Melish, Rev. W. Howard (1910–1986)

Rev. Melish was famously ousted from his Brooklyn parish in 1957 for his chairmanship of the National Council of American–Soviet Friendship. He believed in peace between the Soviet Union and the United States, and firmly supported civil rights, spending 10 years raising money for the civil rights movement with the Southern Conference Education Fund. A graduate of Harvard and the Episcopal Theological School, Rev. Melish became a target of Joseph McCarthy. In 1982, he rejoined his Brooklyn church as an assisting priest, where he stayed until his death.