Shirley Ward Ely
Our condolences to the Ely family. The Coe Alumni Office remembers your dear mother fondly. Shirley and John had a profound impact on Linn County and even touched the greater world to make it a better place for all. We are blessed to have known them both.
Jean Johnson
Cedar Rapids
IA
On behalf of the members of the Department of Religious at The University of Iowa, please know that your family is in our thoughts and prayers. Raymond A. Mentzer Director
Raymond A. Mentzer
Iowa City
IA
There are very few people you remember for a lifetime. Polly is one of those people. I first met her in early 60s as a teen at the People's Church, a contemporary of her children. She immediately became the kind of person I aspired to be: thoughtful, kind, unassuming, nonjudging, accepting, loving. Once Polly touched your life, you were never the same.
Bob Hawbaker
Cannon Falls
MN
I cherished Polly Ely's friendship for over 50 years. We had much in common besides our peace with justice values. We both had a husband who inspired us and supported us to live our values. We both had June 20, the date of our wedding anniversaries. Polly graduated from Mt. Holyoke College and served as an assistant in the Wellesley Chemistry Department briefly. I graduated from Wellesley College and taught a spring semester of geography at Mt. Holyoke College, when an instructor left to accept a research position with the US Office of Naval Research. Polly is the only person I know who wore two-piece long sleeved, long-john wool and nylon winter underwear, imported from the United Kingdom or Canada by Lands End, Vermont Country Store and others. Polly protected herself from John's low setting of the thermostat. I protected myself against the bitter winter cold when I did the yard work and went to work week-days. There are instructions to the administrator of my will to deliver all my wool and nylon underwear to Polly Ely when I die. This instruction, sadly, is moot. Mary Alice Ericson
Mary Alice Ericson
Cedar Rapids
IA
Polly Ely was like a mother to me. Her daughter Martha was my best friend in junior and senior high school and, living a block away from the Ely's, I spent a lot of time in their comfortable home. I was one of those rebellious teenage girls who butt heads with their own mothers, and I craved a female mentor, a kind older woman whom I could talk to. Polly Ely filled this role for me. She always welomed me in her home and was very easy to talk to. She also was a major influence in my spiritual life. When I first started attending Peoples Unitarian Church with my family, in the 1950's, Polly was the Head of Religious Education there. I looked forward every Sunday to the quiet time we children had with Polly, lighting candles, listening to inspirational words, contemplating issues of importance, questioning and determining values. She continued to be such an influence during my teen years when she was our youth group leader and when she often ran workshops I attended at various Liberal Religious Youth camps in the Midwest. I know that Polly was a mother and a mentor to many young people. I am thankful that I knew her. I always loved seeing her on my visits back to Cedar Rapids, and she always greeted me with warmth. I will miss her very much. My heart goes out to her children, John, Martha, and Tanny; it is hard to imagine life without her. She was just always there when you needed her.
Martha Moss Coats
Coconut Creek
FL
Polly was fun to be with at Camp UniStar, a Unitarian Universalist family camp in northern Minnesota. I enjoyed her rendition of the song "I wish I was a little English sparrow", which she last performed at a UniStar talent show in 2007. Many years before, she wrote and sang at camp "We walked in the wetlands with Nick", describing a week of wetland explorations that my husband, Nick, led at UniStar. We will miss Polly.