Mrs. Phyllis Taylor, a hospice nurse, prison chaplain, world peace activist, and a 1963 graduate of Arcadia University in Wyncote/Glenside, passed away on Thursday, June 4, at KeystoneCare Hospice in Wyndmoor. She was 84.
Last year, Mrs. Taylor was honored at Arcadia’s Women Who Lead Forum. From the university’s post:
Phyllis Brody Taylor ‘63 is one of our Women Who Lead Forum honorees to be featured on Saturday, March 22. She is a hospice nurse, grief facilitator, educator in end-of-life issues, community organizer, and the Health Liaison for the PA Prison Society addressing issues of health in corrections throughout the state. Phyllis is also a Correctional Chaplain, part of Cease Fire Philly and the HUB, which addresses violence and also supports victims of violence, and is involved with the New Sanctuary Movement.
Phyllis traveled to Nicaragua four times during the war as part of Witness for Peace, as well as the former Soviet Union with the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Journey of Compassion. She also explored Sweden, Norway and Switzerland to see how those countries addressed issues of poverty, corrections, and human rights. She has been on the Boards of Amnesty International USA, Prisoner Visitation and Support, Kids of Kadgione in Senegal, and Face to Face.
She combined all these activities while being a wife to her husband of 62 years, now of blessed memory, a mom, grandmother and great-grandmother. She works to combine her commitment to family and to social justice, health care, violence, human rights and the refugee community.
Following her graduation from then-Beaver College (Arcadia University’s previous name), Mrs. Taylor went on to nursing school and later became a volunteer nurse “and then a consultant for the University of Pennsylvania health services at Holmesburg Prison and elsewhere,” her obituary said.
“Mrs. Taylor was also an enterostomal therapy nurse, head of the AIDS committee at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine medical center, and director of education at the old Hospice of Delaware Valley,” her obituary said. “She wrote research articles for journals and letters to the editor, appeared on local TV and radio shows, and lectured often at conferences and seminars about death, grief, and medical and financial ethics. She never retired.”
She was featured in the 2016 documentary Blockade and was named the Prison Society’s Volunteer of the Year in 2022. You can listen to her discuss the award below:
A celebration of her life is to be held at 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 20, at Germantown Monthly Meeting, 47 W. Coulter St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19144.
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Photo: AU