Rev. Barnaby Feder has been the Champlain Valley UU Society’s Lead Minister since Aug., 2012. He will be retiring on June 30, with plans to remain in Middlebury doing part-time ministry work around New England, writing and teaching projects, and volunteer community work. Rev. Feder is a San Francisco Bay Area native. He was raised in a UU congregation in San Mateo, Calif., that his late mother helped organize. His transition to New Englander began with extended summer visits to relatives in the region. He entered Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.) in 1968 and lived in Putney, Vt., in 1970 to work in the “Phil Hoff for U.S. Senate” campaign. After graduating from Williams, he became a reporter for the nearby North Adams Transcript. After a break from 1974-77 to obtain a J.D. Degree at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, he resumed worked as a journalist. He spent 27 years with The New York Times, covering business and technology from New York City, London, and Chicago. He was one of the writers on the award-winning Portraits of Grief project memorializing the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Barnaby entered seminary at Drew Theological School in 2008. Prior to being called to Middlebury, he served as a ministerial intern in Morristown, NJ., and half-time interim minister in Stroudsburg, Pa.