Our Team

Kim Blocher

Pastor

Our Designated Pastor, the Rev. Dr. Kim Blocher, is a native of Pennsylvania who
moved to the island in 2023 with her husband, Larry Knutson. Pastor Kim’s background
in ministry includes psychiatric chaplaincy in several settings, interim ministry at 4
churches, and a 13 year pastorate with a rural PA church. She was called to an interim
pastorate at DISCC in May of 2023. Her call now encompasses an extended period of
visioning with the church as we determine the best model of mission and ministry,
within the changing role of church life in this community.

Kim’s family, for many generations, has lived in Gettysburg PA. In the Battle of
Gettysburg, the first day’s battle raged around her great-great grandfather’s farm near
Barlow’s Knoll. The farm is still there and is now part of Gettysburg National Military
Park. Her roots in Pa are very deep, but she is glad to now call Maine her home. Larry
has lived many places, but has always considered New England his home, and he is
glad to be back here. Larry and Kim feel that their move to Maine is the most exciting
and rewarding thing they have ever done.

Pastor Kim’s call to ministry brought her to Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1993
where she received her Master’s of Divinity degree in 1995 and was ordained the same
year in the United Church of Christ. In 2009, she completed her Doctor of Ministry
degree through Lancaster Seminary. Her dissertation was entitled “Rehearsing
Resurrection: Practicing What We Proclaim.” She also holds an M.B.A. from
Shippensburg University. A proud veteran, Kim served in the United States Navy from
1974 to 1979 as a meteorological technician (i.e. weather-guesser).

Kim and Larry fell in love with Maine as they vacationed here over many years. Those
vacation spots included MDI, Swan’s Island, and Brooklin. Larry recently retired from
Penn Trails, his business that specialized in designing and building trails for public and
private entities. He can now be found hiking with our dogs Ethel and Emma just about
anywhere. Kim’s great passion is gardening and learning about native plants; and is
glad to be part of the Evergreen Garden Club on the island. She was a PA Master
Gardener, and studied horticulture at Longwood Gardens for many years. A favorite
hobby is drying and preserving plant specimens.

Larry and Kim moved from the Deer Isle parsonage to their current home in Blue Hill, in
late 2025. And now they have the best of both worlds in the wonderful communities of
Deer Isle and Blue Hill.

Vickie Hardie

Administrative Assistant

Vickie to send

Edie Dunham

Music Director

Edith Dunham has played piano and harpsichord since she was a child. She received a master’s in music in 2003 from Longy School of Music, with a performance degree in harpsichord. She started a music class for mothers and their toddlers in Paris in 2007, and then taught a children’s chorus in Bar Harbor from 2010 until she moved to Blue Hill in 2013. She has been the organist and choir director at the Parish of St Mary and St. Jude’s Church in Seal Harbor and Northeast Harbor intermittently since 2003, spending most of her time focused on her two daughters, who are now grown-up. In addition to being the music director at Deer Isle Sunset, Edith teaches Spanish at the Bay School in Blue Hill.

Jeff Cobb

Sexton