Avis Vermilye

– Avis Ann Crowe Vermilye, 80, died December 10th, 2018 at the Taos Retirement Village. Born 1938 in Dallas, Texas, Avis was raised in Wilmette, Illinois where she attended New Trier High School. In 1960, she received a B.A. from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. In 1973, she was awarded an MFA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a dual focus on theatre directing and arts administration. Avis’s life journey took her in many different directions that embraced musical theatre, television commercial production and state arts administration. In 1979, Avis took the “road less travelled” focusing on personal and spiritual growth. She served as a volunteer at Koinonia Partners in Americus, Georgia helping to write promotional materials for Koinonia and Habitat for Humanity, which had its beginnings at Koinonia. Avis then spent a year as a student and four years on the staff of Pendle Hill, an adult Quaker study center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, where she led retreats and taught journal writing. Increasingly drawn to the contemplative life, she was surprised when she met and married the Dean of the study center, Dyckman Vermilye. The couple spent two years in Cape Town, South Africa where they were active in the Cape Western Monthly Meeting of Friends and engaged in volunteer work in the townships. On their return from South Africa they settled in New Mexico, first in Corrales. There the couple joined the Center for Action and Contemplation and Avis wrote for their publication, Radical Grace. Her articles on the spiritual journey have also appeared in Friends Journal, Fellowship in Prayer and Fellowship Magazine. In 2000, the Vermilyes moved to Taos, New Mexico where they were active residents in the Taos Retirement Village, formerly Plaza de Retiro. Avis sang with the Taos Community Chorus and served as a Hospice volunteer. In her later years, she devoted her creative energy to collage and mixed media artwork. Avis also served as a volunteer at Holy Cross Hospital in the Emergency Room and was a longtime volunteer at Shared Table, a program sponsored by El Pueblito Methodist Church. She is survived by four step-children, a nephew and four nieces and many close friends in the Taos Community.