First Unitarian is Honored to Welcome Denise (Denny) Davidoff as Guest Preacher – Sunday, February 15th

Denise (Denny Davidoff

Denise Taft Davidoff
Denny’s volunteer career with the Unitarian Universalist Association began in 1971, eleven years after she started attending The Unitarian Church in Westport. She has served the denomination as Treasurer and President of the UU Women’s Federation, Chair of the General Assembly Planning Committee, Trustee-at-Large, member of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, and as the elected Moderator of the UUA from 1993 to 2001, presiding over the Board of Trustees and the annual General Assembly. In that capacity, she was one of the religious leaders who founded The Interfaith Alliance in the summer of 1994.

 In November 2008, Denny was invited to join the staff of Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago as SeniorAssociate for Development and Alumni/ae Affairs. She had previously served on the Meadville Lombard Board of Trustees from 2002 to 2008. In this capacity, Denny travels widely and frequently to meet with donors and potential donors and to tell the continuing Meadville Lombard story, a story that mingles tradition and transition.

Denny’s past service includes membership on the Trustee Council of the World Conference on Religions for Peace, and chairing the Board of Directors of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF). She is in her second three year term as the elected Clerk of the Westport congregation which includes membership on the governing board’s executive committee. She also finds time to act as Vice Chair of Workplace, Inc., the Workforce Investment Board of Southern Connecticut, with responsibility for oversight of more than twenty job training programs for a wide variety of jobless and marginalized clients.

Denny and her husband Jerry were presented with the 2006 Award for Distinguished Service in the Cause of Unitarian Universalism. Jerry died in November, 2009 and Denny has since moved to a retirement community in Bridgeport, CT (although the term “retirement” does not really apply). She has two sons and four grandchildren.