Information Sheet

 

 

R            Mondale, Lester, 1904-

111                  Papers, 1965-1977.

                                    Twenty-seven folders and three volumes.

 

 

 

This collection consists of correspondence, notes, published works, and miscellaneous ma­te­rial of Lester Mondale, a retired Unitarian minister from near Fredericktown in Madison County, Missouri.  He was president of the Fellowship of Religious Humanists, 1965-1972 and 1974-1976.  Much of the collection is related to the Fellowship.

 

Lester Mondale was accorded some local recognition after his half-brother, Walter F. Mon­dale, served as Vice President of the United States, 1977-1981.  However, he was already well known internationally as an author and lecturer, and as president of the Fellowship of Religious Humanists.

 

Mondale was born in Minnesota in 1904.  Raised as a Methodist, he became inter­ested in Uni­tarianism while a student at Hamline College.  He entered the Unitarian ministry in 1926.  Af­ter completing his education at Harvard Divinity School in 1929, Mondale held pulpits at vari­ous Unitarian churches, including a thirteen-year stint as a pastor in Kansas City, Missouri.  He retired in 1962 to an eighty-acre farm near Fredericktown.

 

However, retirement did not bring inactivity.  In addition to accepting several ap­pointments as interim pastor to Unitarian congregations, Mondale became very active in hu­manist and ethi­cal circles.  His association with the humanist movement went back to 1933, when he became the youngest signer of the seminal document of American humanism, “The Humanist Manifesto.”  He was also a member of the Unitarian Ministers Association and the American Ethical Union, and was a guest lecturer at theological schools and universities under the sponsorship of the American Humanist Association, 1966-1967.  He was elected to the presidency of the Fellowship of Reli­gious Humanists in 1967, serving until 1972.  He was elected to a second term, 1974-1976.

 

Nearly all of the papers in this collection pertain to Mondale’s association with the Fellow­ship of Religious Humanists.  The Fellowship, organized in 1963, was seen as a “rallying point” for non-theists and religious liberals who regarded religious experience as a fact of hu­man exis­tence, and who were dissatisfied with secular humanism and traditional religions.  The Fellow­ship was also regarded as a bridge organization for religious humanists, and, as such, was affili­ated with the American Ethical Union, the Unitarian-Universalist Association, the American Humanist As­so­ciation, and the International Humanist and Ethical Union.  In com­pany with these groups, the Fellowship sponsored lectures, conferences, and meetings.  The Fellowship also began publica­tion in 1967 of a quarterly journal, Religious Humanism.

 

The collection is most complete for the period of Mondale’s first term as the presi­dent of the Fellowship, 1967-1972.  Included are eight folders of correspondence, primarily with Edwin H. Wilson, the editor of Religious Humanism and administrative secretary of the Fellowship until 1970, and with Doris Slaughter, who became office manager after Wilson’s retirement.  From “Humanist Center,” the headquarters of the Fellowship at Yellow Springs, Ohio, both Wilson and Slaughter corresponded frequently with Mondale in connection with the mechanics of run­ning the society, setting up annual meetings and confer­ences, publishing the journal, and direct­ing annual appeals for membership and support.  Mondale also corre­sponded widely with the leaders of the societies with which the Fellowship was affiliated, and with the officers and bene­factors of the Fellowship.

 

Mondale also received regular financial reports on the Fellowship from Yellow Springs, and the collection includes financial figures for the period of Mondale’s first term as president, 1967-1972.  Also available are statistics on membership, promotions and appeals, subscriptions to the journal, and correspondence and notes connected with the annual meeting of the Fellow­ship, 1971.

 

The remainder of the collection contains several folders and three volumes of Mon­dale’s writ­ings on religious humanism.  There are also five folders of miscellaneous printed material from the affiliates of the society, including a file of bulletins issued by the Interna­tional Humanist and Ethical Union of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

 

 

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