Leonard Mason (February 7, 1912-December 26, 1995), a British Unitarian humanist minister, who served churches in England and in Montreal, Quebec, was one of the outstanding preachers and public speakers of his generation.
Born in Meadow Cottage, Ainsworth, Lancashire in 1912, Leonard was the youngest of three brothers.…
William Brooks Rice (May 12, 1905-February 22, 1970), a Unitarian Universalist minister, was the chair of the Universalist and Unitarian Joint Merger Commission. An able negotiator, he was later recognized as “the chief architect” of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, William was the son of Jennie Brooks and architect Walter E.…
Richard Lloyd Jones (April 14, 1873-December 4, 1963), an outspoken and influential journalist, was the longtime owner and editor of the Tulsa Tribune. He was instrumental in creating the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site. He was also a founder of All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.…
William Roberts (1768-1838) (born Thiruvenkatam Vellala), a Tamil Unitarian missionary, educator, and writer, was the founder of the Madras Unitarian Christian Church. He engaged the support of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association (BFUA). His mission was for many years the focus of international Unitarian interest in India.…
Sir John Carter (before December 20, 1741-May 18, 1808), a Unitarian merchant, was on nine occasions Mayor of Portsmouth, the chief maritime port for the Royal Navy. He played a key role in defusing the crisis caused by the 1797 naval mutiny at Spithead.…
Jenkin Lloyd Jones (November 14, 1843-September 12, 1918), a pioneering Unitarian minister, missionary, educator, and journalist, expanded the ranks of midwestern Unitarians and built up much of the structure of the Western Unitarian Conference. He founded a major program church in Chicago, All Souls, together with its associated community outreach organization, the Abraham Lincoln Centre.…
Jean Mayer (February 19, 1920-January 1, 1993), a renowned French-American scientist, physiologist, nutritionist, educator, was the tenth president of Tufts University. Under his visionary leadership this small, financially-strapped regional New England institution evolved into a major global educational center.
Robert Andrews Millikan (March 22, 1868-December 19, 1953), Nobel Prize-winning physicist and one of America’s best-known scientists in the early 20th Century, was a pioneering teacher and prolific textbook author, as well as a university administrator, science policy adviser, and fundraiser in support of scientific research.…
Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence (December 28, 1871-September 10, 1961), suffragist and Labour politician, was a member of the British Cabinet following World War II who worked to prepare for the independence of India.
Frederick was born into a wealthy family of London Unitarians, who were major house builders at the time of the capital’s great expansion.
Henry Bergh (August 29, 1811-March 12, 1888) was the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and was instrumental in the founding of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) is the only person to have served as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of its Supreme Court. The sole Unitarian President since Millard Fillmore, he remains the only Unitarian Chief Justice.…
Caroline Bartlett Crane (August 17, 1858-March 24, 1935) was a Unitarian minister, suffragist, civic reformer, and social gospel advocate. Among the first wave of American college-educated women, she broke gender barriers as a journalist, newspaper editor, and minister before leaving the ministry to develop a new career as a “municipal housekeeper”—applying “womanly” principles of housekeeping to the public sphere.…