Lucile Schuck Longview, 99, died peacefully on April 20, 2010 in Bellingham, WA, surrounded by the love of her family and friends. She was born Blanche Lucile Kitson, the only child of Harry E. and Macie B. (Miller) Kitson, on March 28, 1911 on a farm near Columbia City, IN. One of the first women from her community to attend college, she graduated from Indiana University with honors in 1933 and taught high school and coached women's sports in Elkhart, IN.
Tribute by Liz Fisher (PDF)
She married O. Hugo Schuck, an engineer from Philadelphia, on August 12, 1939, moved with him to Boston, MA, during the war and then to Minneapolis, MN, where they raised their three children and Lucile was active in many community organizations. In 1968, Lucile and her husband returned to the Boston where Hugo died in 1972.
Lucile committed the remainder of her long, active life to addressing injustices in society’s treatment of women, the elderly and the environment, and along the way changed her name to Lucile Longview. She was an early member of the Grey Panthers and active in the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, contributing to the well-known book “Our Bodies, Ourselves.” Considering herself a liberation feminist, futurist and change agent, Lucile wrote, spoke and traveled widely and her ideas have been incorporated into books, courses, songs and sacred rituals. She earned many awards including recognition at the National Woman's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY.
Lucile is particularly known for her “Women and Religion” work in the Unitarian Universalist church, and, as a result of her initiative, the denomination reviewed and revised its Principles to be more inclusive. In 2005 she donated her papers to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University and moved to Bellingham, WA, to be closer to her children.
Throughout her life Lucile advocated tolerance, justice, environmental protection, and more civility in the resolution of world problems. An avid outdoorswoman, she loved nature, wilderness and birds. She will be missed by her children, Stephen Schuck, Bellingham, WA, Susan Hirst, Bellingham, WA, and Linda Schuck, Portola Valley, CA, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and many friends. In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made in her name to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, 208 South Great Road, Lincoln, MA, 01773.
Go well, Lucile.
photo credit: Cheryl Robinson
Dr. Misty Sheehan:
I loved her. At the first w/r convocation at Grailville Ohio we were asked if the UU priniciples spoke to us as women. We decided they didn't and, not only that, they were outdated. That evening some of us sat around the floor of one of the rooms rewriting the principles. Lucille came in, with her white hair, and her proper Bostonian navy blue suit and her comfortable black shoes, and sat down on the floor with us and worked on them. That was the impetus for w/r challenging the principles and subsequent principles we now have. But when I saw Lucille, an old lady to me then, but probably about my age now (!) I said to my self -- that is the kind of little old lady I want to be. She was so vibrant and alive. She is still my model.
Add your Memories to our Guestbook.
More of the W&R Resolution story from a 2001 issue of the UU World.
