At the time of his death, Educators for Social Responsibility, with which Bill worked for many years, estimated his books were used in 55,000 classrooms around the world.
Considered by many to be impactful, Bill was remembered by Beacon Hill Friends Meeting (Quakers) this way.
With grateful hearts, we thank the Creator for Bill Kreidler and the gift of his ministry both to the world and among Friends. With sorrow, we feel the grief of his very present absence. Bill died in Boston on June 10, 2000, in the home he shared with his partner, David Aronstein. Bill left us with the gift of his peacemaking work to the world and his faithful personal ministry among Friends. He is sorely missed.
While working as a kindergarten teacher during the conflicts of Boston’s school desegregation, Bill was called to the work of creating “the peaceable classroom,” prompted by the Edward Hicks painting, “The Peaceable Kingdom,” which hung above his desk. Led to teach children to resolve conflicts without violence and particularly to enable teachers to bring these methods to children, Bill stepped into a calling that became his life’s work and one of his gifts to the world. With curricula for children of many ages, numerous books, and countless lectures and workshops, Bill’s work touched teachers and children around the world. In the last years of his life, Bill’s ministry brought him to work with groups from the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and America’s inner cities.
Bill was among the founders of Beacon Hill FM [Friends Meeting] and always marked each year’s anniversary of his arrival at Beacon Hill. He also felt a special connection to the community around FLGC (Friends for Lesbian and Gay Concerns) where he served as clerk and worked to create dialogue among Friends across the theological spectrum.
Bill’s love for Beacon Hill MM [Monthly Meeting] and the Religious Society of Friends was especially revealed in his encouragement of seekers and his unflagging availability for clearness committees. As a community, we were always blessed when he faithfully insisted that our process and practice align with the Spirit that calls us together.
In his faithful insistence, Bill seldom hesitated to challenge Friends to live up to the Light they had been given. As a gay man in a Society that could be variously vague, blind, or hostile to issues of sexuality, he lovingly challenged us. He challenged us not for the sake of his own comfort or peace in the Society, but because vagueness, blindness, and hostility have no place in the Light where Friends strive to live.
These loving challenges were but one aspect of Bill’s larger ministry among Friends. Bill’s own faith journey involved the encouragement of others [sic] collective and individual journeys. This work was manifest in his workshops on topics such as prayer and forgiveness and in his encouragement of the practice of spiritual autobiography among us. As a student of the Catholic saints Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila, he taught us with their powerful examples of spunky faithfulness. And in personal contact, heart-to-heart, that of God in Bill touched that of God in us, often revealing the quiet glory of what had long been hid [sic].
Bill also ministered to us by opening himself and revealing his own struggles as a creature following a Creator. Bill’s public speaking was punctuated with provocative questions and bridged by stories in which he made himself vulnerable to teach us, revealing his very human flaws and fears. In his plenary talk at the 1994 Gathering of Friends General Conference — “You Want Me To Do What?!” — he taught us to recount our spiritual lives by sharing his own. He encouraged us to face our wounds and imperfections by revealing his own. And in discussing leadings taken or let lie, he taught us to listen for leadings while accepting the unconditional love of their Author.
As Bill faced the spiritual “lab work” of his personal journey with AIDS, he increasingly found comfort in Jesus as his companion. Confessing Christ among Friends, he nonetheless struggled with some of “Christ’s friends” in both history and the modern world. His example of faithfulness and authenticity has inspired many Friends to “come out” as Christians and testify to the gift of a personal relationship with Jesus in their lives.
Bill’s death from AIDS leaves us with the memory of his ministry and with the changes he wrought in our hearts and lives. We recall his wit and spice, his compassion and joy. We remember his love of children (especially babies) and we smile to recall his tap-dancing at FGC to the choral accompaniment of the “Free Grace Undying Love Full Gospel Quaker Choir Sing and Be Saved.” As we travel together without his company, we may be comforted by the words with which Bill closed his 1993 NEYM keynote:
“‘Through many perils, toils, and snares, I have already come.
’Twas Grace that brought me safe thus far….’ and you fill in the rest.”
BEACON HILL MONTHLY MEETING, SALEM QUARTERLY MEETING