Memorial for Dan Wade

Daniel Lewis Wade
May 5, 1916 – February 22, 2009
A memorial service will be held for Dan Wade this Sunday May 17th at 1:00 pm at the Chatham-Summit Meeting House. He was an active member of Pax Christi in Morris County and NJADP besides being kind and gentle soul.

The meeting house is located at 158 Southern Boulevard in Chatham Twp. All are welcome to attend.

Daniel Lewis Wade died at Morristown Memorial Hospital on Sunday; February 22, 2009, He was 92 years old and had suffered a heart attack and a stroke ten days earlier, from which he never recovered.

Dan was born in The Bronx, NY, in 1916. Dan’s father, who was an electrician, taught him the trade. Dan remembered that when he was a boy, he accompanied his father in a horse-drawn wagon to job sites.

Daniel was working as an electrician in New York when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He enlisted, and was trained as a radar technician. He saw action in the Pacific and was part of the Army of Occupation in Japan. His experiences set him firmly against the practice of war. He attended Brooklyn College on the G. I. Bill and earned his licenses as a stationary engineer. During his work life, he managed the physical plants of New York institutions: Columbia University, Maimonides Medical Center, and the Western Electric headquarters building.

In retirement, Dan built a home near New Paltz, N.Y. with a view of the Shawangunk Mountains. He was a member of New Paltz Monthly Meeting and was an active participant in a nearby prison ministry.

Fifteen years ago, he left New Paltz, and moved to Chatham, to provide after-school care for his grandsons. Dan transferred his mem-bership to Chatham-Summit Monthly Meeting where his passion for politics and his ecumenical spirit manifest itself in the work of the Peace and Social Action Committee. He was the guiding spirit in Chat-ham-Summit Monthly Meeting’s partnership with Pax Christi to bring Sister Helen Prejean to Seton Hall University to speak against the death penalty. He frequently raised a voice of concern about issues of justice and equality, which were addressed in his messages delivered during worship. In later years his love of ecumenical outreach led him to di-vide his Sunday worship between Chatham-Summit Monthly Meeting and the First Baptist Church of Madison.

Daniel leaves a void that cannot be filled for his children, Beth Wade of Chatham, NJ, Garth Wade of Brooklyn, NY, and James Wade of Midlothian, Va.; Beth’s husband Thomas Gray, Jim’s wife Randi Wade; and the grandchildren, Max and Avery Gray, Logan and Harrison Wade, and Miriam and Ben Wade.