Harold William Garman

Harold W. Garman, 90, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, on September 25, 2026. Hal's life was guided by a deep and active commitment to social justice, rooted in faith and expressed through decades of building community wherever he lived.

Born December 13, 1935, in Washington, DC, Harold William Garman was the son of Cameron George Garman and Mary Louise Rowe Garman. He grew up in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, DC, before his family moved to a fruit farm in Olcott, New York, when he was 10. After graduating from Newfane High School in 1953, he earned a B.S. in Agriculture from Cornell University in 1957, intending to return to the family farm. But it was at Cornell that his path changed — a growing interest in religious issues led him away from pomology and toward ministry, and it was also there that he met Janet Carol Mack, the love of his life. They married in 1957, beginning a partnership that would last nearly seventy years and was the steady center of his life’s work.

It was while studying at Boston University School of Theology that Hal developed his passion for social justice. He went on to earn his PhD in Social Ethics from BU’s graduate school in 1965, with a dissertation examining clergy responsibility in relation to the 1963 March on Washington — the beginning of a lifelong calling to urban ministry and creating positive change in the lives of others. He and Janet raised three daughters, Elizabeth, Karen, and Susan, while he served Boston-area churches, then led the Methodist Inner-City Parish in Kansas City, Missouri (1964), and the Syracuse Metropolitan Commission of the United Methodist Church (1967).

For more than 40 years, Syracuse, New York was home to Hal — a place he loved and worked to make better. He founded Priority One to confront racial inequity, served several area parishes, and spent 17 years, beginning in 1981, as senior pastor of University United Methodist Church. There, concern for a declining surrounding neighborhood led to some of his most meaningful work: involvement in the formation of Time of Jubilee, a land trust that builds affordable homes and serves as a business incubator for minority entrepreneurs; Housing Visions, founded in 1990, which has since built or rehabilitated more than 1,600 affordable housing units across 16 Northeast communities; and the Neighborhood Linking Project, connecting residents to essential medical, legal, and social services. After retiring in 1998, he stayed engaged, helping to secure a youth boxing program to reduce violence near public housing.

In 2010, Hal and Jan moved to Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to be closer to their daughters and grandchildren. There, they uncovered a need in their new community and found another way to give back. Moved by a sermon from Marian Wright Edelman on the cradle-to-prison pipeline, Hal founded the Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative (GBCI) in 2011, pairing older adults at Asbury with local youth and immigrant families to build intergenerational connection. In October 2025, GBCI was honored with an AARP Purpose Prize for Hal’s vision in bringing generations together to strengthen community.

Outside his ministry, Hal found joy in photography (especially of his grandchildren), gardening and cultivating his beloved roses, and writing essays, sermons, and memoirs. The farmer and pomologist in him never faded — he stayed curious about new farming techniques and apple varieties throughout his life. He will be remembered as a man who spent his life turning faith into tangible, lasting change for the communities he loved.

Hal is survived by his wife of nearly 70 years, Janet Mack Garman; daughters Elizabeth, Karen (Bob Mulderig), and Susan (Rick Kranias); grandchildren Ross (Lydia Bier) and Sean Pendergast, Patrick and Emily Mulderig, and Sophia and Nicholas Kranias; brother Charles F. Garman (Martha); and nieces, nephews, and extended family.

A Celebration of Life will be held October 24 at 11 am at the Hefner Auditorium at Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative directly through their website (gaithersburgbelovedcommunity.org); or through the Asbury Foundation, 201 Russell Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD, 20877 (indicate GBCI on the memo line).