Curtis Williford Reese (September 3, 1887-June 5, 1961) was an educator, administrator, social activist, journalist, and Unitarian minister. He was a founder and president of the American Humanist Association, Secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference (WUC), and Dean of the Abraham Lincoln Centre, an integrated social and educational community organization in Chicago.
James Shrigley (April 5, 1813-July 24, 1905) was a Universalist minister, a United States Army chaplain during the Civil War, a leader in the Pennsylvania Universalist Convention; a supporter of the Murray Grove site (at Good Luck, New Jersey), a librarian, and a historian.
George Bradburn (March 4, 1806-July 26, 1880), antislavery politician, was a journalist, lecturer, and Unitarian minister. He was a friend and co-worker in the abolitionist cause with William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass, Richard Hildreth, Lucretia Mott, and Lysander Spooner.
Charles Francis Adams, Sr. (August 18, 1807-November 21, 1886), a lifelong Unitarian, was an antislavery politician who later opposed radical reconstruction of the South. As ambassador to Britain during the Civil War he helped to prevent conflict between the United States and Europe.…
John Albert Cousens (November 17, 1874-July 2, 1937), a Universalist businessman and educator, was for eighteen years the president of Tufts College.
John was born to Sarah Catherine Wiggen and John Emmons Cousens in Brookline, Massachusetts, members of the Shawmut Universalist Society in Boston (after 1905 it relocated and became the Beacon Universalist Parish in Brookline).
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851-September 19, 1931), an ichthyologist and an early teacher of evolutionary science, was president of Indiana University and Stanford University and a prominent peace activist. Brought up by Universalists, he associated with Unitarians and Universalists and their organizations, held liberal religious beliefs, and was treated as a philosophical spokesman by the American Unitarian Association, but did not join a Unitarian or Universalist church in adulthood and remained almost entirely aloof from organized religion.
Horatio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832-July 18, 1899), briefly a Unitarian minister, was a popular nineteenth-century author of juvenile fiction. His “rags to riches” stories portrayed poor boys in America making good.
Horatio’s parents were Olive Augusta Fenno and Horatio Alger, Sr.,
Fannie Barrier Williams (February 12, 1855-March 4, 1944) was an African American teacher, social activist, clubwoman, lecturer, and journalist who worked for social justice, civil liberties, education, and employment opportunities, especially for black women. A talented speaker, writer, and musician, she was welcomed in cultured white society in the North, but remained loyal to people of color, knowing that the advantages she enjoyed were not given to other blacks.
John Holmes (January 6, 1904-June 22, 1962), a poet and critic, was a teacher of literature and modern poetry at Tufts University for 28 years. He wrote seven volumes of poetry and the lyrics to several Unitarian Universalist hymns.
Gabriel Hojski (ca.1555-1632) and his son Roman Hojski (ca.1585-1635), nobles from Wolyn (Volhynia) in today’s Ukraine and politicians in 16th and 17th century Poland, were patrons and supporters of Arianism (Socinianism or Unitarianism) in their estates. Gabriel Hojski was one of the most devoted and generous benefactors of Arianism in Poland in his time.
Hendrik Willem van Loon (January 14, 1882-March 11, 1944), a Dutch-American author and illustrator, was the first winner of the Newbery Medal for The Story of Mankind. He was beloved by the public during his lifetime as an engaging, energetic interpreter of the arts and humanities.
John Moses Ratcliff (June 6, 1892-February 22, 1953), a Universalist minister, was Professor of Education and Religious Education at Tufts College, Dean of Tufts School of Religion, Secretary of the Universalist General Convention, and President of the General Sunday School Association.