Wardens and Vestry
The Vestry of St. Bartholomew’s Church in the City of New York is the legal, canonical, and fiduciary “board of trustees” for the church.
The Rector is chairman of the Vestry. Wardens, elected for up to three consecutive two-year terms, are the lay chairs of the Vestry, and have canonical authority for the parish when the rectorship is vacant. Members are elected for up to two consecutive three-year terms. Governed by national and diocesan canon law, New York State Religious Corporation law, and our own by-laws, the Vestry leads the parish in setting policies and goals, maintaining the buildings, and raising financial support for the mission of the parish.
Wardens
Miriam K. Schneider, Warden
Miriam began attending St. Bartholomew's in 1982, soon after moving from her home state of Idaho to New York City and beginning work at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. She joined the Community Club and began attending weekday services shortly thereafter, formally becoming a Church member in 1985. Her and her late husband Howard’s marriage was blessed by the Rev. Judith Baumer in 1989. Their twin daughters were baptized by the Rev. Bruce Forbes in 1996. Paula and Helene attended St. Bartholomew's preschool, and were Choristers for 10 years.
Miriam worked in banking as an analyst for the forest products sector for almost 20 years. Now retired from JP Morgan Chase, she is the Senior Managing Partner for Kunkel Farm, LLC, the family's Idaho farm business, which produces mainly barley (for Coors) or alfalfa and occasionally feed corn for the local dairy industry. She is the founder and CEO of Manhattan Multiple Birth Parenting, Inc., an organization providing networking and educational support for parents of twins and other multiples. From 2001 through 2010 she was a parent leader in the New York City Public School System, holding various PTA executive board positions, and was Co-President of NYC’s Presidents Council for District 2, representing the interests of all public-school parents within the District. Miriam served as a parent representative on the Dominican Academy Accreditation Committee in 2013-2014. She is currently a member of the College of Idaho’s National Alumni Board, and just finished her term as President of her co-op board.
As a volunteer at St. Bartholomew’s Miriam has sung in the 9am choir and served as an acolyte and torch bearer at 11am. She has been a member of St. Bartholomew's Altar Guild since 1985, and its president for more than 25 years. She attended DOCC and Alpha courses. While Paula and Helene were in high school, the three of them acted as dinner hosts most Saturday nights, for a dinner cooked by Miriam, at the Crossroad's women's shelter. She regularly read Evening Prayer in the Chapel before the pandemic and continues now with Night Prayer online.
Miriam and the girls share their Upper East Side home with four cats and a dog. Paula and Helene are now in graduate school. They have helped broaden her empathy and interest in social justice and LGBTQ+ causes. She has catholic tastes in a wide range of interests and activities, and considers her intelligence and abilities practical in nature, and personally satisfying. She loves to get in her car and drive. The destination is not as important as the journey!
William (“Bill”) Fry IV
Bill and his wife Lee Anne moved to New York from Nashville in late 2012. As lifelong Episcopalians (and Bill’s now deceased father an Episcopal priest), they spent over a year shopping for churches. After visiting more than ten Episcopal churches all over the city, many on multiple Sundays, they decided on St. Bart’s due to the warm welcome and the Reverend Buddy Stallings’ sermons. In deciding on St. Bart’s, Bill said, “This was an important decision to us and we took it seriously. We were looking for a church home, not merely a place to worship, and we found that in St. Bart’s.”
Bill and Lee Anne have lived in numerous cities on the east coast and in the south. Bill has served on vestries leading stewardship for Episcopal churches in Georgia and Tennessee, served as a Big Brother for many years, and as a Director of Boys and Girls Club of Nashville. As a member of the St. Bart’s Vestry since 2020, Bill chaired the Investment Committee, served on the Governance Committee, led the Strategic Planning Committee, and has served as Warden for two years.
Bill grew up in Memphis, TN, graduating from Ole Miss. He served as a Naval Officer first on the USS Bowen (FF 1079) and then in the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program in Washington DC, where Bill and Lee Anne met. Bill received an MBA from Harvard Business School and then embarked upon a career as a senior executive. Bill served as CEO of various companies including Bell Sports, Riddell, and Oreck Corporation. In 2010, Bill joined American Securities, a private equity fund based in New York, where he serves as a partner focusing on portfolio company improvement. In addition to serving on various American Securities’ company Boards, Bill serves on the Board of Directors for Trek Bikes and for the Ole Miss Business School.
