Author: Gary Miles

Dorothea Cathell, 77, of Philadelphia, longtime community volunteer, retired hospitality worker, three-time cancer survivor, expert tailor, and mother of four, died Friday, Sept. 26, at Lankenau Medical Center of injuries she sustained as a victim of a hit-and-run at 54th Street and Lancaster Avenue.

Ms. Cathell was walking home from a shopping trip with Halloween decorations on Sept. 26 when she was struck by a speeding car. The driver left the scene in a damaged vehicle, and a suspect was arrested later and charged with homicide by vehicle-DUI and other charges. The case is pending.

“She was an awesome woman and mother,” said her son Ralph. “She was a real big light for the universe.”

Born and reared in South Philadelphia, Ms. Cathell lived in West Philadelphia as an adult and treated her neighbors like family, her son said. She volunteered at local free meal programs and youth activities and “opened her door to the homeless and anyone else in need,” her son said.

“She valued education first and promoted so much positivity in the neighborhood,” he said. “She had an extraordinary personality. Her heart was so huge.”

Ms. Cathell survived two bouts of stomach cancer and a case of colon cancer, and was “as tough as 30 gorillas,” her son said. She championed order and cleanliness in the community, worked in housekeeping for a hotel, and was an expert tailor.

“She made my sixth-grade graduation suit,” her son said. “Jacket, vest, shirt, pants, and tie. My friends said, ‘Wow.’ I said, ‘My mom did it.’”

Dorothea Elizabeth Cathell was born Dec. 25, 1947. She grew up with three brothers and three sisters, her son said, and graduated from South Philadelphia High School.

She married Charles Carter in the early 1980s, and they divorced later. He died earlier.

She had sons Ralph, Dwight, and Erik, and a daughter, Samiyah. Erik died earlier.

Ms. Cathell was an avid storyteller, her son said. “She was a poetic person,” he said. A friend said on Facebook: “She loved the hell out of her children and grandchildren. Amazing woman, heart of gold.”

Family members said in TV interviews after the incident that Ms. Cathell was “always happy, always positive,” and “to the world she was just one person. But to her family, she was the world.”

Her son Ralph said: “She was articulate about being kind. She was the best mother in the world. I never saw anyone like her.”

In addition to her children, Ms. Cathell is survived by 10 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and other relatives. Two brothers died earlier.

Services were held on Oct. 6.

​​Arthur Waskow, 92, of Philadelphia, longtime social activist, pioneering Jewish scholar and rabbi, founder of the Shalom Center for public prophetic action, religion teacher, mentor, and prolific author, died Monday, Oct. 20, of chronic respiratory failure at his home in Mount Airy.

A longtime expert in Judaism, prophetic justice, and peaceful civil disobedience, Rabbi Waskow was so disturbed by the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the social unrest that followed that he protested, wrote about, and lectured around the country on what he called the “overwhelming crisis” of whether humanity will “build a decent society or will poison or burn it empty.”

For more than five decades, starting in Washington and then in Philadelphia, he connected contemporary social issues with Jewish traditions and championed prophetic justice regarding peace, nuclear disarmament, feminism, LGBTQ rights, same-sex marriage, environmental sustainability, and interfaith collaboration. “He consistently held that Judaism is not meant to stand above and apart from ordinary life, but rather to guide our actions in this life,” Rabbi Jill Jacobs said in a tribute.

Colleagues at the Shalom Center said he dramatically “fused social justice with traditional Jewish themes and spirituality.” Jacobs praised his “legacy of non-violent protest, his prophetic writing, and his courageous leadership.”

He established the Shalom Center for prophetic Judaism in Philadelphia in 1983, cofounded the Alliance for Jewish Renewal in 1993, and helped establish the National Havurah Committee, T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and other organizations. “He’s one of the most important figures to merge spirituality and politics since the 1960s,” Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard told The Inquirer in 2001. He “transcends categories and, as a result, he’s always crossing boundaries, but for good.”

Strategic action with compassion was usually his favorite tactic. He called his many disagreements with Jewish orthodoxy “a continuous loving debate” and told The Inquirer in 1970: “Jews have a radical role and mission to join with other communities to remake American society.” In 1993, he said: “In our generation, the people of the earth at last have to learn to share the great round earth or risk ruining it.”

He worked closely on social projects with Sister Mary Scullion of Project HOME, Rabbi Leonard Gordon of the Germantown Jewish Centre, and Imam Abdul-Halim Hassan of the Masjidullah Community Center Mosque. His embrace of the Jewish Renewal movement drew critics, but he never wavered in his support.

“There’s an unpredictability to him, a drama to him, a charisma to him,” Rabbi Gordon said in 2001. “That is who he is and has to be in challenging the community. We would lose too much without it.”

Rabbi Waskow was arrested dozens of times for peacefully protesting about segregation, immigration, and other issues. He wrote so many books he lost track of how many were published. “It’s either 19 or 20,” he told The Inquirer in 2007. “My wife said it’s the same number as the times I’ve been arrested.” He never retired.

He wrote and organized the first Freedom Seder in 1969 to recognize contemporary liberation efforts as well as the Exodus of the ancient Israelites. He was invited to President Clinton’s Middle East peace ceremony at the White House in 1993 and appeared in a TV ad in 2004 that denounced prisoner abuse in Iraq. “He found joy in reimagining Jewish holidays and prayers in ways that spoke to contemporary issues,” his family said in a tribute.

He came to Philadelphia from Washington in 1982 as a new faculty member at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and went on to teach religion at Swarthmore, Temple, Drew University in New Jersey, Vassar College in New York, and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

He wrote articles and op-eds for The Inquirer, Daily News, and other publications, and authored more than 25 books on all kinds of topics. His 1978 book Godwrestling and 1982’s Seasons of Our Joy are religious classics. In 1993, he wrote Becoming Brothers with his younger brother, Howard.

