
Barr was a fifth-generation member of Christ Church Cathedral, which she served as archivist, chairwoman of the Heritage Committee, board member of the Old Episcopal Burying Ground, a member of the altar guild, and as a licensed lay reader. She served three times on the vestry, both as junior and senior warden, and taught Sunday school and Bible classes. She was president of the Episcopal Church Women in the Diocese of Lexington.
She served as historiographer-registrar of the Diocese of Lexington for 26 years, and was associate editor of The Church Advocate for 15 years. She received the Order of Merit (the Bishop’s Medal) in 1975.
Mrs. Barr served on the board of trustees of two seminaries—Nashotah House and the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Kentucky. She was a member of the board of the Archives of the Episcopal Church and of the Living Church Foundation. She served on the Venture in Mission Committee of 200, appointed by Presiding Bishop John Maury Allin in 1976.
With Rebecca Smith Lee, she wrote The Great Elm Tree: Heritage of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington (1969), which covered the first 100 years of the Episcopal Church in Kentucky. She also wrote Ripe to the Harvest: History of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington 1895-1995, a booklet on the cathedral’s 200-year history (1976), and The Old Episcopal Burying Ground (2002).
Mrs. Barr is survived by a daughter, two sons, and four grandchildren.
The Rev. Peter L. Ingeman, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, died July 3 at 85. He was a native of Chicago.
Ingeman was a graduate of Rutgers University, Baylor University, and Nashotah House Theological Seminary. After completing a degree in fine arts at Rutgers, he became an art therapist. He began serving in the U.S. Army Reserves before he married in 1961. When his reserve unit deactivated, the Army asked him to attend occupational therapy school and commissioned him as a second lieutenant in the Army Medical Specialist Corps.
He was ordained to the diaconate in 1982 at St. Augustine’s Church in Augusta, Georgia. He retired from the Army in 1984 and was awarded the Legion of Merit. He was ordained a priest in 1987.
Ingeman began his ministry as assistant rector at Christ Church with the Rev. Henry Louttit and as the Episcopal chaplain at Valdosta State College. His next charge was at St. Francis of the Islands in Savannah, and he served there for 11 years.
In 2000, the Ingemans returned to Valdosta when he became rector of Christ Church, where he served for twelve years. The Ingemans remained in Valdosta after his retirement and he served at several other churches in the area. He maintained a lifelong love for art and painted until his health no longer permitted it.
He is survived by Happy, his wife of 64 years; two sons four grandchildren; two great-granddaughters.
The Rev. John Alexis Viereck, a priest of the Episcopal Church and later also of Zen Buddhism, died March 31 at 78. He was born in New York City to a Russian mother, Anya de Markov, and poet and historian Peter Viereck of Mount Holyoke College.
Viereck was a graduate of Harvard College and of Episcopal Theological School. He was ordained deacon in 1974 and priest in 1975.
Viereck’s early years fostered his lifelong love of nature, beauty, art, authenticity, simplicity, and spirituality. Coupled with an increasing sense of the divine, he developed a deep compassion for the wounded. He felt called to pursue peacemaking, both locally and more broadly, and “under the radar.”
In the late 1970s he moved to Southern California and joined the Jesus Movement. In the 1980s he joined the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles’ ministry to the neglected community of hurting children and adults with AIDS. Later, he established the Chapel of Saint John, primarily in Joshua Tree, California, but also elsewhere as he traveled.
During his middle and older years, he became an ordained Zen priest and blended diverse, sometimes conflicting, faith rituals with a strong desire to connect. He referred to his faith as “Zen Catholicism,” because he also officiated with joy at Saint Hugh of Lincoln Church in Idyllwild, California, as its vicar.
He is survived by his younger sister, Valerie Viereck Gibbs; two nieces; a nephew; four great-nephews; and three great-nieces.
Other Deaths
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
