CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 1, 1995
Senate Pages S1872-S1874
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]

DR. DAVID ELTON TRUEBLOOD

Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, this past Saturday, January 28, in Richmond, IN, 150 persons from around the world gathered at Earlham College's Stout Meetinghouse for a memorial service in honor of one of the 20th century America's most prominent religious leaders, Dr. David Elton Trueblood. Dr. Trueblood, professor-at-large emeritus at Earlham, died on December 20, 1994 at Lansdale, PA. He was 94 years of age.

Dr. Trueblood was no stranger to the Senate. He first served as the guest chaplain of the Senate in August 1972. I was pleased to serve as the cosponsor, along with his former Earlham student, our late colleague Senator John East of North Carolina, for Dr. Trueblood's second visit with us as guest chaplain on the National Day of Prayer, May 3, 1984. In addition, Mr. President, Dr. Trueblood was a close and valued personal friend of long standing to our colleague, Senator Mark Hatfield. The two men first met as Stanford University in 1946, when Dr. Trueblood was serving as the chaplain of that great institution and Senator Hatfield was a young graduate student there.

Although he was born on a small farm near Indianola, IA, in 1900, Elton Trueblood had deep Indiana roots. His Quaker ancestors left North Carolina, where they had settled in 1682, and moved to Washington County, IN, in 1815. The Truebloods were part of the great migration of antislavery Quakers from the slaveholding States of the South to the increasingly abolitionist States of the North in the decades before the Civil War.

By the time that Dr. Trueblood joined Earlham's faculty as professor of philosophy in 1946, he had already established a distinguished academic career and a growing national reputation as a religious writer and speaker. After graduating from Iowa's William Penn College, he had earned the graduate degree of bachelor of systematic theology from Harvard University in 1926. He was awarded his doctor of philosophy degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1934.

It was during Dr. Trueblood's studies at Johns Hopkins University that his career in the academic and religious worlds began to intersect with the Nation's political life. While completing his doctorate at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Trueblood served as the clerk of the Baltimore yearly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Already in demand as a preacher, Dr. Trueblood was invited to deliver the sermon at a Quaker meeting in Washington, DC. In the congregation that day was the first Quaker to become President of the United States, Herbert Hoover. That first encounter led to a long friendship between the two men which culminated in Dr. Trueblood's delivery of the eulogy at President Hoover's funeral some 35 years later.

After completing his doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Trueblood accepted teaching assignments at Guilford College, in North Carolina, and then at Haverford College, in Pennsylvania. After a temporary assignment as the acting chaplain of Harvard, Dr. Trueblood became the chaplain of Stanford University in 1936. He held a dual faculty appointment at Stanford as professor of philosophy.

The friendship between Herbert Hoover and Elton Trueblood blossomed when Dr. Trueblood arrived at the Stanford campus, to which President Hoover had moved after he left the White House in 1933. When President Hoover died in 1964, the Hoover family called Dr. Trueblood back from a round-the-world cruise to conduct the memorial services for the former President in West Branch, IA. After flying back to the United States from Saigon, Dr. Trueblood delivered a stirring eulogy to the 31st President before the 75,000 persons gathered for the funeral services on a hillside overlooking the Hoover Library.

When, in 1946, Dr. Trueblood received his offer to come to Earlham in Indiana, he faced a difficult decision. He enjoyed the prestige of a tenured full professorship at one of the Nation's leading universities. He was, as I noted, also Stanford's chaplain and the close friend and neighbor of former President Hoover. Yet Dr. Trueblood yearned for a smaller educational institution, for a return to his Quaker roots, and for greater freedom to pursue his writing and public speaking. And so, Mr. President, Dr. Trueblood accepted Earlham's offer, a decision about which he wrote in an article entitle ``Why I Chose a Small College'' for Reader's Digest.

After his arrival at Earlham in 1946, Dr. Trueblood's career as a religious writer and speaker earned him growing national following. Several years later, he was invited to speak in Washington, DC, before a church congregation that included President Dwight Eisenhower. President Eisenhower later invited Dr. Trueblood to the Oval Office at the White House. Ultimately, President Eisenhower asked Dr. Trueblood to join his administration as the Director of Religious Information for
the U.S. Information Agency.

