David Rhys Williams

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David Rhys Williams (1890 – March 28, 1970) was an American Congregational and Unitarian minister who wrote a Marlovian book called Shakespeare Thy Name Is Marlowe.[1]

Biography

Rhys Williams was born in 1890 to David Thomas Williams.[1] In 1919 he participated in the dispute resolution between International Structural Steel and Iron Workers Union and the Contractors Association of Cleveland, Ohio where he was a labor arbitrator. During the 1920s and 1930s he joined the League for Industrial Democracy and by 1936 became a member of planning committee.[2] In 1928 he left the Third Unitarian Church of Chicago.[3] He supported Soviet-American relationships between 1929 and 1931 which was probably due to the fact that his brother, Albert, was a journalist over there and was a part of Open Road to Russia movement. From 1933 to 1934 he was a Vice President of the Rochester Torch Club and a year later became its President, a position which he kept only for a year. From 1936 to 1937 he served as President of the Unitarian Fellowship for Social Justice and by 1938 was expelled from Rochester Social Justice Club because of his communistic and racist views of Charles Coughlin.[2]

From 1928 to 1958 he worked at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester where he served as Minister Emeritus from which he retired later on.[1] In the 1950s he was in opposition of Senator Joseph McCarthy and Feinberg Law and two years later was awarded with the Champion of the Oppressed award by the Unitarian Fellowship for Social Justice.[2] He retired in November 1958 and died on March 28, 1970 at the age of 80.[3]

During his life he was also fought for freedoms of India, Ireland, the Philippines and to allow Jews to be settled in Palestine. He also was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto and was a member of the World Parliament of Religions. He sponsored Emergency Committee in Cuba, the Mental Hygiene Society in Monroe County and was also in support of abolishing the House Un-American Committee. He was a chair at the Rochester Committee and a supporter of placing Susan B. Anthony in a Hall of Fame because he was a member of Black Affair council of the Unitarian Universalist Association.[2]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Biography". The Christopher Marlowe Library. The Marlowe Studies. Retrieved August 20, 2013. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Williams, David Rhys". Retrieved August 20, 2013. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "David Rhys Williams: A Prophet in Rochester". Harvard Square Library. Retrieved August 20, 2013. 

External links

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