Description
Donald G. Brockett, 1937-1986, was a Congregational minister. While a seminarian at Andover Newton Theological School, Brockett
participated in efforts to integrate the Boston public schools, volunteering as a teacher in the Freedom School Movement in
1964. He served various parishes before assuming the pastorship of the Suisun-Fairfield First Congregational Church in Suisun
City, California, in 1971, a position he held until the mid-1980s. The collection comprises correspondence, photographs, and
audio tapes, most of which were written, recorded, or collected by Donald G. Brockett, documenting his religious and intellectual
development and pastoral work in Massachusetts and California. Although the bulk of the correspondence was written by Brockett
to his parents, the collection contains scattered letters from theologians and ministers, including Paul Tillich. Audio tapes
contain sermons, lectures, messages, and conversations by Brockett and others, including John C. Bennett and Morton Kelsey.
Background
Donald G. Brockett, also known as Guy Brockett, was born on June 25, 1937, in Riverside, California. Brockett attended the
University of Redlands in Redlands, California, graduating in 1961 with a Bachelor in Arts degree. In the fall of 1960, he
traveled to Central and Eastern Europe with a group of University of Redlands students, meeting young communists with whom
he would maintain correspondence. Between 1961 and 1965, he attended Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Massachusetts,
graduating in 1965 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. While a student at Andover Newton, Brockett edited the student newspaper
Hillview, and held a number of pastoral positions, including youth director at Grace Baptist Church in Arlington, Massachusetts, student
chaplain at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Malone, New York. As
a young seminarian, Brockett took a keen interest in the new religious and social movements that swept the 1960s, reading
widely and participating in the Boston Freedom School movement in February 1964.
Extent
1 linear foot
(1 box)
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union
as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must
also be obtained by the reader.
Availability
Collection is open for research.