The final buzz saw struggle encountered in the Boston parish arose from my recommendation that we increase our endowment fund and consequent investments' income for our work and progress. This could be done usefully by selling five of the church's 23 fine, but now not needed silver communion pieces stored in the basement of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The congregation voted affirmatively for the plan. Henry DuPont bought the five early American pieces for exhibition in the Winterthur Museum. A wealthy member of our church fought this action up to the Superior Court of Massachusetts, but ultimately lost. I helped to found the Massachusetts Memorial Society and gave it an office in our church building. It stands for simple, dignified funeral services at minimum cost. The funeral industry tried to stop it, but we finally prevailed.

At this time, merger with the Universalists was being sternly debated, I was requested to write for the Unitarian official monthly magazine the case for merger. The opposition's spokesman was the Rev. Dr. Walter Donald Kring of All Souls Church, New York City.

My fourth and last full-time settled ministry—seven years—was in Long Beach, California, just off the campus of a state university. A zebra cannot change its stripes. Within a short time I was defending the city librarian before the city council against a group determined to eliminate classic or liberal books it did not like from the library system. I led and addressed the largest civil rights march in Long Beach history. A sermon advocating the right of women, not the state, to determine if they could or should terminate an unwanted pregnancy, was quoted in extensive detail in the powerful Los Angeles Times. During some periods of my Long Beach ministry, I was drawing the largest congregations of my career, necessitating double services. The Mental Health Association of which I was president thrived.

Retired now at the age of 88, I can look back upon four basic careers that produced 17 published books, hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, and I tried as a magician, cinematographer, lecturer, and Unitarian clergyman to bring people together in a more just, enjoyable, and harmonious society.

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