BRUNSWICK — The Rev. Dr. William Ross Woofenden, a leading Swedenborgian scholar, died Friday, May 4, 2012, at Horizons Living and Rehab Center in Brunswick. He was 90 years old.

He was born on May 28, 1921, in Mull, Harwich Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada, the son of Ross Woofenden and Emily Anne Yeomans Woofenden. He grew up in Detroit and graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1938.

A veteran of World War II, he served to technician fifth grade in the Army, Company A 13th Engineer Battalion. He served in the Aleutians, Southern Philippines, Ryukyu and Mandated islands, and was awarded the Asia-Pacific Theater Campaign Medal, Philippine Liberation Ribbon and Good Conduct Medal.

He married Louise Dole Woofenden on September 3, 1950, in Bath, Maine.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston University in 1952, and a master’s degree in 1969 and doctorate in 1971, both from St. Louis University. He graduated from the New Church Theological School, where he was ordained as a Swedenborgian minister. He also studied at New York University and Harvard Divinity School.

He worked for several years as a proofreader/typesetter in New York City, then at the Boston Globe, before beginning his life as a minister and teacher. In the early 1950s, he served as pastor of The New Church in Manhattan and preached at Church of the Neighbor in Brooklyn. He then was pastor at the Church of the Holy City in Detroit; Good Shepherd Community Church in Des Plaines, Ill.; Church of the Open Word in Creve Coeur, Mo; and New Jerusalem Church in Bridgewater, Mass., from which he retired.

He also taught at the

New Church Theological School in Newtonville, Mass., and

Curry College in Milton, Mass.

The author of Swedenborg Explorer’s

Guidebook: A

Research Manual, he was founder and former editor of the journal Studia Swedenborgiana, as well as series editor of the Redesigned Standard Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg from 1994 to 1998. He served on the boards of the Swedenborg Scientific Association and Swedenborg Foundation.

He was an avid tennis player and a great lover of music, particularly jazz. He was such a groupie of the New Black Eagles Jazz Band that he got to know the musicians personally, and they played at his 80th birthday party.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Louise Dole Woofenden, of Bowdoinham; sons Ross Woofenden of Vermont; Ian Woofenden of Washington State; Trevor and Lee Woofenden, both of Massachusetts, and Todd Woofenden of Bowdoinham; daughters Jane Foster and Ellen Woofenden of Bowdoinham and Laura Grams of Vienna; 24 grandchildren, four greatgrandchildren and a fifth on the way. He was predeceased by his older brother, Robert Charles Woofenden.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at the Bath Church of the New Jerusalem, 876 Middle Street (corner of Middle and Winter streets), Bath.