Rabbi Waskow won many awards and was recognized for his leadership and lifetime achievements by the Jewish Peace Fellowship, Neighborhood Interfaith Movement, and other groups. Newsweek named him one of the fifty most influential American rabbis in 2007.

Recently, he focused on describing God in traditional ways with modern insights. “Watching your kids begin to parent feels like there is a spiral to life,” he said in 2001.

Arthur Irwin Waskow was born Oct. 12, 1933, in Baltimore. He was always an avid writer and reader, especially science fiction, and fascinated by words.

His father was a high school history teacher, and, with his help, Rabbi Waskow won a newspaper history contest that paid part of his college tuition. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Johns Hopkins University in 1954 and a doctorate in American history from the University of Wisconsin in 1963.

He protested against the Vietnam War and other hot topics in the 1960s, and worked in Washington after college as an aide to U.S Rep. Robert Kastenmeier, and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

He married Irene Elkin, and they had a son, David, and a daughter, Shoshana. After a divorce, he met Rabbi Phyllis Berman at a conference, and they married in 1986, and both adopted the middle name Ocean.

Over the last 18 months, even though he couldn’t see, Rabbi Waskow wrote two more books. “He was very determined in the fullest sense of that,” his son said. His daughter said: “He was passionate about what he was passionate about.”

His wife said: “He was playful, brilliant, creative, and fierce. He was generous in every way.”

In addition to his wife, children, and former wife, Rabbi Waskow is survived by five grandchildren and other relatives. His brother died earlier.

Services were held on Oct. 22.

Donations in his name may be made to the legacy fund at the Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Dr., Philadelphia, Pa. 19119.

William B. Starks, 96, of Philadelphia, pastor emeritus at Community Baptist Church in Chester, former associate pastor at Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church in Philadelphia, retired supervisor for the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, Montford Point Marine, lifelong singer, and volunteer, died Saturday, Oct. 4, of age-associated decline at Germantown Home rehabilitation center.

Born and reared in Nashville, Tenn., the Rev. Starks grew up singing in church every Sunday. So his wife and two daughters were not surprised that he was ordained in 1966, served 31 years as pastor at Community Baptist, and continued to sing in choirs and elsewhere for the rest of his life.

He was energetic and empathetic, they said, and he became so effective as a spiritual and practical mentor in Chester that city and church officials dedicated part of West Seventh Street in his honor on June 1. They renamed a segment of the street as Rev. William B. Starks Way, installed a sign at Fulton and West Seventh Streets, and called it “a lasting tribute to his selfless service and deep impact on our community.”

The Rev. Starks was recruited from Greater Ebenezer Baptist by Community Baptist in 1978 and commuted every Sunday, and sometimes three nights a week, from his home in West Oak Lane to the church in Chester. His family said he never missed a Sunday service.

“His love for the Word of God encouraged him,” his family said in a tribute.

The Rev. Starks was direct and serious in the pulpit, and willing to “roll up his sleeves and fight your fight,” his daughter Rhonda said. He created a Presidents Council to better organize church affairs, celebrated when the church paid off the mortgage, and encouraged its use as a satellite location for the Manna Bible Institute.

He invited women and young pastors to preach, and induced the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Gov. Ed Rendell, Rep. Robert Brady, and other notables to address his congregation. His outreach and ministry were recognized in awards and honors from the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation and other church groups.

In the community, he monitored schools and families for discord, and confronted street-corner problems he encountered. He spoke out often against violence, injustice, crime, and drug abuse.

“He truly believed in the church being involved spiritually, socially, and politically,” his family said. “He truly had a heart for the people.” Earlier, he attended Tenth Memorial Baptist Church and studied theology at what is now Cairn University in Langhorne.

The Rev. Starks worked at Philco and Whitman’s Chocolates in Philadelphia after he left the Marines in 1952. He spent 25 years with the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, earned service commendations from the Fairmount Park Commission, and left when he became pastor at Community Baptist. He retired from the church in 2009.

He enlisted in the Marines after high school in 1948 and became one of the celebrated Montford Point Marines in North Carolina. He spent four years in the Corps, sang with the Marine choir, rose to corporal, and was transferred to Philadelphia. He never left.

In 2012, he and other Montford Point Marines were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for enduring racism, segregation, and discrimination during their military tours and still serving with honor and distinction.

His mother’s cousin was a church pianist and singer, and she regularly took him along to sing at church in Nashville when he was young. Later, he took music classes in high school and studied voice with professor John W. Work III at nearby Fisk University.

In retirement, he volunteered at Eleanor C. Emlen Elementary School and elsewhere in the community. “He was very humble, generous, loving, and caring,” his daughter Rhonda said.

William Barton Starks was born Nov. 2, 1928. He grew up with two brothers, and it was obvious early that his singing voice was exceptional.

He met fellow singer Inez Baldwin at a recital, and they married in 1951. They had daughters Cheryl and Rhonda, and lived in North Philadelphia and West Oak Lane.

The Rev. Starks and his wife enjoyed annual summer cruises to the Bahamas. He was known as Big Daddy, his family said, “because he was like a father to so many people.” His wife died in 2016.

“He meant the world to me,” said his daughter Cheryl. “He would give you anything.”

His daughter Rhonda said: “He always told us he would do anything and everything for his family, and he did.”

In addition to his daughters, the Rev. Starks is survived by four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and other relatives. His brothers died earlier.

Services were held on Oct. 17 and 18. Interment was Oct. 23 at Washington Crossing National Cemetery.

Donations in his name may be made to the Scholarship Initiative of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Montford Point Marine Association, 27 Red Tail Court, Limerick, Pa. 19468.