Call Number:

CDG-A.Foote, Willard

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

0.209 linear ft. (1/2 box)

Language:

English

Date:

1937-2018 (inclusive)

Abstract:

Materials in English.

[From notes by his daughter] Willard Griffin Foote was born in Elyria, Ohio, on July 28, 1908 and grew up in Lorain, Ohio. His family were active Northern Baptists. Foote graduated from Wheaton College (Wheaton, Illinois) in 1931, and Princeton Seminary (Princeton, New Jersey) in 1934. He was the minister of South Ridge Baptist Church in Conneaut, Ohio, from 1934-1936, studied at and received a Master's degree from Andover Newton Theological Seminary in 1938. Foote served as minister of the First Baptist Church in Belfast, Maine, from 1938-1942. He left this pastorate for several reasons, including concerns of conscience regarding military service in World War II. As a minister he was exempt from military service, but did not think that was fair, so he gave up his exemption. But in conscience he did not believe in war as a solution to human conflict, so he applied for conscientious objector status (though it is likely that in the end, his age exempted him from even that). Foote subsequently studied at Chicago Theological Seminary in 1942-1943, and became youth pastor at the Englewood Baptist Church in Chicago in 1943. Other pastorates were at the First Baptist Church in Dekalb, Illinois in 1944-1952, the First Baptist Church in Rock Island, Illinois in 1952-1959, and the First Baptist Church in Carbondale, Illinois in 1959-1969. Foote married Charlotte Carman in November 1944. Their children were John, Deborah and Betsy. Willard G. Foote died in Traverse City, Michigan, in 1989.

This small collection includes information about Willard G. Foote's desire to be a conscientious objector, or a military chaplain, during World War II. Extensive Foote family letters from the 1930s and early 1940s were donated (by the family) to the Lorain County Historical Society and include some explanations by Foote of his C.O. views.