*Gift of Mt. Carmel Burial Plots Rejected Four Times, Now Offered to Dean of Yale Divinity School

July 10, 2013
Gregory E. Sterling, Dean

Yale Divinity School

Yale University

New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Dean Sterling,

 I would like to offer Yale Divinity School a gift in memory of my mother, Barbara W. Keane, of Mt. Carmel, who named me after Divinity School professor, Douglas Clyde Macintosh. 

The gift  is the remaining two plots in my family's cemetery holdings in Mt. Carmel Burying Ground, which I would ask  the recipient  to hold until a needy  family presents themselves, hopefully a family of a U. S. veteran.

I should think a student group at the Divinity School might take this on as a project.  It could last 20 years, until the right family appears and require no more than a willingness to keep an eye open for a suitable recipient(s).

You and i originally discussed this gift  by phone ten weeks ago when i offered one of the plots to the Tsarnaev family  whose late son was an alleged Boston bombing suspect in need of a place of burial. 

It was not a happy phone call that day.

Perhaps you and I  could reverse that here.

Since then I have offered the gift of the remaining plots to four possible recipients, and it has been refused all four times.

It is  instructive that  in this time of economic recession one can't seem to  give a gift worth at least a thousand dollars away to 

·   the Mayor of Hamden

·   the President of Hamden's Legislative Council

·    the Mount Carmel Congregational Church

·    the First Unitarian Church of New Haven

all of whom / which have refused my offer.

Perhaps it has more to do with the publicity surrounding the giver than to the gift.

 I draw your attention to the following post and videos on my blog. Link  

http://pdkvermonter.blogspot.com/2013/07/love-thine-enemy.html

As far as I can tell, acceptance of the gift would entail zero work on your part, merely keeping an eye out for needy recipients, preferably the families of U.S. veterans.

For me, the one vital component of the gift is that it be accepted in memory of my mother and that the recipient organization have some history in my mother's life.

I hope to hear that you have chosen not to become  the fifth recipient who flees the taint of this gift's origin.

Sincerely,

Paul D. Keane,

M.Div. '80

M.A., M.Ed.

PS     I am forwarding a copy of this letter to the former Mayor of Hamden, my childhood friend, Craig Henrici, who has monitored all four of my previous offers and their refusals.  I am also forwarding a copy to Harry Adams, who had been my  mentor for almost forty years,  and to the four previous decliners of the gift.

cc:

Harry B. Adams, Chaplain Emeritus, Yale University

The Hon. Craig Henrici

Mr. Leng for Mayor Jackson

Ms. Kozak, President  Legislative Council

Rev. House

Rev. Visel