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Memorial Minute for John Hastings Darnell

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Memorial Minute for John Hastings Darnell

Approved January 11, 2015

 

John Hastings Darnell was born on January 1, 1943, to Doris Jessie (Hastings) and Howard Clayton Darnell in West Chester, PA. He grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, as part of a generations-old Quaker family, and started attending Westtown School with his younger brother Eric in 1950, joining their older sister, Elizabeth “Bets” Darnell.  He loved to tell stories of the lessons he learned in his formative years, many from family life or his Quaker community.  After graduating from Westtown in 1960, John pursued a degree in biology at Haverford College, eventually going on to earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of Pennsylvania.  During John’s time at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, his mother Doris was working for the American Friends Service Committee. She introduced him to her secretary, Katrina Nourse van Benschoten, who became the love of his life.  They married in 1972 and stayed in the Philadelphia area while Katrina earned her certificate in occupational therapy  and John finished his Ph.D. 

In 1975, John took a job with the Cancer Research Institute in Frederick, MD.  He and Katrina, along with a number of others in the Frederick area, began holding meeting for worship in each other’s homes. The worship group under the care of Bethesda Meeting eventually became Frederick Friends  Meeting. John and Katrina were pillars of it for many years.  John was involved in many committees, serving on Peace and Social Concerns, Ministry and Counsel, Prison Ministry, First Day School, Trustees, and Property as well as serving as Clerk of Meeting.   

John and Katrina raised their daughters Katherine (“Kat”) and Frances (“Fran”) in their home on Wistman Lane, in Myersville, MD.  It was in this home that John continued to explore how to live lightly on the Earth, using many earth friendly methods. They heated their home with a wood burning Free Flow stove, invented by John’s brother, and provided passive solar heat gain through use of a Trombe wall on the west end of their house. He and Katrina also developed a raised bed garden. After leaving his work at the Cancer Research Institute, he taught for a period at St. John’s Prospect Hall School, and from there went to work with Arthur Kanegis for several years. They were developing a film featuring peaceful solutions to conflict.   After that he worked as a biochemist for Life Technologies. John was an inventor at heart, and he developed a toy he called a Zoomering, which he was ever hopeful to produce commercially.  Eventually, after becoming involved in the development of the short-lived Fox Valley Friends School, and homeschooling Kat and Fran, along with other children of Frederick Friends Meeting, in 1998, John began working for Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, as his science, energy, and peak oil advisor. John retired in 2012, at the end of Congressman Bartlett’s last term, so he could spend more time taking care of Katrina, who had developed Alzheimer’s disease. John and Katrina moved to Friends House in Sandy Spring, MD in the fall of 2012, where they could have more support for their changing needs, but they continued to participate in Frederick Meeting and look after their house on Wistman Lane.  

Luckily for John, Katrina’s professional employment as an occupational therapist enabled him to pursue his various career paths, and his Quaker and peace and justice issues, which he held dear to his heart. John built community wherever he went, John provided a “weighty” presence in Meeting for Worship and Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business.  His messages and advices contained the authority of words deeply inspired by the Spirit. He served as Frederick Meeting's clerk as it made the transition from Preparative to Monthly Meeting (1984-87). In 1992, he became involved with the work of Friends General Conference (FGC), starting his first term on its Central Committee as a Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) representative. Throughout this period, he remained a staunch member of Frederick Monthly Meeting, serving on its committees and, after the meeting bought property in 1994, helping with the major renovations needed to turn it into a meeting house. He continued caring for the space through his time there. John was a regular attender and eventually clerked Warrington Quarterly Meeting, as well as its Ministry and Counsel Committee. He dearly loved attending the Friends General Conference (FGC) Gathering with Katrina and with his daughter Kat. He spent many years on the (FGC) Central Committee, including clerking its Development Committee during FGC's first major capital campaign, spending two terms each on its Nominating Committee (2001-2007) and the Friends Pension Plan Committee (2007-2013). John sat on the Friends Journal Board of Trustees for three terms (2000-2009). In the 1990s he served on the Peace Resource Center of Frederick County Board of Directors and helped found the Community Alternative Mediation (CALM) organization. His community service was a manifestation of his deeply held belief that if we profess peace and justice we must work toward it in every way possible. He spent many years in prison ministry work supporting individuals through their incarcerations and continuing to support and guide them after their releases.  Two of them were regular visitors at his bedside throughout the hospitalizations following a massive stroke on April 4, 2014, until several days before his death on October 15, 2014. 

John Darnell lived his life with integrity, curiosity, and joy, made manifest in his love for all beings he encountered, from his earliest days living near Westtown Friends School where his mother was on staff, to his last days in the nursing home.   He was a true Quaker in that he approached his life with a passion for justice for people and for the earth, with an idealist’s view that our lives are sacred and have an impact.  He also lived with a measure of simplicity, striving to set an example how the ways in which we live, and the resources we choose to use, should have minimal impact on the world around us. Though he loved to teach and talk about serious ideas, with the passion of someone making a new discovery, he truly walked cheerfully over the Earth, answering that of God in every creature.  When he married Katrina, they shared this journey together, and their daughters Kat and Fran manifest the joy and love, curiosity and hope that he brought to his community.  He was heartbroken as Katrina developed dementia and what is now thought to be Alzheimer’s disease, but he knew that to be by her side was the most important thing he could do.  After years of supporting Friends and causes dear to his heart, he took on the care of Katrina with his whole heart. 

One of John’s favorite Quaker songs, “Magic Penny,” tells us that “Love is something if you give it away, give it away/you’ll end up having more./It’s just like a magic penny, /Hold it tight and you won’t have any/But lend it, spend it, and you’ll have so many, they’ll roll all over the floor!”  He believed in the power of Love, as uplifting as his Zoomering—that if we love others and love the world, we and the world could become loving and peaceful.

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