The Rev. Robert Maurais, the first headmaster of the Canterbury School in St. Petersburg, Fla. died on July 6, just after celebrating his 88th birthday.
“Father Bob” was raised in Rock Island, Ill. and served as a military police officer during the Korean War. He graduated from Seabury-Western, was ordained in 1958, and served for most of his ministry in Florida. He was headmaster of the Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa before founding the Canterbury School in St. Petersburg. Maurais also chaired the Commission on Schools of the Diocese of Southwest Florida from 1961-1967. He became rector of St. Edward’s Church, Mount Dora, Fl. in 1978, retiring in 1996. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Lois Erickson, four children, and three granddaughters.
The Rev. Wayne Nicholson, who served parishes in Michigan and New York, died of injuries sustained in a car accident on June 10.
Nicholson was sponsored for ordination by St. John’s Church in San Francisco, where the hassocks he needlepointed are still in use. He was trained for the ministry at General Seminary, where he helped found a homeless shelter on campus and served as chaplain to the seminary football team, censing the field before the big annual game against Virginia Seminary. He served in Chester, N. Y., and for over a decade as rector of St. John’s Church, Mount Pleasant, Mich. With his husband Harry, Nicholson recently retired to Mississippi. A former parishioner said of him, “Wayne was a man who appreciated the arts and understood how good music, art, food, drink, literature, and liturgy brought people closer together and improved everyone’s quality of life.”
Canon Charles H. “Chuck” Perfater, former chief financial officer for the Diocese of New Jersey and coordinator of Province II died on June 29 in Trenton, N. J.
He was a lifelong member of Trinity Cathedral in Trenton, and served in a variety of leadership capacities. Perfater worked in telecommunications, beginning just out of high school as a splicer’s assistant for the N. J. Bell Telephone Company and ending his career as a vice president of AT&T.
Beginning in the 1980’s, he served on multiple committees within the Diocese of New Jersey and as CFO of the Diocese from 1994 to 1996. He was a six-time deputy to General Convention, serving on the Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance. From 2003-2017, he was executive coordinator for Province II. His family described him as “an aggressive collector of meaningless items,” including a genealogical table of 9,000 interconnected familial names, over 1000 logo golf balls and 1,2000 matchbooks from public establishments throughout the world. Bishop Chip Stokes of New Jersey said of him, “Chuck was a “churchman” in the very best sense of the word. He loved his Lord, he loved The Episcopal Church (even when he occasionally disagreed with some of its positions), he loved the Diocese of New Jersey, he loved Trinity Cathedral and, in his later years, St. Peter’s-at-the-Light in Barnegat Light.”
Dr. Bob Stevens, founder of the Dominican Development Group, died July 29, aged 76.
Born in Manitowoc, Wis., Stevens came to Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles as a college student. After college, he served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, where he met and developed a friendship with Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity. He eventually moved to Georgia to work as Habitat’s first Director of Operations, and adopted Fuller’s philosophy for aid development, focusing on “flexible, adaptable plans that have broad-scale applications.”
He became planning and development officer for the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic in 1993, coordinating support and developing partnerships during a time of rapid expansion and growth. Stevens founded the Dominican Development Group in 2008, a non-profit organization that assists the Diocese of the Dominican Republic with project planning, program expansion, construction expertise while also raising funds for diocesan initiatives and coordinating mission trips based in the diocese’s churches and schools. In retirement, he began the creation of a Province IX Development Group, aiming to expand the Dominican model to the other Latin American Episcopal dioceses. He is survived by his wife, Vickie, four children and six grandchildren.
The Rt. Rev. Moises Quezada Mota, Bishop of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic, said of Stevens’ death, “Knowing this news produces a deep sadness in all of us by the departure of a person who for many years gave his life to the Dominican Episcopal Church. We know that for a person like Bob, God has reserved in eternity a place in the heavenly mansion where he can enjoy his glorious presence.”
The Rev. Lloyd H. Winter, Jr., who served in numerous parishes around his native Philadelphia, died June 7, aged 80.
Fr. Winter was rector of St. James, Langhorne, Pa. for 30 years, and came out of retirement to serve as interim rector of four different parishes in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. From 2004 until his death he was chaplain to the retired clergy, spouses and widows in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and also served for much of that time as an associate at St. Andrew’s, Yardley. He is survived by two daughters, Julia and Erica Winter.
The Rt. Rev. Daniel Gutierrez said of him, “Father Lloyd had a ready smile, a keen intellect, detailed administrative gifts and an infectious love of Jesus. He cared deeply about the Episcopal Church, retired clergy and his peers in this diocese.”