Rev. Malcolm Steele The Rev. Malcolm Sheldon Steele is being remembered as a well-respected man who was a fixture in the Freehold Borough community for decades.
Steele, 84, of Hightstown, Mercer County, died on Sept. 3 at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, after a short illness.
Many people honored him with their attendance at services held at the Bethel AME Church, Waterworks Road, Freehold Township.
Freehold Borough Mayor Nolan Higgins was among those who paid their respects to Steele.
“Rev. Steele was a man who was respected by everyone who met him,” Higgins said. “He was well known for his service in the Freehold Borough School District, for his service as the long-time pastor of the Bethel AME Church, for his service on many civic boards and committees, and for his compassion and friendship to all in our community.
“He was there when people needed a person to talk with and he respected each person he counseled. Our residents who are now adults with children of their own in our schools remember Rev. Steele in the halls when they were students.”
According to his obituary, Steele was born in Amityville, N.Y., He received his license to preach in 1949. Steele married Nora W. Harmon on Sept. 3, 1955.
He arrived at Bethel AME Church, Freehold Township, in 1966, where he remained as the active pastor until his retirement in 2001.
After 2001, Steele maintained his membership at Bethel AME Church until his passing. Following his active pastorship, he mentored and worked with young ministers, including the Rev. Frederick Parrish and the Rev. Troy Lynn Carr, who currently leads the congregation.
Freehold Borough resident and Bethel AME Church congregant Lillie Hendry remembered Steele with fondness and affection.
“He was so beloved and such a leader. If you are a good shepherd, you can stay with your flock,” she said, referring to Steele’s time as pastor of Bethel AME Church.
She said the reverend and his wife ministered together, were “hometown people” and were “inseparable.”
“I used to call them the Supreme Team,” she said.
Hendry shared one of her favorite quotes from Steele: “When we needed encouragement he would say to us, ‘There’s a bright side somewhere. Don’t rest until you find it.’”
According to Hendry, Steele served the Freehold Borough K-8 School District as the disciplinarian at the Park Avenue Elementary School for 25 years.
“His discipline came from a place of respect,” she said. “The students respected him and would do what they thought would make him respect them as well. They knew he expected good behavior and they respected him and gave him that good behavior.”
Sheryl Warrington, who is married to long-time resident Robert “Babe” Warrington, has taught in the Freehold Borough School District since 1976. She remembered Steele with respect and fondness.
“He was friendly and supportive to the students,” she said. “Students knew he meant business, but he gave them tough love and taught them about the importance of education. Anyone who had the pleasure of knowing Rev. Steele was touched by him and we all carry a little of bit of him with us.”
Carr, the current pastor of Bethel AME Church, called Steele, “a sage, a giant and a mystic.”
“I say that not just in the context of Bethel AME Church, but among clergy members as well,” she said. “Rev. Steele was highly respected on a connectual level in our denomination which has churches in Africa, India, France and England, in addition to the United States.”
Carr, who took over the pastorship of the church in June 2009, said, “I was favored by God to have been mentored by Rev. Steele.”
She said Steele welcomed her to the church where she was to be the first woman minister. She called him “the last of the gentle men.”
“He wanted to see me do well. It was genuine and I knew it. He will be greatly missed,” the reverend said.
Steele served the community as the vice president of the Concerned Citizens of Freehold, as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Freehold Area Hospital, (now CentraState Medical Center, as a trustee for the YMCA of Freehold, as chairman of the Juvenile Council Courts of Freehold, and as a member of the Freehold Ministers Association.
Hendry summed up the life Steele lived in the following quote: “Rev. Steele would always say, ‘I want to live so God can use me anytime, anyplace, anywhere.’ He was a true servant of God.”