Nolan Bailey Harmon (14 July 1892 – June 1993)[1] was a Bishop of The Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church, elected in 1956.
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Nolan Bailey Harmon was born 14 July 1892 in Meridian, Mississippi and died on Tuesday June 8, 1993, living to be over 100 years old. After his passing, there was a funeral held on Saturday June 12, 1993 at Druid Hills United Methodist Church. Then was buried in the Evergreen Burial Park in Roanoke, VA. He was the son, grandson and great-grandson of Methodist Preachers. Nolan had a wife named Rebecca Lamar who died at age 84 in 1980. His children were Nolan B. Harmon the third and G. Lamar Harmon. He himself was the Bishop of The Methodist Church and United Methodist Church elected in 1956.
Nolan graduated from Millsaps College in Mississippi. He was a member of the first class of the Candler School of Theology, Emory University in 1914. He also earned a Master of Arts degree from Princeton University in 1920. He received honorary degrees from Millsaps, Hamline University, Western Maryland College, Mount Union College and Wofford College. In 1958 he received an honorary D.D. degree from Emory.
In 1940 Harmon was elected Book Editor of the newly-reunited Methodist Church. He edited publications of Abingdon Press and the journal Religion in Life. He also was General Editor of the twelve volume Interpreters Bible. Between 1960 and 1964 Bishop Harmon was a member of The Hymnal Committee of his denomination, serving as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Texts.
He was elected by the Southeastern Jurisdiction Conference of The Methodist Church. As a Bishop he presided over the work of various Annual Conferences in the Southeastern U.S.A. He retired from the active Episcopacy in 1964. In retirement he edited the Encyclopedia of World Methodism. Also in retirement, Bishop Harmon served on the faculty of Emory University as a Visiting Professor, continuing there into his 96th year. Further into his retirement, Nolan taught classes on Government and History of Methodists. A friend of his drove him to and from classes, and he lived by the University at the time.
In April 1963 Bishop Harmon made civil rights history when he, along with seven other white clergymen (including fellow-Methodist Bishop Paul Hardin Jr.), released a statement calling on African-Americans to stop taking part in demonstrations initiated by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. The statement called King's actions "unwise and untimely," and stated that only "slow, slow, slow" change should bring about equal rights. It was this statement that inflamed Dr. King, causing him to write his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail." In his 1983 autobiography, Bishop Harmon referred to the letter as a "propaganda move."
Bishop Harmon died June 1993, the first U.M. Bishop to live to be 100 (or more) since Bishop Herbert George Welch. He was also the oldest out of the eight white clergymen.