William Durr

The Rev. Dr. William Theodore (Ted) Dürr, age 90, passed away peacefully in the early morning of December 24, 2022 surrounded by loving family. Born in Baltimore City, he was the husband of 64 years to the late Barbara T. Dürr. They resided at the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville and previously the family had lived in Roland Park for 40 years. The father of Fred Dürr, Debbie Smeton, and Dawn Ryan, he also enjoyed his 9 grandchildren and great-granddaughter.

 Ted Dürr went to Princeton Seminary where after he became the organizing pastor of Perry Hall Presbyterian Church in 1957, where he served for 12 years, thereafter to serve as an interim pastor to 13 churches in the Baltimore area completing his service in 2008 at the Roland Park Presbyterian Church. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1972 where he studied history. Prior to 2000, he taught English and Sociology at the University of Baltimore where he also founded the BRISC Archive in 1973. Perhaps the work Ted enjoyed the most was his social activism for the causes of civil rights and peace. He took great satisfaction in these efforts from the sixties and his association with both Martin Luther King Jr. and his father together with his opposition to war and particularly the Vietnam War. He is dearly missed by all who knew him.