While at St. Bart’s, Bill and Lee Anne have become members of the Mosaic Society, and in May of 2019 and 2023 they went on the St. Bart’s Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a journey that impacted both their faith and commitment to St. Bart’s. Bill and Lee Anne have two children, a daughter in NYC and a son and daughter in law in Chicago. They live in Chelsea and also have a home in Oxford, MS. While in New York, Bill and Lee Anne enjoy Broadway shows, concerts and all the city has to offer.
Honorary Wardens
Vestry Members
Joe Bessey
Palmer Q. Bessey, Jr. (Joe) was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, and attended the public schools there. He went on to Williams College, where he majored in chemistry and spent most of his time in the theatre. After a year in a medical lab in Boston, he entered a graduate program in physical chemistry at the University of Oregon. He received a Master’s Degree and returned East to work another year in a medical lab before entering medical school at the University of Vermont. He and his wife, Sarah, had met in college and were married in Wellesley, Mass, just before moving to Vermont. He went on to complete a residency in surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The couple’s two children, Anastasia and Nathaniel, were both born in Birmingham. After a research fellowship in Boston, he returned to Birmingham as the Director of the section of Trauma, Burns, and Critical Care. He also served on the faculties of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Rochester. He gradually became increasingly involved in caring for burn patients and joined the Burn Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Cornell Medical College in 2000. He was actively involved in the care of burn victims for over 18 years there, including casualties from the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. He has been active nationally in the leadership of the American Burn Association. He focuses now primarily on research and teaching.
Joe was a cradle Episcopalian, baptized and confirmed in Montclair. He first heard of St. Bart’s from his father, who admired the music program, but he never attended the Church himself before moving to New York City. He remembers his first visit on a Sunday in July, where he heard the Rev. Bill Tully speak about molecular biology in a sermon. He came back that evening for the “Come as You Are” service, which was joyful and uplifting. St. Bart’s seemed to him to be a good fit. He had found a place. He and Sarah are both active in worship, and he has served as a lector, verger, and acolyte for many years.
Rachel Farrar
Rachel first found her way to St. Bart’s through the choir. In 2008, only a few weeks after moving to New York from Lexington, KY, she auditioned for Bill Trafka who invited her to sing the Duruflé Requiemin the church’s annual September 11th Remembrance Service. She has remained a devoted member of Saint Bartholomew’s Choir ever since. Rachel was confirmed in the Methodist church as a teenager, but had for many years worked and worshipped in the Episcopal church. So in 2012, she made it official and was received into the Episcopal communion as a member of St. Bart’s.
Rachel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from the University of Kentucky. In New York, she has carved out a career for herself as both a singer and an actor in film and television. She can be seen in Hulu’s miniseries The Looming Tower and Showtime’s City on a Hill. Rachel is a proud and active member of SAG-AFTRA, where she has developed a strong interest in entertainment contracts. This interest, in part, lead her to the decision to begin law school part-time this Fall.
Rachel is active in parish life both in and outside the choir. She jumps at every opportunity to support the chorister program, whether it’s helping out with rehearsals or chaperoning summer camp. She served on the hiring committee to fill the position of Associate Organist and Director of Choristers in 2014. For several years, Rachel served as an overnight host for Crossroads Community Services, Inc., women’s shelter. She co-chairs the 20’s-30’s group through which she helped organize and host the annual Episcopal Diocese of New York Young Adult Christmas Party in 2019, attended by more than 120 young Episcopalians from around the city. Last year, she joined a St. Bart’s Connects group and is enjoying the its rich fellowship.
Rachel lives in Harlem with her husband, Graham and their two dogs, Sophie and Jean. Together they love taking on home renovation projects at both their apartment in the city and their vacation house in the Catskills. They’re finally getting back to many of their favorite pre-Covid pastimes— dressing up, dining out and karaoke in K-town.
