John Frederick Anderson ’51 died on October 4, 2007, in Bellingham, Washington.
Born on September 20, 1924, in Chicago, Ill., he attended Central YMCA College in Chicago and Bangor Theological Seminary before entering Bowdoin in 1949 as a member of the Class of 1951. He graduated from Bowdoin cum laude and from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1951. He was ordained for the ministry in Maine and became the pastor of the United Church in Chelsea,Vt. He was pastor of the Larger Parish in Barnet,Vt., from 1956 to 1961 and pastor of Congregational churches inVergennes,Vt., and New Haven,Vt., from 1961 to 1965. In 1965, he became the minister of Brookmeade Congregational Church in Nashville,Tenn. In 1968, he was the associate minister of the First Congregational Church in Fresno, Calif. From 1972 until 1976, he was the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Rio Vista, Calif. In 1976, he joined the staff of the Northern California-Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ. After serving churches in Los Gatos and Angel’s Camp, Calif., he retired from full-time ministry in 1989. In 1996, he was the founder and president of the Calaveras County affiliate of Habitat for Humanity in California. Surviving are his wife, June Henderson Anderson, whom he married in 1948; four sons, Lloyd, Neal, Dale, and Mark; two daughters, Siu Wai, and Carol; 12 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.