During the Eisenhower administration, Elton Trueblood developed a friendship with the young man who would be the second Quaker to become President of the United States. The young man was Vice President Richard Nixon. Dr. Trueblood and Vice President Nixon stayed in regular contact after Dr. Trueblood returned to Earlham and throughout Mr. Nixon's post-Vice-Presidential years in California and New York.

After Mr. Nixon took office as President in 1969, he honored Dr. Trueblood by inviting him to speak at the Sunday religious services held regularly in the White House. When the 1972 Republican National Convention nominated him for a second term as President, Mr. Nixon turned to Elton Trueblood to give the invocation.

As a man of character and faith, Dr. Trueblood believed deeply in loyalty to his friends. Throughout the ordeal of the Watergate scandal, Dr. Trueblood offered his friend, President Nixon, religious solace and advice in private. When, in August 1974, Mr. Nixon reached his decision to resign, the President called Dr. Trueblood at Earlham to tell him about the action that he finally had concluded that he must take.

The author of three dozen books, Dr. Trueblood was a world renowned writer. Perhaps the book for which he is best known was published the same year in which President Nixon resigned. Bringing his deep appreciation for the nexus between the spiritual life and the world of politics to its most creative fruition, Dr. Trueblood published "Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish.''

Critically acclaimed, Dr. Trueblood's study of President Lincoln's religious life became a great inspiration to numerous political leaders. President Gerald Ford kept a copy in his Oval Office. First Lady Nancy Reagan spoke of being deeply moved by Dr. Trueblood's Lincoln book when she found it in the White House Library. I am proud to say, Mr. President, that Elton Trueblood's ``Abraham Lincoln'' graces my own bookshelf as well.

After an extraordinary career, Dr. Trueblood ended 42 years of service to Earlham College and the Nation when he retired to Pennsylvania in 1988. Today, Mr. President, Elton Trueblood is back home again in Indiana. Following Saturday's memorial service at Earlham, his ashes were interred in the outer wall of his beloved Teague Library on the Earlham campus.

[The remainder of this tribute was on-line as of February 2015.]



An obituary was also published in the New York Times on December 23, 1994, by Woflgang Saxon "ELTON TRUEBLOOD, 94, SCHOLAR WHO WROTE THEOLOGICAL WORKS" This obituary was also accessible on-line as of February 2015.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 1, 1995
Senate Pages S1872-S1874
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]

DR. DAVID ELTON TRUEBLOOD

Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, this past Saturday, January 28, in Richmond, IN, 150 persons from around the world gathered at Earlham College's Stout Meetinghouse for a memorial service in honor of one of the 20th century America's most prominent religious leaders, Dr. David Elton Trueblood. Dr. Trueblood, professor-at-large emeritus at Earlham, died on December 20, 1994 at Lansdale, PA. He was 94 years of age.

Dr. Trueblood was no stranger to the Senate. He first served as the guest chaplain of the Senate in August 1972. I was pleased to serve as the cosponsor, along with his former Earlham student, our late colleague Senator John East of North Carolina, for Dr. Trueblood's second visit with us as guest chaplain on the National Day of Prayer, May 3, 1984. In addition, Mr. President, Dr. Trueblood was a close and valued personal friend of long standing to our colleague, Senator Mark Hatfield. The two men first met as Stanford University in 1946, when Dr. Trueblood was serving as the chaplain of that great institution and Senator Hatfield was a young graduate student there.

Although he was born on a small farm near Indianola, IA, in 1900, Elton Trueblood had deep Indiana roots. His Quaker ancestors left North Carolina, where they had settled in 1682, and moved to Washington County, IN, in 1815. The Truebloods were part of the great migration of antislavery Quakers from the slaveholding States of the South to the increasingly abolitionist States of the North in the decades before the Civil War.

By the time that Dr. Trueblood joined Earlham's faculty as professor of philosophy in 1946, he had already established a distinguished academic career and a growing national reputation as a religious writer and speaker. After graduating from Iowa's William Penn College, he had earned the graduate degree of bachelor of systematic theology from Harvard University in 1926. He was awarded his doctor of philosophy degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1934.

It was during Dr. Trueblood's studies at Johns Hopkins University that his career in the academic and religious worlds began to intersect with the Nation's political life. While completing his doctorate at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Trueblood served as the clerk of the Baltimore yearly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Already in demand as a preacher, Dr. Trueblood was invited to deliver the sermon at a Quaker meeting in Washington, DC. In the congregation that day was the first Quaker to become President of the United States, Herbert Hoover. That first encounter led to a long friendship between the two men which culminated in Dr. Trueblood's delivery of the eulogy at President Hoover's funeral some 35 years later.

