Bill Lay

William Dwyer Lay — Bill to those who loved him — lived a life that, by every account gathered at his Seonghwa, reflected the best of what it means to be human. He was a husband to Taiko-san, a father, grandfather, attorney, professor, and faithful member of the Unification movement. His youngest daughter, Gina, remembered him as a man of intelligence, compassion, open-mindedness, and kindness, but above all of unfaltering positivity — the quality that would carry him through his final years.

That positivity was not theoretical. When Bill was hospitalised around Christmas 2023 with a bowel obstruction, he refused anger or despair and instead walked the hospital hallways singing Christmas carols to the patients in their rooms. Months later, a stranger reached out just to tell him he still spoke about it. On home hospice, even on days his body failed him, Bill ended each evening with the same words: 'Wow, what a wonderful day today was.' On rainy mornings he had always looked out and declared, 'It's a magnificently beautiful day' — a phrase Gina loved so much that she had it tattooed.

Joe Dunn, who litigated alongside Bill for decades, described him as moral, just, and unshakeable. Together they led moot court teams from the University of Bridgeport against Yale, Boston, and the Ivy Leagues, and they did very well. Bill could be expected to leap onto a rock and read the Declaration of Independence to a Fourth of July gathering, or to sing the songs from Hamilton. His family nicknamed him and Joe 'Beavis and Butthead' — a measure of the joy he brought even into hard work.

Bill served as legal counsel for HSA and the Universal Peace Federation, supervised major litigation, and chaired the Faculty Council at the University of Bridgeport. Dr. Thomas Walsh co-taught Bill's final course this summer — a distance class on human rights law for students in Nepal, India, Kenya, Albania, and the United States — and recalled lectures of profound precision delivered in Bill's affable, content-packed way. This past Fourth of July, just six weeks before his passing, Bill prepared and read the Gettysburg Address aloud, version by version, until the very text felt alive in the room.

Dr. Tycho Jenkins recalled that Bill, deeply respected at Bridgeport and across the worldwide movement, drew strength from the example of his father, a high-ranking military officer. He flew to Las Vegas to welcome Mother Moon whenever he could, always the bearer of good news. In one of their last calls, Bill laughed about the banquet awaiting him in the spirit world, where, Jenkins promised, True Father would call him up to speak.

On August 8th in Korea, at the newly opened Cheonil Sanctum, Rev. Dunkley delivered Bill's final message to Hak Ja Han: an apology that he could not stay longer in the fight, and a vow of love and trust. Mother closed her eyes and answered that his accomplishments were recorded eternally in the spirit world. Bill passed at home surrounded by his children, having reportedly asked their permission to go. As his mentor, Dr. Bo Hi Pak, used to say, the great thing is to die well. By that measure — and every other — Bill Lay's life was victorious.