James Ferrara
Jamie and his wife, Flora, started attending St. Bart’s in 2014 soon after they moved to New York City. They regularly attend the 11 am service. Jamie is a native New Yorker, and the eldest of four siblings. He was raised Roman Catholic and attended Jesuit schools for high school (Gonzaga, Washington, DC), college (Xavier University, Cincinnati), and medical school (Georgetown University). He was received into the Episcopal Church at St. Bart’s in May 2015.
As a physician, Jamie specialized in both pediatric and adult oncology with a special focus on bone marrow transplantation, a complex form of immunotherapy used to treat aggressive leukemias and lymphomas, and he currently serves as the Ward-Coleman Chair of Cancer Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Physicians who have trained in his laboratory, first at Harvard and then at the University of Michigan, are now transplant leaders throughout the USA, Germany, and Japan. He has received a number of prestigious awards for his research and is regularly featured as a keynote speaker at international medical conferences, now by the magic of Zoom.
Jamie served on the most recent Rector Search Committee, where he represented new parishioners. He has also volunteered for several Fare Share Fridays. Together with Peter de Menocal, he spoke at a couple of Forums on faith and science. Since March of 2020, Jamie has served on the medical advisory panel that guides protocols for pandemic safety at St. Bart’s, and joined other members of this panel to speak at two sessions of The Forum, providing information on COVID-19 vaccines and addressing concerns on pandemic safety. Together with William Fulton he currently leads the popular “St. Bart’s at the Opera” series.
Jamie and Flora live on the Upper East Side. Their eldest son, Andrew, lives in Durham, England, and their two younger sons, David and Michael, live in New York City.
Dall Forsythe
Dall Forsythe first encountered St. Bart’s more than twenty years ago when he and his wife Ana Marie were part of an Education for Ministry group that met in the building. After moving to the East Side, they came to the chapel from time to time and began trying out the other services late last year. When the stewardship campaign began, they decided to sign up and became members officially at the beginning of this year and usually attend the 9 am service.
Dall Forsythe retired after teaching as visiting scholar and professor of practice at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service. He taught courses on governmental budgeting, debt management and nonprofit financial management. He has a Ph.D. and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.
In the public sector, Dall served as budget director for the State of New York under Mario Cuomo and chief budget officer for the New York City public schools. In the private sector, he was a managing director in Lehman Brothers’ public finance and municipal bond department. In the nonprofit sector, he was chief administrative officer of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, chief financial officer of the Atlantic Philanthropies, and interim chief administrative officer of the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in Chelsea, New York. He also served as chairman of the Fund for the City of New York and as a public member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board for five years. He will be the initial CFO of the Proposed New York Episcopal Federal Credit Union.
Dall has also held faculty positions at Columbia University; the Kennedy School at Harvard; the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College (CUNY); and SUNY’s University of Albany. He is the author of Memos to the Governor: An Introduction to State Budgeting, among other academic publications.
Dall and his wife. Ana Marie, have three grown daughters and five grandchildren. Ana Marie has been teaching modern dance for many years at the Alvin Ailey School. Both are active in the Episcopal Church. Dall chaired the national church’s investment committee, served two terms on the Trinity Wall Street vestry, chaired the finance committee of Episcopal Social Services, and mentored an EFM group at St. Luke’s Church in Montclair, NJ. Ana Marie and Dall now live in New York City
Jennifer Fuller
Jenn began attending St. Bart’s in 2020 after deciding that she was missing a spiritual practice in her life. She spent her early childhood attending Churches of Christ, began school in an Episcopal school, and having had exposure to several denominations, decided that she wanted to become an Episcopalian. After visiting a number of Episcopal churches in the city, she was drawn to the educational offerings, style of worship, and warm welcome at St. Bart’s. In 2022 she joined St. Bart’s Development Committee, and in 2023, became its Interim Chair.
Jenn was raised in Eastern Tennessee. She attended Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where she majored in Finance, International Business and Political Science. After spending 17 years in St. Louis, she moved to New York City in 2016. She remembers staying frequently at the Waldorf Astoria on business trips to New York in rooms that would sometimes look out to onto St. Bart’s dome, and so it is special that she found the experience inside the church to be as special as its exterior.
Jenn has worked as an investment banker focused on the financial services sector for over 20 years and is currently a Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey, a global investment bank. Ms. Fuller was recently mentioned as one of the “Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A” by Mergers & Acquisitions and has previously been recognized as a winner of The M&A Advisor’s “Emerging Leader Awards.”