After completing his doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Trueblood accepted teaching assignments at Guilford College, in North Carolina, and then at Haverford College, in Pennsylvania. After a temporary assignment as the acting chaplain of Harvard, Dr. Trueblood became the chaplain of Stanford University in 1936. He held a dual faculty appointment at Stanford as professor of philosophy.

The friendship between Herbert Hoover and Elton Trueblood blossomed when Dr. Trueblood arrived at the Stanford campus, to which President Hoover had moved after he left the White House in 1933. When President Hoover died in 1964, the Hoover family called Dr. Trueblood back from a round-the-world cruise to conduct the memorial services for the former President in West Branch, IA. After flying back to the United States from Saigon, Dr. Trueblood delivered a stirring eulogy to the 31st President before the 75,000 persons gathered for the funeral services on a hillside overlooking the Hoover Library.

When, in 1946, Dr. Trueblood received his offer to come to Earlham in Indiana, he faced a difficult decision. He enjoyed the prestige of a tenured full professorship at one of the Nation's leading universities. He was, as I noted, also Stanford's chaplain and the close friend and neighbor of former President Hoover. Yet Dr. Trueblood yearned for a smaller educational institution, for a return to his Quaker roots, and for greater freedom to pursue his writing and public speaking. And so, Mr. President, Dr. Trueblood accepted Earlham's offer, a decision about which he wrote in an article entitle ``Why I Chose a Small College'' for Reader's Digest.

After his arrival at Earlham in 1946, Dr. Trueblood's career as a religious writer and speaker earned him growing national following. Several years later, he was invited to speak in Washington, DC, before a church congregation that included President Dwight Eisenhower. President Eisenhower later invited Dr. Trueblood to the Oval Office at the White House. Ultimately, President Eisenhower asked Dr. Trueblood to join his administration as the Director of Religious Information for
the U.S. Information Agency.

During the Eisenhower administration, Elton Trueblood developed a friendship with the young man who would be the second Quaker to become President of the United States. The young man was Vice President Richard Nixon. Dr. Trueblood and Vice President Nixon stayed in regular contact after Dr. Trueblood returned to Earlham and throughout Mr. Nixon's post-Vice-Presidential years in California and New York.

After Mr. Nixon took office as President in 1969, he honored Dr. Trueblood by inviting him to speak at the Sunday religious services held regularly in the White House. When the 1972 Republican National Convention nominated him for a second term as President, Mr. Nixon turned to Elton Trueblood to give the invocation.

As a man of character and faith, Dr. Trueblood believed deeply in loyalty to his friends. Throughout the ordeal of the Watergate scandal, Dr. Trueblood offered his friend, President Nixon, religious solace and advice in private. When, in August 1974, Mr. Nixon reached his decision to resign, the President called Dr. Trueblood at Earlham to tell him about the action that he finally had concluded that he must take.

The author of three dozen books, Dr. Trueblood was a world renowned writer. Perhaps the book for which he is best known was published the same year in which President Nixon resigned. Bringing his deep appreciation for the nexus between the spiritual life and the world of politics to its most creative fruition, Dr. Trueblood published "Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish.''

Critically acclaimed, Dr. Trueblood's study of President Lincoln's religious life became a great inspiration to numerous political leaders. President Gerald Ford kept a copy in his Oval Office. First Lady Nancy Reagan spoke of being deeply moved by Dr. Trueblood's Lincoln book when she found it in the White House Library. I am proud to say, Mr. President, that Elton Trueblood's ``Abraham Lincoln'' graces my own bookshelf as well.

After an extraordinary career, Dr. Trueblood ended 42 years of service to Earlham College and the Nation when he retired to Pennsylvania in 1988. Today, Mr. President, Elton Trueblood is back home again in Indiana. Following Saturday's memorial service at Earlham, his ashes were interred in the outer wall of his beloved Teague Library on the Earlham campus.

[The remainder of this tribute was on-line as of February 2015.]



An obituary was also published in the New York Times on December 23, 1994, by Woflgang Saxon "ELTON TRUEBLOOD, 94, SCHOLAR WHO WROTE THEOLOGICAL WORKS" This obituary was also accessible on-line as of February 2015.