John Perley Ellis

SCARBOROUGH – Rev. John Perley Ellis died on Aug. 26, 2024, at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough. He was born in Holden, Massachusetts, on May 22, 1945, to Freeman Ellis and Alice (Bergstrom) Ellis. He grew up in Holden and graduated from Wachusett Regional High School in 1963.

John received a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Defiance College, in Ohio, in 1967. He met his future wife, Karen McComas, there, and they became acquainted while teaching the three-year-old class at the United Church of Christ in Defiance. They were married at the Methodist Church in Auburn, Indiana on June 25, 1966.

They moved to Newton Centre, Massachusetts, where John attended Andover Newton Theological School, and Karen taught elementary school in Sudbury. Together they taught youth classes at Old South Church in Boston and at Plymouth Congregational Church in Belmont. Their first child, Timothy, was born in 1969 in Boston. John earned his Master of Divinity degree in 1970.

John was ordained by the Central Association of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ on Oct. 25, 1970. He was called as an Associate Minister at First Congregational Church of South Portland, Maine. A second son, Andrew, was born in Portland in 1972.

In 1976 the family moved to Norway, where John pastored the Second Congregational Church. Karen taught second grade, in Oxford and Norway, for 30 years. 

In 1997 John resigned from his ministry at Norway and became pastor of the West Auburn Congregational Church, where he served until 2013.

John was active in the Oxford Hills Clergy Association, and volunteered for the Child Health Center and the Community Lunch in Norway. In later years he volunteered at the Auburn Food Pantry and the McLaughlin Garden and Homestead.

After their retirement, John and Karen lived on Gothic Street in South Paris, where Karen died in December, 2020. John moved to Portland in 2022 to be closer to his family. He became a member of Williston Immanuel United Church. 

John became a lover of classical music in his teen years when his peers were going wild over Elvis and the Beatles. He went wild over Ravel and Stravinsky. Concerts of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood were special events for him through the years. 

For many years John researched his family history, including his Swedish heritage and his Mayflower and Minuteman ancestors. He discovered that his Ellis and Fuller ancestors had migrated from southeastern Massachusetts to Maine, where John visited many of their graves.

Over the years, John accumulated a collection of Telechron electric clocks, finding that he shared an ancestor with Henry Ellis Warren, the founder of the Warren Telechron Company. He also had a collection of every Big Ben and Baby Ben alarm clock made by the Westclox company. He used to say, “Ask me what time it is. I’ll give you several choices.”

John leaves a loving and supportive family: sons Timothy and wife Michelle of Brooklyn, New York, and Andrew and wife Kiersten of Portland; and grandchildren Margaret (Maggie) and John Charles (Charlie). His brother, David Ellis, lives in Holden, Massachusetts, and his sister Rebecca (Becky) lives in North Providence, Rhode Island.

Family and friends may attend a Memorial service on Saturday, September 7, at 1 p.m., at the Second Congregational Church, Main Street, Norway. Private interment will at Lakeview Cemetery, Norway.

Online condolences may be shared with the family at http://www.chandlerfunerals.com. Arrangements are under the care of Chandler Funeral Homes and Cremation Service, 45 Main Street, South Paris.

In remembrance of John’s life, charitable donations may be made to Second Congregational Church in Norway at http://www.seconch.org/giving, West Auburn Congregational Church at http://www.westauburncc.com, or Williston-Immanuel United Church in Portland at

http://www.wiuc.org/give.