Jenn lives in the Sutton Place neighborhood of Manhattan. She enjoys travel, hiking, and design, and is has a passion for furthering her knowledge of, and following the most recent research in, the fields of nutrition and wellness.
Christine Harrell
Chris was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, and grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, the second of five children. After graduating from Mississippi University for Women, she taught second grade in Miami. Fortunately, she won a full fellowship to do graduate work in English literature at Vanderbilt University, where she met her husband, Don.
Thus began the typical life of a wife of her time: following her husband from job to job. Luckily Don had interesting jobs: professor of English at the University of Houston, press secretary to the governor of Arkansas, working in the SUNY Central administration, Administrative Assistant to a US Senator, and. finally, handling External Affairs at TIAA-CREF. During those years, Chris met and entertained a lot of interesting people, had two sons (John, an actor, and Jeremy, a lawyer), got a nursing degree, headed a citywide annual Amblyopia Screening for preschoolers, coordinated Meals on Wheels delivery for her church, worked as a Legal Assistant, and worked at a Home Health Care agency.
In 1995 a friend visiting from Washington, D.C., mentioned that a New York church had stolen her rector, Bill Tully. She asked if her hosts would accompany her to visit him at St. Bart’s. Bill began his sermon reciting from memory the first stanza of John Updike’s poem Seven Stanzas at Easter.
Chris and Don never left.
Chris has found a real home in St. Bart’s. She completed EFM at St. Bart’s, manned the Bookstore for many years, has stocked the food pantry since its inception in the mid-nineties (with a decade’s worth of help from Charles and Curtis), served as an overnight host in the St. Bart’s women’s shelter, was on the recent rector search committee, proofreads the sermons, and has seldom missed an opportunity to grow in learning and fellowship via the wonderful Zoom and in-person educational offerings.
She enjoys taking tai chi and yoga classes, cooking, reading for her bookclub, and being out-and-about in New York City. She is especially proud that she has averaged walking over four miles every day for the last two years.
David Hilder
David Hilder first attended services at St. Bart’s in August 2011, and was immediately attracted by St. Bart's practice of radical welcome, opening the communion table to all, and its diverse congregation.
David provides strategic advisory services to family-owned private companies, start-ups in financial technology, and non-profit institutions through Hilder & Co. LLC. He also works as a Supervisory Analyst, editing equity research reports for several investment banking firms. David spent 30 years as a research analyst and investment banker at Wall Street firms including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Bear Stearns, and Drexel Hamilton, a firm owned by service-disabled U.S. military veterans. He was Team Leader for the financial sector and a sector Portfolio Manager at Putnam Investments in Boston for two years during the financial crisis. He started his career as a newspaper reporter and editor, including eight years at The Wall Street Journal. David earned a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University. He has served non-profits as a member of the Dean’s Council of the Yale School of Architecture, a trustee of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, and trustee and Treasurer of the Society for the Increase of the Ministry, which provides scholarships for people studying to become Episcopal priests.
David began ushering at St. Bart’s at Christmas 2015, and has been a regular usher at the 11 am services since 2017. He has served on several ad-hoc and standing committees at St. Bart’s, including the Investment Committee and the Audit Committee, and was Chair of the Audit Committee in 2022.
David lives in Manhattan near Columbus Circle and enjoys Central Park as much as possible. His two children are both recent college graduates. His son lives in Los Angeles and works at a talent agency; his daughter lives in New York and works in technology sales.
Tim Hook
Timothy Hook (Tim) was born and raised in a small town just North of London in the UK. After completing his undergraduate studies in architecture at Kingston University (UK) he attended the University of Notre Dame to earn his Master’s Degree. It was here, while taking part in Notre Dame’s Rome Studies Program that he met his wife and fellow architect, Erin. After finishing his studies, Tim returned to London where he spent his early career working on projects for the Grosvenor and Cadogan Estates. During this time he also worked with the Prince of Wales’ Foundation as both a tutor and a designer on their urban design projects for Sidon, Lebanon and Viterbo, Italy. In 1999, Tim and his wife moved to Seattle, where they worked for two years before finally settling in New York in 2001. After working for well-established Manhattan practices, Tim and Erin founded their own firm in 2006 shortly after the birth of their son, Charlie. They specialize in classical and traditional architecture. With their son and dog, they enjoy a happy New York life.
