The Rev. Paul Everett demonstrated his faith in everyday life
The Rev. Paul Everett -- a businessman, minister, radio personality and former executive director of the Pittsburgh Experiment -- will be remembered Saturday in a service at Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Allison Park.
Rev. Everett died June 16 in his Sherman, Conn., home from melanoma. He was 81.
As a buyer for Macy's of New York, he hadn't been a church-goer until he heard a fellow buyer talking about her belief that God had a plan for her life, said his wife of 49 years, Margaret.
"He felt like his plan for his life was crumbling, and he didn't know why," she said. "He thought, if God had a plan for this woman's life, why not his?"
At the co-worker's request, he began attending a singles church group in New York, where he met Margaret. The two were married in 1961, shortly before he entered Princeton Theological Seminary.
After graduating and spending four years as an associate pastor at a church in Wayne, Pa., Rev. Everett came to Pittsburgh in the late 1960s to join the Pittsburgh Experiment, an interfaith ministry for businesspeople to gather in informal meetings and discuss how faith can be applied in their working and personal lives.
"He had come into the faith, so to speak, through laypeople who were trying to live their faith in their everyday lives, Margaret Everett said. "That intrigued him."
Jay Roy, then in his late 20s and employed by Mellon Bank, met the Rev. Everett in one of the first meetings the minister attended and remembered hitting it off with him immediately.
"He had such an infectious personality that men and women were drawn to," said Roy, 70, of Mars. "He was such a great personal counselor. ... He never uttered a word of condemnation, no matter how low-down a person he was dealing with."
Rev. Everett became executive director of the Experiment in 1967, and remained there until retiring in 1995. From 1967 to 1980, he hosted the weekly "Experiments in Faith" program on KDKA radio, interviewing others about their religious experiences and how they expressed their faith in their lives.
Roy said Rev. Everett was deeply introspective and recognized flaws in himself, which would help those he counseled see when similar flaws affected them.
"There's a lot being said these days about transparency ... but his kind of vulnerability goes beyond that," Roy said. "It's an ability to be wounded so that people can be healed."
In 2005, Rev. Everett wrote "The Prisoner: An Invitation to Hope," about Jim Townsend, an Ohiopyle man who was convicted of murder in 1948, served time and underwent a conversion that led him to join a Franciscan monastery. The two men would go on to conduct ministries and book discussions in prisons in Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania, including the Allegheny County Jail.
In addition to his wife, Rev. Everett is survived by a daughter, Jennifer; a son, Christopher; and four grandchildren.
The memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday in Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Allison Park, with a reception to follow.
