When a newcomer or long-time member of UU enters our building, the experience of being in that beautiful space has a positive emotional and spiritual impact. I know, because it happened and continues to happen to me. I am thanking Bill Elder specifically in this article, though I know there are many others who took part in this renovation. Bill was involved in the Sanctuary Renovation Project and chaired that effort to its conclusion. He was instrumental in planting a seed that will continue to grow and nourish seekers entering our sanctuary and our fellowship.
Bill is from Kansas, and moved to DC at age eleven. He motorcycled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western NC, moved to Charlotte, and then found his way to Hendersonville. He retired from careers in the auto industry, health care, and photography in 2010. That year, he met and fell for Catherine Lynch, a retired social worker at Four Season Hospice, and they were married in 2011.
Bill’s involvement at UU included participating in committee work, as a Board member, and then as President of the Fellowship. Currently, you’ll see Bill in the church office; he is our staff member part-time bookkeeper, a job which, he says, “is surprisingly complicated for a smallish congregation.”
You’ll also often see him on Sunday with a camera around his neck, taking our new members’ photographs. Bill was extremely helpful in compiling the latest update to our membership pictorial directory.
Thank you, Bill, for all the support and guidance you’ve given UUFH.
—Susan Maybin, Membership Chairman