SAYRE PHILLIPS SHELDON

SHELDON, Sayre Phillips Our beloved mother, Sayre Phillips Sheldon, 1926-2025. Born September 28, 1926 in Boston, to Ruth Shoellkopf and Phillip Phillips of Bolton and Cambridge Massachusetts, passed away on her 99th birthday. Sayre, named after the middle name of her great-grandfather, Rufus Sayre Harnden, was an early example of a true feminist and activist. She did most of her growing up in Bolton, then attending The Putney School in Vermont. In 1946, she married Stanley Davis Sheldon of Buffalo, New York and the couple soon moved to Cambridge, where she graduated from Radcliffe College. While bringing up her four children, she became an assistant professor of English Literature at Boston University. Sayre was active in the Civil rights Movement of the 1960s, and went on to teach creative writing in the Massachusetts prison system. After Sayre and Stanley Sheldon divorced in 1982, she became a full-time activist, focusing on the threat of nuclear proliferation and war, which at that time was heightened by the policies of the Reagan administration. Throughout the 1980s, she worked for WAND or Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament. Working closely with famed anti nuclear activist Helen Caldecott, Sayre rose to become the president of WAND, lobbying for peace at the United Nations and traveling internationally to represent the American desire for peaceful solutions. She was very proud of the photograph of herself shaking hands with Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow, fervently believing in dialogue among enemies as a way to prevent large scale wars. In 1991, WAND became "Women's Action for New Directions," where Sayre continued her work of reaching out to and organizing women's rights groups throughout the country. She kept busy with this work well into her nineties. Her second marriage in 1992 to Charles Eldridge Morgan IV of Natick, MA, lasted until his death in 2016. Sayre loved poetry, eventually authoring a collection of her own work, "Poems for an 84th Summer," as well as editing a collection of essays entitled, "Her War Story." She also published a memoir of her early days in Cambridge. Over the course of her life, she traveled extensively, marveling at the architecture, art, and people of other countries, but she loved being in her home, surrounded by her beloved books, paintings, flowers, and her well-worn writing desk. Sayre was an avid swimmer who loved diving into the ocean at Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard, no matter what the time of year or water conditions. Sayre will be remembered by her family and many friends for her dignity, vitality, and gentle humor, as well as her commitment to peace and making the world better off than the way she found it. Sayre leaves her four children, Phoebe Davis Sheldon of Hatfield, MA, John Isaac Sheldon of Amherst, MA, Cary Phillips Sheldon of Berkeley, CA and Alexandra Sheldon of Cambridge, MA; along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A remembrance of Sayre's life will be held at: The Friends Meeting House, 5 Longfellow Park, Cambridge, MA, on December 13, 2025, at 2PM. In lieu of gifts, donations can be made to the American Civil Liberties Union, at: https://action.aclu.org/give/now

View the online memorial for Sayre Phillips SHELDON