Errol Hess

Errol John Hess, 85, of Donalds, South Carolina, died on August 27, 2026,
from complications of severe gastrointestinal bleeding.

He was born June 26, 1941, in Morgantown, West Virginia, to Jack Edward
Hess and Dorothy Josephine Hiener and grew up in nearby St. Marys. As a
boy, he delivered papers before dawn, set pins at the bowling alley, and
ran the projector at the local movie theater. But he still found time to
borrow boats to surf behind sternwheelers on the Ohio River and to pick
washtubs full of blackberries for his mother to can. He was proud to share
that from fifth grade on, he bought his own lunch and clothes.

He graduated from Marshall University with a Master of Arts in English
before embarking on a series of vocations in West Virginia, Virginia, and
Tennessee. A man of many gifts, over the years he was a teacher,
carpenter, mechanic, tobacco farmer, roofer, grant writer, curriculum
specialist, herb gatherer, housing counselor, legal-services organizer,
director of religious education, and keeper of a small country store.

In his spare time, he put his ideals to work as an activist and a war-tax
resister while using his poetry skills to co-found the *Sow's Ear Poetry
Review*. He was also the father of five children who refused to let him
trim his crazy eyebrows and who quickly learned that if you twisted his
ear his tongue would stick out...even during important meetings.

After six years as director of William Penn House, a Quaker hospitality
and seminar center in Washington, DC, he retired to South Carolina in
2003. Between renovating an old farmhouse and planting an extensive
orchard and garden, he volunteered as guardian ad litem and cooked
delicious meals for his partner and guests.

He was a prodigious reader and original thinker, a member of Mensa
International and the author of four books plus the screenplay for the
animated short Joey Learns to Fly. In the poem "Meaning" from his
collection *Dirt*, he wrote:

        Nothing
        means more
        than picking berries
        on a June morning.

He was still picking blueberries from his own garden the month before his
death.

He was predeceased by his parents and his sisters, Joyce Jarvis and Jackie
Parsons. He is survived by his partner, Barbara Ervin; his children,
Danielle Judith (Dani) Darter, Jay Eli Williams (Timnah Steinman), Joseph
Emmanuel (Joey) Hess (Jerome Stueart), Anna Hess (Mark Hamilton), and
Margaret Ellen Robin (Maggie) Hess; his grandson, Jeremiah Wayne Runyon
(Tomoko); and his great-grandchildren Kai Finn Runyon and Sango Maya
Runyon.