The family, on both maternal and paternal sides, into which Judith McBride was born were pioneers in the state of Oklahoma: a widowed great grandmother was a homesteader in the Panhandle and the first female postmistress in the state, and a grandfather later became postmaster for the state. Judith was born in Oklahoma City on January 16, 1937, the eldest child of James William McBride and Edith Bernice Morris. When she was three, her father took a job with the Federal Home Loan Bank, and the family moved to Arlington, Virginia. Judith’s three younger siblings were Bill, Tom, and Beth.
Judith’s keen intellect was recognized at an early age as at fifteen she was awarded a grant that enabled her to attend Goucher College in Maryland, where she studied German and Economics. At age seventeen she spent a year living with a family in Germany under the Experiment in International Living program and continued to keep in contact with this family for many years. During her student days she became interested in politics and, as the official delegate for the Goucher Students for (Adlai) Stevenson, she attended the convention in Chicago.
In 1957, Judith married Herbert Weast, who was a labor attaché in the Foreign Service. They lived in Lagos, Nigeria (where her son Tom was born) and then in San Salvador, El Salvador (where her daughter Toni was born). The couple were expected to host many dignitaries of state and Judith managed the busy household. Her experiences with these different societies led to a lifelong interest in and concern for issues of social justice and equality.
After five years, that marriage ended and Judith returned from El Salvador as a single mother. To continue with her studies towards a doctorate, she attended Columbia University during the summer, and also studied at the University of Kansas, where she met the philosopher and author, Howard Kahane, whom she married in 1968. Judith then taught philosophy for many years at Central Connecticut State College, with a variety of subjects related to Ethics. Her daughter remembers being in fourth grade and attending one of her mother’s classes where a transgendered man, who had one of the first sex change operations, had been invited to speak. Her daughter also notes, “My mother was an advanced thinker for her time.”
Judith and Howard were divorced in 1972, and in the following year she married John Sinnock, a math professor at CCSC. John was a widower with three sons, and this marriage was to last for eleven years. Judith received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University and published a book titled Immanuel Kant’s theory of moral responsibility. She went on to become a visiting faculty fellow at Yale, developed a course on medical ethics, and reached out to advocate for those afflicted with AIDS. During the time she lived in Connecticut, Judith became a member of Hartford Meeting.
Judith gave her children the education of an activist’s life, sharing with them her activities to support civil rights, to oppose war, to raise awareness for hunger in the world, to speak out for equality, and to have a garden.
In the 1980s Judith became interested in the sanctuary movement, met Jim and Pat Corbett, and helped many Central American refugees to cross the border from Mexico. She took into her home for several months a Guatemalan family who were seeking refuge.
Judith moved from Connecticut to Arizona in 1992, living first in Tucson and then joining the Cascabel community and Saguaro-Juniper Corporation east of Tucson along the San Pedro River, where she built a straw bale home, in which the Cascabel Worship Group sometimes held their meetings for worship. In 1993 she transferred her membership from Hartford to Pima Monthly Meeting. She served on several committees for Pima, including the Committee for Clearness for Membership and Marriage and the Committee for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Concerns, and Friends remember her dedication to this service. At that time, Pima Meeting was struggling to define what “inclusiveness” meant to the Meeting community, and Judith’s depth of discernment in these issues brought richness to the Meeting. In her Cascabel community, she participated in a study group series of “Meetings for Reading” at which others much appreciated her insights.
Sadly, despite her extraordinarily sharp intellect, Judith eventually lost those abilities of thought and connection as she was overtaken by Alzheimer’s disease, which had also afflicted two of her grandparents. Judith is survived by her son, Thomas Estes Weast of California; her daughter, Antonie (Toni) Elaine Weast Genovesi of Massachusetts; four grandchildren, Brian, Elizabeth, and James Genovesi, and Rachel Weast; two brothers, James William McBride, Jr. and Thomas Edward McBride, both of Kansas; and a sister, Elizabeth Elaine McBride of Colorado.
After her death in Tucson on August 24, 2014, a Memorial Meeting for Judith McBride was held by the Cascabel Worship Group in that community, giving friends an opportunity to share their memories of and admiration for a woman of great intelligence and compassion.