IN MEMORIAM: Al Niese ‘63
The Rev. Alfred Moring Niese, Jr., Class of 1963, died on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. He was born in New York City, N.Y. on Sept. 12, 1937, son of Alfred Moring Niese and Anne Brown Niese. Al was a graduate of Princeton High School and Rutgers University, where he sang in the Rutgers Glee Club. He received a degree in sacred theology from General and a combined master’s degree in sacred theology and pastoral counseling from New York Theological Seminary and the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health.
Following seminary, Niese served as a canon at Trinity Cathedral in Newark, N.J. He then was rector of Church of the Atonement in Fair Lawn, assistant rector at Christ Church in Short Hills, and rector of St. John on the Mountain in Bernardsville.
He retired to Woolwich, ME and served as a supply priest at the Church of Our Father in Hulls Cove, St. Augustine’s in Dover Foxcroft, St. David’s in Kennebunk, St. Andrew’s in Winthrop and other Episcopal churches, including St. Paul’s in Brunswick where he was a member.
In Brunswick, Niese was a board member for the Hospice Volunteers as well as the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program which he chaired for three years. He was also a board member for the United Nations Association of Maine.
He is survived by Bronda, his wife of 56 years; his daughter, Jennifer, son-in-law, Bill Hetzel and granddaughters Molly and Sarah; by his son, Kirk, daughter-in-law, Michaela Goldfine, and grandchildren Cecily and Soren; his brother, Michael Niese, sister-in-law, MaryAnne, and nieces Michele Niese Mrak, Cathy Pradie Connick, Christine Dufford, and Elizabeth Dufford. He was predeceased by his sister, Charlotte Niese Dufford.
Niese’s interests included raising tippler pigeons, sailing, cycling, and playing and collecting antique reed organs. During the pandemic, he published a children’s book Soren’s Story: A Parable About Bullies and the Peaceable Kingdom, a parable about bullying and the importance of forgiveness.
Passionate about social justice and civil rights, Niese attended Martin Luther King, Jr.’s March on Washington in 1963 and organized transportation to the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March for people traveling from Newark, N.J. In recent years, he organized two evenings of readings and music – at Trinity Episcopal Church in Portland and at the Bowdoin College Chapel – showcasing God’s Trombones by James Weldon Johnson. Al was proud to serve on the committee which formalized the first annual statewide holiday honoring Johnson, the 20th century attorney, diplomat, civil rights activist, and lyricist of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Niese was a good husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend. He was an immeasurably kind, generous, and grateful human being with a phenomenal sense of humor who never missed an opportunity to offer praise and encouragement to others. A prolific writer with a passion for the English language, he drew lessons from the injustices in our world, and in his letters to the editor, he highlighted our collective obligation to be better stewards of this planet. His latest opinion piece, on the war in Ukraine and Russian hubris, was published by the Portland Press Herald last May. By chance, he died on the very same day as Frederick Buechner, a theologian he often quoted.
A memorial service at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brunswick is yet to be scheduled. To leave a note of condolence or share a memory, please visit http://www.brackettfh.com.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation for high school students, to the United Nations Association of Maine, “Maine Model U.N. Conference (MEMUNC) scholarship fund” P.O. Box 262, Brunswick, ME 04011
From an obituary in the Portland Press Herald, August 23, 2022