Tim started singing as a chorister in his local parish church when he was eight years old, and has been singing in church choirs continuously since; in London, South Bend, Seattle and New York. He also founded a choir made up of singers he has known over the years that meet every other year to sing in a different English Cathedral for a weekend. It was in his time as a boy chorister that his love for church architecture, music, and beautiful liturgy emerged. His fondest recollections were of singing the daily offices at summer Cathedral residences throughout England, as well as, with the natural fellowship which flowed from a church with a rich variety of people. So, when it came to looking for a church in New York, he and Erin were sold on their first experience of St. Barts, and became regulars in 2006. Tim was a member of the Singers under Bill Trafka and occasionally subs for the main choir. Since 2010 Tim has also been much involved with Crossroads. In addition to periodically serving breakfast on Sundays, he also assisted in the renovation of the facility. In 2018, Tim was asked to join the Building Committee; an experience he has found to be very rewarding.
Natalie Johnson
Natalie Johnson was raised in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois, and, after graduating from Smith College in 1981 with a degree in economics, met her husband, Ken, while they were both serving as lending officers on Wall Street at The Bank of New York (now BNY Mellon).
After raising their children in Westchester, Natalie and Ken relocated to New York City in 2020. Natalie recalls that at the time, despite being in the middle of a pandemic, she found a home at St. Bart’s. She cites its welcoming spirit, with Christ at the center of the community, as a leading factor in this relationship, and notes that St. Bart’s provided her with a quiet respite amid the hustle and bustle of the city life. Since joining the St.Bart’s community, she has served as a Lector, Usher, Co-Leader of a Connects group, and has participated in numerous classes and attended many concerts at the church.
Community has always been important to Natalie. She has served as a Board member of her former church as well as of the Junior League and the PTA, and was president of her local pool club. Other volunteer roles have included co-chairman positions with a high school swim team, an Arts in Education program, and the Hospitality committee at her former church, where she organized a celebration for its 150th Anniversary and facilitated the Women’s Bible study program.
Returning to the workforce after her second son was born, Natalie launched a custom-design cake business providing special occasion cakes and ran the company as a sole proprietor for 20 years. She closed that business in 2011 to pursue a manager’s job at a store in Bedford, N.Y., and remained in that role for two years until Ken retired and they began traveling to visit family and enjoy time at their vacation home in Saint Simons Island, Ga.
Today Natalie is a member of the Central Park Conservancy, the Met Museum, the Guggenheim, American Ballet Theatre and The Cosmopolitan Club, where she serves as Co-Chair of the Dance committee bringing various forms of dance to the club programming.
Mary Robin Jurkiewicz
Mary Robin and her husband moved to New York City from Montgomery, Alabama, almost four years ago and began “church shopping” immediately, because she knew a solid church would help her feel more at home in New York City. In 2016 they found St. Bart’s and formally joined on Welcome Sunday that October. Mary Robin writes, “Being from the Deep South, I was pleased to find such a friendly church with an excellent outreach program, plus there seemed to be a fair number of Southerners here.”
Mary Robin began work as an eight year old filing cash tickets in one of her father’s hardware stores. She has had a wide variety of work experiences growing up working summers and Saturdays for her father’s other small businesses; this instilled in Mary Robin an ownership mentality, which she has carried with her in all endeavors. Mary Robin received her B.A. in Architecture from Auburn University and worked for eleven years with McAlpine. She has served on volunteer boards with Holy Cross Episcopal School (K-6) and Booker T. Washington High School F.A.M.E. board; St. John’s Episcopal Church Vestry (all in Montgomery, Alabama). Also at St. John’s, she graduated from EfM and served in several volunteer leadership capacities.
At St. Bart’s, Mary Robin is pleased to serve on the Usher and Stewardship Committees, and is a co-leader for Centering Prayer. She attended the EXPLORE class series and has also occasionally assisted with altar flowers and Christmas decorations, which she describes as “great fun!”
