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The Reverend Timothy Pickering, 85, of Newtown Square, died Monday, January 5, 2009. He had been the ninth Rector of Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, from 1967 until his retirement in1988. In that role, he baptized, married, and buried generations of Main Line Episcopalians. Rev. Pickering was a direct descendant of Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State under Presidents Washington and Adams, and he was born in the same house as his ancestor, in Salem, MA. He admitted that he might’ve been the last American living in the tradition of primogeniture; the old house had been given to his father, John Pickering IX, as it - along with its land, furniture, and portraits - had been given to the oldest son in the family since it was built in 1651. Rev. Pickering was not the oldest son, and realized early enough that he would need to seek employment. He was often asked why he became a minister. As a nine- and ten-year-old, his friends asked him to say burial services for pet turtles and canaries; he never made it to cats and dogs. He graduated from Pomfret School in Connecticut,Harvard University and the Virginia Theological Seminary. Immediately after college, he sailed mostly single-handed an unimproved Nova Scotia schooner, his $400 graduation present, from Lunenburg to Key West. He later noted that, "I was off-shore enough to conclude that, on the open ocean, in a 29-foot boat, God has some degree of appeal." During the Second World War Rev. Pickering attended the V-12 Program at Williams College in Massachusetts and was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served in the Pacific theatre. Immediately before being called to Bryn Mawr, Rev. Pickering was Rector of St. Michael’s in the Hills, Toledo, Ohio, which grew under his leadership from a mission of some twenty families to become one of the strongest parishes in the diocese of Ohio. Throughout his career he was active in church life, and served on countless diocesan committees in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. After his retirement, Rev. Pickering pursued more fully his long-time study of the poet, Robert Browning. He resigned only last year as treasurer of the Browning Society in New York. He spent the last 45 summers in Friendship, ME, sailing a wooden ketch built in 1929. He was a long-time member of the Society of the Cincinnati, the Society of Colonial Wars, The Philadelphia Club, Gulph Mills Golf Club, Merion Cricket Club, the Martin’s Point (ME) Improvement Association, and was a former director of Dolphins of the Delaware Valley, Dunwoody Village, Episcopal Community Services, and the Pickering Foundation, which now owns his family home in Salem. His wife, the former Sarah Sulger Pickering, died in 2007; they were married in 1950. He is survived by one brother, Richard L. Pickering of Jefferson, ME, and three children: Ann H. Pickering of Newton Square, PA; John Pickering ofPhoenixville, PA, and Timothy Pickering, Jr., of Parkton, MD, and by six grandchildren. His Funeral Service will be held at 3 pm on Saturday, January 10, at The Church of the Redeemer, corner of Pennswood and New Gulph Roads, Bryn Mawr, PA. Interment private in the Churchyard. Memorial Contributions may be made to either Church of the Redeemer, P.O. Box 1030, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 or Dolphins of the Delaware Valley, 226 Righter's Mill Rd., Gladwyne, PA 19035

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The Reverend Timothy Pickering

December 1, 1923 - January 5, 2009