Scott Ilsley Paradise, 86, priest, writer and an activist, died September 13, 2015 at Carleton-Willard in Bedford MA from complications of Parkinson's Disease. Scott was born in Winchester MA April 6, 1929 of Scott Hurtt Paradise and Alma Eaton Paradise. He graduated from Phillips Academy Andover, Yale University (1950) and Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge. He was ordained a priest in Sheffield England while serving on the staff of the Sheffield Industrial Mission, a pioneering ministry to bridge the gap between the Church and workingmen: his "parish" a steel plant of 6000 workers and managers. Returning to the US in 1957 he recounts a similar ministry in the automobile industry and UAW local 600 in Detroit Industrial Mission, a personal narrative. He married Jeanne McKay in 1958 and two sons, Peter and David were born in Detroit. He returned to his roots in New England when invited to start the Boston Industrial Mission with scientists and engineers in the R&D industry along Route 128. He served on the board of Oxfam America visiting projects in Sri Lanka and Nicaragua, volunteered for Food not Bombs and initiated Massachusetts Tomorrow, a movement toward local, sustainable agricultural production and consumption. He preached, published articles and became and an activist on the nuclear arms race, the ecological crisis, and gap between the rich and poor. He marched with Martin Luther King, participated in a week long fast protesting the Viet Nam war, was arrested for civil disobedience in nonviolent protests against the nuclear arms race and US policies in Central America.

In 1978 he became Episcopal Chaplain at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and convener of the Technology and Culture Forums, organizing panels, lectures and discussions on technological, socioeconomic and environmental issues such at the James Bay Hydroelectric Project that brought together officials from HydroQuebec and a leader of the Cree Nation, MIT faculty and community leaders. Other forums included Technology and Employment, Dennis and Donella Meadow's Limits to Growth, Chancellor of Germany Willy Brandt speaking on Arms and Hunger, the World Council of Churches conference on Faith, Science and the Future, Technology and the Meaning of Work that included speakers from organized labor. T&C marked the 40th anniversary of the first atomic bomb explosion in the New Mexico desert where eleven MIT professors who had worked at Los Alamos each commented on what they had learned since. On retiring, MIT presented Scott with the Billard Award: "Your untiring efforts to promote public conversation on wide-ranging, complicated issues has reflected your steadfast belief that we at MIT must understand how our work affects society…your wise and compassionate counsel has been invaluable."

A naturalist and environmentalist with a life long interest in evolution, he loved New England, its nature, beauty, its creatures great and small, its woods, hills, mountains and beaches and its history. He loved reading to, hiking and camping with his sons.

He is survived by his beloved and devoted wife Jeanne (Muffy) Paradise, his sons Peter Paradise Michaels and wife Aria Michaels Paradise of Jamaica Plain and David Scott Paradise of Oakland CA; his nephews John Russell of Wayland, Thad Russell of Providence RI and Scott Decker of Burlington VT; his nieces Sarah Russell of Durham NC, Anne Decker of Santa Fe, and by his godchildren Paulina and Nicholas Muratore and their parents Patricia Maria Weinmann and John Muratore. He survived his sisters Carol Decker of Santa Fe and Polly Russell of Wayland.

A Holy Eucharist to celebrate his life and faith will be held at The Parish of the Epiphany in Winchester October 16 at 11:00am with a reception to follow in the parish hall. Donations in lieu of flowers can be sent to The Technology and Culture Forum c/o Episcopal Ministry at MIT Building W11, 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA 02139.