Reverend, father, civil rights activist

Allen J. Hinand, livelong activist, died June 18 at his home in Claremont. He was 80. His wife Gail said the cause was related to Multiple System Atrophy.

Born in 1937 in Great Falls and raised in Butte, Montana, Mr. Hinand graduated from Butte High School. He then went to Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, where he met and married Gail Duerfeldt prior to receiving his BA degree.

Mr. Hinand graduated in 1963 from Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts with a master of divinity degree, and was ordained to the American Baptist Churches, USA.

From 1963 to 1974 Rev. Hinand was co-pastor at Central Baptist Church in Wayne, Pennsylvania. During his tenure he founded an interracial nursery school at the church, and was involved in civil rights and social justice issues. He participated in anti-Vietnam war efforts through Clergy and Laity Concerned Against the War in Vietnam. Following Dr. King’s death, he was instrumental in founding the Martin Luther King Fund to support The Opportunities Industrialization Centers in North Philadelphia. Rev. Hinand also founded the Pennsylvania Clergy Consultation Service on Problem Pregnancies, the forerunner of the Religious Coalition of Reproductive Choice, prior to Roe vs. Wade.

From 1974 to 1981 Rev. Hinand was associate executive director, then acting executive director of American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York. Representing 194 churches in the five boroughs of New York City and Long Island, he led efforts to reconcile the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural churches, making this regional office one of the most diverse, heterogeneous collaboratives in the country.

In 1981 Rev. Hinand became President and CEO of American Baptist Elder Ministries of Massachusetts, retiring as senior vice president of American Baptist Homes of the West in 2002. He was instrumental in co-founding, with Youville Hospital, the Shepherd’s Center of Cambridge and Somerville. During his tenure he also served on the board and as president of Massachusetts Homes and Services for the Aging, and as a member of House of Delegates of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. He also served on the board of the American Baptist Homes and Hospitals Association and represented them for eight years on the General Board of American Baptist Churches, USA.

Since 2002 Dr. Gail Duerfeldt Hinand and Rev. Hinand have been residents of Key West, Florida where he was part of the ministry team of Metropolitan Community Church. They also lived at Pilgrim Place in Claremont.

He is survived by his wife, Dr. Gail Duerfeldt Hinand; his daughter Marcelle Hinand and son-in-law August Kleinzahler, and grandchildren Duncan and Jack Cady, of San Francisco; and son and daughter-in-law Steven and Ann Hinand of Washington State.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Cooking With Love program at Metropolitan Community Church Key West, Florida by visiting  mcckeywest.com; The American Civil Liberties Union at action.aclu.org; or to Planned Parenthood at plannedparenthood.org.