OBITUARIES: Norma G. Veridan

UU World: The Magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association, May/Jun 2004

The Rev. Norma G. Veridan died January 14, 2004, at the age of 77. She died peacefully at home after a long struggle with cancer.

Veridan was born on June 11, 1926, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. She received a bachelors degree from Jackson College of Tufts University and was a graduate of the Unitarian Universalist Association Independent Study Program.

As a religious educator, Veridan served congregations in Madison, Wisconsin; Charlottesville and Arlington, Virginia; and Dallas, Texas. She was ordained by the First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas, in 1986 and continued to serve the congregation as minister of religious education until her retirement in 1995. She subsequently served the Massachusetts Bay District as its first district religious educator until her retirement in 2001.

Veridan served as a member of the Independent Study/Modified Residency Program Committee at Meadville Lombard, a group she chaired from 1993 to 1995. She was a past president and board member of the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA). She served as the first committee chair of the LREDA Grant Program and was instrumental in its development.

Veridan was awarded the Larry Axel Award from Meadville Lombard Theological School and the Angus MacLean Award from the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1995.

The Veridan Fund for Religious Education Excellence has been established in her honor.

Veridan is survived by three children and four grandchildren.