A Call for Nominations for the 2024 Connie Cheetham Award
The Connie Cheetham Award recognizes a congregation member for extraordinary service to the life of the congregation over a period of years. Connie Cheetham, the wife of our third minister, contributed in many ways to the church when she returned to Charlottesville after her husband’s death. In 1987, she was the first recipient of this award to honor her long service including leading the Women’s Alliance, serving as our first pastoral visitor, hosting at coffee hour and fundraiser extraordinaire.
Members of the congregation may submit nominations for the Connie Cheetham Award.
More than one individual can be nominated to jointly receive the award (usually, but not necessarily, as a couple). This is a lifetime achievement award and nominees must have been church members for a minimum of seven (7) years.
Please include a description of the contributions of your nominee. Be specific and include the many contributions of the nominee.
Email the nomination to cheethamaward@uucharlottesville.org or mail a written application to the church office noting Connie Cheetham Award on the envelope.
All applications must be received by April 23, 2024.
Previous Connie Cheetham award winners include:
Connie Cheetham, Ed Jones, Bonnie Sheppard and Bill Spurgin, Carolyn Silver, Al Reynolds, Edith Good, Waverly Parker, Christa Pierpont, Dell and Tony Smith, Kay and Sandy Peaslee, Phyllis and Gordon McKeeman, Stephanie Lowenhaupt, Margaret Jones, Ruth Nelson, Lois Brown, Elizabeth Breeden, Trudy Rohm, Dick and Greta Dershimer, Sally Taylor, Virginia James, Ruth Douglas, Josie Pipkin Taylor, Bob Gross and Jean Shepard, Pam McIntire, Pam Philips, Shirley Paul, Margaret Gorman, Jean Newland, Frank and Linda Dukes, Patty Wallens, Lorie Craddock, Ann Salamini and Janice Walker and Stan Walker.
Obituary for Constance Meta Cheetham
Published in the Daily Progress 8/4/2006-8/6/2006
Constance Meta Cheetham was born in March 1909. She lived in England (in Liverpool, Preston, Whitefield, and London) until February of 1953 when she and her husband, Henry Harris Cheetham, boarded the Queen Elizabeth II and sailed for America.
Although the landscape, history, and the people of England were always to be a significant part of her identity, she loved her life in the United States, in Newport Rhode Island, Boston, and Charlottesville.
In particular she enjoyed her many years in Charlottesville where she lived from 1955 until 1962 and again from 1968 until her death.
Connie took pleasure in helping others and organizing events that would bring people together. Her sensitivity to others’ needs, her facile charm, her delight in the small pleasures of life, and her respect for a diverse community as well as for the natural world made her innumerable friends.
In the course of her 97 years, she touched many lives. Even children who knew her when she was a young woman during the second world war still have vivid memories of her and often speak of her interest in getting them to read more and more books. Her most fulfilling moments were all these friends, young and old.
She also found satisfaction in the time she spent managing the gift shop at the University of Virginia Medical Center. But the most satisfying moments were the years she spent helping out in a number of ways at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, Unitarian-Universalist, in Charlottesville. Her work there gave meaning to her life and others’.
This work was officially recognized when she received the Clara Barton Award from the National headquarters of the Unitarian-Universalist Association and through the priviledge of having a lifetime service award named after her.
She is survived by her daughter, Ann C. Colley of Buffalo, New York; and her granddaughter Gwen Hilary Colley of Asheville, North Carolina. She is also survived bu an extraordinary and supportive group of friends and extended family whose care and generosity demonstrate that a more humane world is possible.
For those wishing to commemorate Connie, please send donations in her name either to the Charlottesville/Albemarle SPCA od the Memorial Endowment of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church.
There will be a memorial service at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 28.