Dana McLean Greeley

The Reverend Dana McLean Greeley
1st President of the Unitarian Universalist Association
In office 1961–1969
Succeeded by	Rev. Robert West
President of the American Unitarian Association
In office 1958–1961
Preceded by	Rev. Frederick May Eliot
Personal details
Born	July 5, 1908 Lexington, MA
Died	June 13, 1986 Concord, MA
Occupation	Unitarian Universalist minister

Dana McLean Greeley (July 5, 1908 – June 13, 1986) was a Unitarian minister, the last president of the American Unitarian Association and, upon its merger with the Universalist Church in America, was the founding president of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Greeley received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1933 and was ordained by his home parish church in Lexington, Massachusetts. His first two settlements were the Unitarian churches in Lincoln, Massachusetts (1932-1934) and Concord, New Hampshire (1934-1935). In 1935, at the age of 27, he was called to the prestigious Arlington Street Church in Boston where he served until 1958.

After his presidency with the UUA, Rev. Greeley became Visiting Professor of the Church and World Peace at the Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago and president of the International Association for Religious Freedom. In 1970 he returned to parish ministry accepting a call from the First Parish in Concord, Massachusetts, where he served until his death in 1986.

During his lifetime Rev. Greeley received many awards, including honorary degrees from Meadville Theological School, Emerson College, St. Lawrence University, Tufts University and Portia Law School. Additionally, the Concord congregation and his friends and colleagues created in his memory the Dana Greeley Foundation which supports grassroots efforts toward making the world more peaceful. He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution.^[1][2] As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.^[3]

References

1. "Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace. 1961". Helen Keller Archive. American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
2. "Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials". Helen Keller Archive. American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
3. "Preparing earth constitution | Global Strategies & Solutions | The Encyclopedia of World Problems". The Encyclopedia of World Problems | Union of International Associations (UIA). Retrieved 2023-07-15.

External links

• Dana McLean Greeley, in the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography
• Dana McLean Greeley Foundation for Peace and Justice. Records, 1968-2006. At Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School
• “Eyes on the Prize; Interview with Dana Greeley,” 1985-11-22, American Archive of Public Broadcasting