Miriam Parsell

Miriam Parsell was born in Newark, NJ to Henry and Blanche Dey Parsell. She had one elder sister, now deceased. She joined the church at age twelve and realized at a young adult, that her life work was to be in full-time Christian service. She attended Western Maryland College for a year before entering Scarritt College, where she earned an AB degree in 1948. During the summer of 1947, she worked at Wesley House in Louisville, with fellow Brooks-Howell resident, Helen Mendelbaum. After graduation, she was commissioned a deaconess, on June 15th, 1948.

For the first eleven years as a deaconess, Miriam served as Director of Christian Education in Waterbury, CT; Vineland, NJ; and Philadelphia, PA. From 1960-65, she was a Field Worker with the Woman's Division. In 1968, she received a Master's Degree in Library Service at Rutgers University. From 1968-78, she was Librarian with the United Mission Library (United Methodist and Presbyterian) at 475 Riverside Drive in New York City. After the library closed, she became Administrative Secretary of the United Church of Christ Board for World Ministries, from 1980 until her retirement in 1985.

At retirement she moved into a co-op apartment, three blocks from the ocean, in Ocean Grove, NJ. She lived a happy life there, active in her local church, serving for nine years as Treasurer of the Ocean Grove Historical Society, and enjoying walking along the boardwalk. Miriam says, "I've had wonderful travel experiences, mostly with the Deaconess Office in conjunction with Diakonia meetings: South Pacific in 1973; around the world 1979; England, 1983; then in January 1988 with a church conference tour to the Holy Land."

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