Mary Robin lives in Chelsea with her husband, Greg Tankersley. Their daughter, Sullivan Tankersley, a recent college graduate, resides in Dallas, TX. Mary Robin enjoys life long learning on the topics of functional spirituality, world history, investing, and traveling when at all possible.
James Marion, MD
James F. Marion, MD has been a member of St. Bart’s since 2003. He is married to Allison Rutledge-Parisi, and his two daughters, Molly and Ella were baptized at St. Bart’s. James previously served on the Vestry and as Warden. The family volunteered for the Saturday Breakfast Program for many years. More recently James served on the St. Bart’s Medical Advisory Board during the COVID-19 pandemic.
James is a Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and an Attending Physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is Director of Education and Program Director for the Advanced Fellowship at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Marion is an active clinical investigator currently involved in numerous clinical trials.
James, Allison, and Ella live in Harlem with their Rhodesian Ridgeback Phineas. He enjoys running, hiking,cooking, and writing.
Robert McKinney
Robert McKinney is a cradle Episcopalian who regularly attended churches in Bronxville and Greenwich, but St. Bart’s has been his spiritual home since 2018. After some church shopping, he was won over by St. Bart’s theological ethos, its welcoming members, its rich choice of programs, and its outreach ministry.
A native of New York City, Robert graduated from George Washington University with a degree in Finance. He subsequently earned two master’s degrees—an MBA and an MS in Accounting. He has spent his professional career in the Finance industry, primarily in and around the City. After stints at Republic National Bank of New York and Deutsche Bank, he has headed Internal Audit for Point72, L.P., a hedge fund, for the last thirteen of his seventeen years there. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor.
Robert is a member of the Finance & Audit and Enterprise Risk Management Committees of Cohen Veterans Network, which provides mental health services to armed forces service members and their families through a network of clinics throughout the United States. In the past he has been Treasurer and Board member of the Boys & Girls Club of Stamford. He also regularly volunteers at the Bowery Mission in Manhattan.
Robert is currently a second-year student in Education for Ministry, and he ushers at the 8 am service. Last May he joined the St. Bart’s-sponsored pilgrimage to Israel.
Robert, a father of three, has lived in Astoria since 2017 with his wife and 17-month-old daughter, two cats and one dog. He enjoys music, playing guitar, reading, swimming, hiking, biking, and is also a student of Krav Maga.
Peter Scardino
Internationally recognized for his work in urologic oncology, Peter Scardino earned his BA in religious studies at Yale University in 1967 and graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 1971. He served as a resident in surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed a fellowship in urologic oncology at the National Cancer Institute (1973-76) and urology residency at UCLA (1976-79). In 1979 he joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine, becoming the Russell Scott Professor of Urology and Chairman of the Scott Department of Urology in 1989. In 1995 he was designated Distinguished Service Professor at Baylor, and in 1996 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Peter moved from Texas to New York in 1998 to become Chief of Urology and Head of the Prostate Cancer Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), as well as Professor of Urology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and at SUNY Downstate. In 1999, Urology was established as a department with Peter as the first Chairman. In 2006, MSK appointed Peter the Alfred P. Sloan Chair of the Department of Surgery with over 100 surgeons in all specialties. He now holds the David H. Koch Chair and is an Attending in Urology at MSK.
Recognized for his excellent teaching, Peter led the Urology residency at Baylor and the fellowship program in Urologic Oncology at MSKCC for nearly 20 years. In 2014 and 2016 he won the Teacher of the Year award from the fellows at MSK. He has been visiting professor at academic institutions in the US, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Japan, India, Turkey, Egypt, Israel and Australia. He has published over 600 scientific papers as well as a book for the public, “Dr. Peter Scardino‘s Prostate Book,” co-authored with his wife, Judith Kelman, a noted writer and editor.
Peter retired last year and now serves as Chair Emeritus of Surgery, helping to connect patients with the right doctor. He loves to play golf, despite struggling with Parkinson’s disease, and to cruise the rivers around NY. He enjoys – often with friends - sampling the extraordinary food NY restaurants offer, and reading on the patio of his building overlooking the East River. He and Judith have five children and nine grandchildren.
