The Erend Barbara A. Hollerorth

NATICK - To her colleagues and friends as well as to those who sought her help as a pastoral counselor or psychotherapist, the Reverend Barbara E. Hollerorth was an unusually perceptive interpreter of human experience, offering a depth of insight and understanding which enabled people to see themselves and their world more clearly. Her death on April 14 is an irreplaceable loss to the community of people with whom she moved through the world.

Dr. Hollerorth, a longtime resident of Natick, died at the home of her daughter, Rachel Buerlen, in Rutland, Massachusetts. In addition to her daughter, Rachel, Dr. Hollerorth is survived by her husband, the Reverend Dr. Hugo J. Hollerorth, a second daughter, Rebecca (Hollerorth) Hunter, of Natick, Rachel's husband, Paul, and three grandchildren, Jason and Holly Buerlen and Nicole Hunter.

Born in Waterloo, Iowa in 1926 she studied sociology at the University of Iowa and the University of Chicago before earning a Master's degree in theological studies from the Federated Theological Schools of the University of Chicago. After graduation, Dr. Hollerorth served for four years as Director of one of the theological schools experimental nursery school programs in Maywood, Illinois. Four years later she joined her husband as co-minister of education in the Union Church of Hinsdale, Illinois.

Following years of child rearing, Hollerorth was called to the position of Associate Minister in the First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist in Lexington, Massachusetts. While serving in Lexington, she created the stunning and widely acclaimed early childhood education curriculum titled The Haunting House. Grounded in the philosophy set forth in The Poetics of Space by French philosopher, Gaston Bachelard, the curriculum helped children discover the importance of houses in the lives of human beings. Through myriad imaginative activities, children discovered that houses help us feel at home in the world, provide structure in the midst of boundlessness, offer a place from which to merge into the larger world and to which to return. They provide us with a place to be born in, to live in, and to die in. We would not be able to survive without them. Published subsequently by the Unitarian Universalist Association, the curriculum was used widely in both secular and religious educational settings across the continent.

Discovering an affinity for counseling during her years in Lexington, Hollerorth returned to fulltime studies at Andover-Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts, where she earned a Doctorate of Ministry degree with a specialty in pastoral counseling. Subsequently certified by the State of Massachusetts as a psychotherapist, and awarded the distinction of Diplomate by the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, she facilitated the creation of the Unitarian Universalist Pastoral Counseling Center of Greater Boston and became its first Director. With a multiple staff, the center provided a resource for Unitarian Universalist ministers to refer members of their congregations who were desirous of long term intensive therapy. Hollerorth was also an associate for a number of years in the office of Dr. Michael Sherwood, a prominent Boston psychiatrist, a therapist on the staffs of the Homophile Community Health Service and the Gender Identity Service as well as having a private practice with offices in Boston and in her home in Natick.

During her retirement years Hollerorth focused on her lifelong passion for the visual arts. She studied at the New England of Photography, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Danforth Museum in Framingham and the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln. She mounted a photography show titled "The Trees of Don Quixote" at the Habitat Center in Belmont, another titled "Real Flowers in an Imaginary Garden" at the New England School of Photography as well as several student shows at the Danforth Museum in Framingham. At the time of her death she was creating a collection of poetry titled Evening Light on the Pasture Land, which she described as "a personal selection brought together over a period of more than seventy years that has illuminated my life experience."

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 9th in the first Parish Church Unitarian Universalist, 24 Vernon Street, Framingham. A reception in the parish hall will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that gifts be made to the Friends of the BSO, at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA 02115. Miles Funeral Home, 1158 Main Street, Holden is directing arrangements.

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