Judith Cross Myrick

Judith Cross Myrick was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on November 8, 1931, to Stanley Fletcher Cross and Marjorie Cocking Cross. She earned a B.A. from the University of Manitoba and pursued journalism in New York City at Columbia University in 1953. During that year she met and later married her husband Allen Myrick who was studying at nearby Union Theological Seminary. The Myricks spent nine months in South Africa studying languages and race relations before becoming missionaries with the United Church of Christ. From 1958 to 1968, they lived and taught at the Federal Theological Seminary in Alice, South Africa, while raising their three children. Returning to the U.S. in 1968, Allen served as a minister in Hamden, CT and Kent, OH, while Judy worked as a community organizer in New Haven and later taught journalism at Kent State University. She became a U.S. citizen in 1973 and also served as a director for the United Church Board for World Ministries. In 1984, the Myricks returned to missionary service, spending a decade in Zimbabwe, where Judy taught at a high school for indigent students and worked with the YWCA. They retired in 1994, eventually settling in Brattleboro, VT and later Connecticut. After her beloved Allen died in December of 2020, Judy moved to Wyomissing, PA to be closer to her daughter. Judy was a dedicated advocate for social justice, volunteering with Loaves and Fishes, Vermont Adult Learning, the League of Women Voters, and the AAUW She is survived by her children Becky Myrick, Helen Davis (Dale), and Philip Myrick (Thea), six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Gifts in her memory may be made to Wider Church Ministries, United Church of Christ, Cleveland, OH.