Elizabeth Morgan Keil
Unitarian Citizen Activist, 88
Elizabeth “Liz” Keil died on Saturday, May 27, at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, of complications from a fall that fractured a cervical vertebra. She was 88.
Honored at the State House this March as a “Community Unsung Heroine” by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, Liz Keil was throughout her adult life a community and social activist. She advocated for justice, human equality, peace, and environmental awareness during a long life of persistent, unpretentious advocacy, social responsibility, church membership, and civic activism.
Born into a cultured family of New England pioneers and bankers, raised in Brookline, and educated at Beaver Country Day School and the Connecticut College for Women, Liz Morgan met the late John A. Keil at a USO dance during World War II and in 1946 married him at All Saints Episcopal Church, Brookline. Their two children, David M. Keil, now Asst. Prof. of Computer Science at Framingham State, and Marguerite K. Flanders, an environmental advocate andpoet, now of Rhode Island, were raised in Needham, at the family home on Kingsbury Street.
After a fire there in 2003, she and John moved to an assisted living residence in Dedham. He died later that year. Her grandsons, John David and Leonardo Keil, also survive her. All have been part of the First Parish in Needham, Unitarian Universalist, where Liz served as a teacher, mentor to youth, social justice advocate, and congregational leader for more than 50 years.
During the 1950s, long before fair housing legislation was passed, Liz Keil helped to test the willingness of realtors, sellers, and communities to be truly open to racial minorities. She was a founder, then Chair, of the Needham Fair Housing Practices Commission, which became the Needham Human Rights Committee.
Her tireless and patient efforts to make the world a better place for coming generations earned her the respect and affection of many who were privileged to work alongside her. Her humility, even temper, and resolute approach to overcoming obstacles made her an inspiration for people of all ages, whether they agreed with all of her stands or not.
She was active in the Needham League of Women Voters, Women Democrats and the Needham Democratic Committee. For 25 years she served as a member of Needham Town Meeting.
During the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s she marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., and entertained civil rights leaders such as James Farmer in her home. She was a founding member of the board of Greater Boston METCO and a promoter of suburban-urban cooperation though agencies such as Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries and the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry.
She served her Unitarian Universalist congregation as its elected president, as a delegate to national General Assemblies, and was honored by the Massachusetts Bay District of the denomination for her volunteer leadership. She received the Lifetime Service Award from First Parish and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the human rights arm of her religious movement, honored her with its own Volunteer of the Year Award. Some of her politically progressive friends presented her with the ‘Kiss of Death’ Award for backing more losing candidates than they could possibly count. She was proud to have stood up for right causes, even when they were losing causes.
During the 1970s and 80s, she was an activist for a Nuclear Freeze, and later for human rights in Central America, backing the late Congressman Joe Moakley in criticizing the use of presidential authority to circumvent the will of the American people in intervening overseas on behalf of corrupt regimes and ill-defined purposes.
A memorial service in celebration of the life of Liz Keil will take place at First Parish in Needham, Unitarian Universalist, on Sunday, June 11, at 3 pm. The family requests that contributions in her honor be directed to The Memorial Fund, First Parish in Needham, 23 Dedham Avenue, Needham, MA 02492, or to the charitable cause of your choice.