Archie Dale McRee

Archie D McRee was born December 19,1941 in Newton, N.C. to Fred and Maude McRee. He died in peace on March 13, 2024, at his home in Helena, MT  in the presence of his daughters, Shannon Zellerhoff and Heather McRee.

Archie graduated from Bandys High School in Catawba County, N.C. (class of 1960). He went on to attend the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where he earned a BA in History and Religion (Class of 1964).

Archie had a deep interest in Old Testament history; following graduation, he spent three months in the Negev Desert at an archaeological dig in Arad, Israel.

Archie did his post graduate work at Andover Newton Theological Seminary in Newton Centre, MA. where he was elected Student Body President. Archie also received the Whittemore Preaching Award for outstanding student speaker in his class and was selected to address the Boston Congregational Club at their annual meeting, before a group of prominent religious and business leaders in the Bay State area. He graduated with a Master of Divinity in 1967.

Archie was minister to four churches, all in New England. He served as Pastor of The Eliot Church in South Natick, Massachusetts, The Congregational Church of Littleton (UCC) in Littleton, MA, Senior Pastor of First Congregational Church of Bloomfield (UCC) Bloomfield, CT, and First Congregational Church (UCC) in Camden, Maine.

In addition to pastoral duties, Archie was President of the Littleton Housing Authority which built low-income elderly housing. In Connecticut, he served as Chair of the Bloomfield chapter of the Oak Park Congress, a group of twenty-two integrated suburbs from around the United States to keep them racially diverse. During most of his pastoral ministries he served as a delegate to the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries and to the United Church Board for World Ministries. In Maine, he led his congregation on several Biblical trips to Israel, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. He was a founding member on the Board of Directors of the Camden Conference on Foreign Relations. After he left the Camden church, some of the members compiled and published his sermons in a book called “Life Supports.”

In 1994 Archie left pastoral ministry to pursue his interest in more “hands on” work. He worked for two years at The Artisans College in Rockport, Maine, a boatbuilding school, as Director of Admissions. He also helped the school gain national educational accreditation to grant associate degrees.

In 1996 Archie moved to Mt Pleasant, S.C. and became Executive Director of the Lowcountry Food Bank in Charleston which serves the ten coastal counties of South Carolina. In his ten- year tenure as Executive Director, the Food Bank went from distributing 700,000 pounds of food a year to 13 million pounds a year at his retirement. The food bank was named the South Carolina non-profit of the year in early 2000’s. Food was distributed to over 350 churches and non-profit agencies that served the hungry.

In 2006 he retired to Beaufort which he thought was the most beautiful town in South Carolina. As a volunteer he worked for several years with some of his African American friends to create the Gullah Farmers’ Cooperative Association on St Helena Island. The co-op was created to help farmers have a market for their products and sell fresh vegetables to the local school systems, hospitals and grocery chains.

Archie moved to Helena, Montana in 2017 to be near his family and grandchildren.

He is survived by two daughters, Shannon Beth Zellerhoff, and Dr. Heather Lynne McRee and his wonderful son in laws, Steve Zellerhoff and Daniel McArdle, and by his two cherished grandchildren, Willa May McArdle and Finn Silas McArdle and their cousin, Abigail McArdle, who was like a third grandchild to him. Archie will also be missed by his two nieces and three nephews. He was preceded in death by his two brothers, Kenneth McRee and Steve McRee and former wife of 27 years Susanne Elizabeth Stewart.

Archie, to quote a dear friend, “was one of the greatest theologians…” His works live on through our collective memories of his leadership, teachings, sermons and indelible love for everyone who knew him, including, to quote James Herriot, “… all creatures great and small.”

A celebration of Archie’s life will be conducted later this summer in Camden, Maine.

Gifts can be made in his honor to your local food bank, YWCA, or hospice. Condolences can be sent to Simple Cremation Montana, in Helena, MT. via their website at www.simplecremationmt.com. 

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