Craig Simmons
Craig found St. Bart’s in 1987 via the Community Club, led then by our current Assistant Rector, the Reverend Canon Andrew Mullins. He began attending worship services in 1988 after an introduction then-Rector Tom Bowers and later headed and expanded the Ushers & Greeters Corps. He implemented the “radical” (and) welcome idea of having greeters stand outside the church. In 1991, he was received into the Episcopal Church from the Roman Catholic tradition. His two older children attended St. Bart’s Community Preschool. His daughter was in the first class of Choristers and his son served as an acolyte.
Craig is an independent consultant with 35 years of corporate experience and non-profit board service. He has worked at large financial institutions as First Boston, Lehman Brothers, and Sumitomo Bank; and been a change agent at a number of startup and small businesses. At Drexel Hamilton (a Wall Street firm owned and run by disabled veterans), he headed the corporate capital markets area. He successfully led the firm’s 3-year efforts to introduce and pass New York State’s first disabled-veteran-owned business-preference legislation that focused on professional services firms as a diverse supplier. Craig’s work directly with state legislators resulted in the unanimous passage of bills in both the NYS House and Senate, and legislation passed by Governor Cuomo. He mentored over 20 combat-disabled veterans at the firm and introduced additional race and gender related diversity initiatives. Non-profits including One Hundred Black Men (OHBM), Inc., John Jay College Corporate Veterans initiative, and Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of America have benefited from Craig’s efforts.
In the 1990’s Craig served St. Bart’s on the Preschool Advisory Board, as chair of the Search Committee that called the Reverend Bill Tully as Rector, and chaired the Stewardship Campaign. He was elected by the parish to the first of two terms on the Vestry in 1994 where he led the newly formed New Ventures Committee that developed Café St. Bart’s and the Bookstore. In recent years, pre-pandemic, Craig attended the 11am service with three toddler children. He now participates via YouTube or by hosting Facebook watch parties.
Craig is a native of Philadelphia and graduate of Amherst College where he majored in Asian Studies became fluent in Japanese. He lives in Astoria with his soulmate Tina and their three small children who are currently remote schooling. He enjoys technology, biking, cooking, traveling, and public policy advocacy. He is also actively engaged local politics.
Raymond L. Vandenberg
Ray Vandenberg has been a member of St. Bart’s since 1987. He and his former wife, Margaret, were married by Tom Bowers, the former Rector of the parish, and his sons, Chris (now 34), and Will (now 31), were baptized at St. Bart’s as infants. Both sons were confirmed at St. Bart’s. Ray served on the vestry previously for a number of years between 1989 and the early 2000s, and as a warden and chancellor. He also served as a vice chancellor for the Diocese of New York for approximately ten years, and special counsel to the Presiding Bishop from 2016 to 2019.
Ray was born in 1948 and grew up in Bucks County, PA. He attended public schools and spent his senior year of high school as an exchange student in Celle, Germany. He remains in contact with his exchange family and has had close relationships with several generations over the past six decades.
Ray graduated from Cornell in 1970 with an A.B. in Government from the College of Arts and Sciences and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1975. Following law school, Ray moved to New York City and was a litigation associate at Thacher Proffitt & Wood, and subsequently a partner at Finley Kumble Wagner in the Employment Law Department. In 1991, he started his own law practice in New York. It ultimately became Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP, a 20-attorney corporate practice firm, which merged with a large Los Angelesbased firm in 2016. Ray managed the New York office until his retirement in 2019. He is a director of three private philanthropic foundations.
After retirement in 2019, Ray and his wife, Roz Walrath, have been living mostly in New York, but also in San Francisco where they have a house and many friends. Ray has been active at St. Bart’s in person at services when in town, but also via YouTube and Zoom in several classes and support groups. He is working with the Rev. Meredith Ward to coordinate the Grief Group and the Retirement Group. He and Lucy Gianino are also co-leaders of the West Side Connects Group.
Ray and Roz live on the Upper West Side and near Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Their combined total of five children, their spouses and significant others have become close, and they all enjoy holidays and vacations together, whenever possible. Ray and Roz both enjoy traveling, running, skiing, working out (haha!), and entertaining friends. Their latest love is Abby Vandenberg, born 12/28/23 to Ray’s son, Will, and his wife, Kate. Abby lives in Chicago with her parents, so Ray and Roz are planning quite a few stopovers there!