The Rev. Dr. Alfred B. Starratt was born in 1914, in Quincy, Mass. He was a graduate of Boston University, Episcopal Theological School, now Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass.; and received his doctorate in philosophy and history of religion from Harvard University. Dr. Starratt served as rector at St. Anne’s Church, Lincoln, Mass., before being asked to serve as professor of philosophy and religion at Huachung University, Wuchang, China. He and his family traveled to China on the first ship to cross the Pacific after World War II. There he taught for four years until the Communist Revolution forced him to flee. Once back in the United States, he served parishes in Stockbridge, Mass., Gambier, Ohio, and finally Baltimore, Md., where he was rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church for 30 years. There, through his dynamic presentation of modern ideas of religion, and challenging his listeners to not “check their brains at the door” when they entered the church, he gathered a growing congregation of people who found traditional theology no longer persuasive. He conducted numerous study groups on world religions and had a weekly radio broadcast listened to by more than 560,000 people. He also became active in the social issues of the time. A staunch supporter of equal rights, he was made chairman of the first Equal Rights Commission in Maryland, where he fought vigorously for equal treatment of African-Americans in employment, housing and access to public facilities. He also served on the national boards of Planned Parenthood and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. He was among the first clergy to demonstrate against the Vietnam War at the national capital. An avid racing sailor in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, he also raced in the Chesapeake Bay where he was a charter member of the Severn Sailing Association. He was the author of “The Real God,” published in 1965 and “Your Self, My Self & The Self of the Universe,” published in 1979.