Michael J. Paine ’62

He came to us from Phillips Exeter. He majored in history, played freshman lacrosse, roomed with Bruce Pirnie, enjoyed life, and was president of Colonial Club.

Mike was ordained after attending Union Theological Seminary. He married Victoria Moore in 1964. A year later he moved to West Virginia University, Morgantown, as the school’s first Episcopal chaplain. He played in a local band — Mother Witherspoon’s Mind Garage — and twice took his “Electric Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper” to a packed Princeton Chapel as well as big city venues.

Moving to Boston, he worked for Old Colony Trust but quit, teaching a variety of subjects at Roxbury Latin and traveling. He retired from preaching at age 45, primarily for “body repairs” — two retinas and two hip pins. While recuperating, Mike read and re-read several authors (McLuhan, Fuller, Einstein, and Bohr). He published Sermons for the Church of Is. After Victoria died in 2017, he moved to Pittsford, N.Y., where his youngest son, Skye, teaches college French.

The class extends its condolences to his sons, Ward, Barth, Amos, and Skye; eight grandchildren; and brother F. Ward Paine ’56.