Gaylord Starin White

Gaylord Starin White (March 3, 1864 – November 25, 1931) was an American social reformer and activist who was prominent in the settlement movement.[1] He was the second and long-serving director (known as the "head worker") of New York City's Union Settlement and, at his death, the Dean of Students at Union Theological Seminary. A New York City Housing Authority center for the elderly bears his name, [2] as did a summer camp in Arden, New York for inner-city children.[3]

Gaylord Starin White
Born(1864-03-03)March 3, 1864
New Rochelle, New York, US
DiedNovember 25, 1931(1931-11-25) (aged 67)
New York City, US
EducationUniversity of the City of New York; Princeton University, B.A. 1886; Union Theological Seminary; University of Berlin
Occupationsocial worker, clergyman
Known forhead worker, Union Settlement
Spouse(s)Sophie Douglass Young
Children4

Early life and education

White was born in New Rochelle, New York to Charles Trumbull White and Georgiana Starin.[4][5] He attended the University of the City of New York (later known as New York University) for two years before transferring to Princeton University, from which he earned AB (1886) and AM (1899) degrees.[6] He then attended Union Seminary and, after earning a Bachelor of Divinity in 1890,[6] studied at the University of Berlin for two years. While returning to the US, he visited the original university settlement, Toynbee Hall, for two months.

Social reform work

White was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1892 and afterward was briefly the first assistant pastor at Rutgers Presbyterian Church.[1] His first post as pastor was at City Park Chapel, 209 Concord Street, in the working-class Navy Yard section of Brooklyn, New York—starting in 1893.[1] The Chapel was associated with the First Presbyterian Church (Brooklyn), under the leadership of Charles Cuthbert Hall (later the president of Union Theological Seminary). It was razed in 1896 and replaced with a building thereafter designated the "City Park Branch" of First Presbyterian.

City Park Branch was designed on the "institutional" church model, which had been pioneered by William S. Rainsford at St. George's Episcopal Church. Providing "opportunities for physical, intellectual and moral culture", its mission bore clear similarities to the burgeoning Settlement approach.[7] White explained, "We aim to have an open church, an everyday church, on Institutional lines: in other words, a people's church working on the principle of self support."[7] Although not referred to at the time as a Settlement house, it would come to be so categorized and is included in the Handbook of Settlements, published in 1911.[8]

  • Headworker Gaylord Starin White (far left) and the staff of Union Settlement in 1912.

After eight years at the City Park branch, White followed Hall back to Union Theological Seminary (UTS) and became its director of field work.[1] In this capacity he oversaw the development of Union Settlement and became its second "head worker"—residing there with his wife and four children until 1920. During this time, he also became professor of applied Christianity at UTS. In 1920, he took a position as UTS's director of the department of church and community and moved to a UTS apartment on the west side of Manhattan, where he lived until his death in 1931.[1]

Personal life

On June 6, 1892, he married Sophie Douglass Young, with whom he had four children: Sophie Douglass, Charles Trumbull, Cleveland Stuart, and Katharine Gaylord. He died in his residence at Union Theological Seminary on November 25, 1931, of heart disease.[9]

Written work by White
  • Gaylord S. White, "The Social Settlement after Twenty-Five Years," The Harvard Theological Review, vol. 4, no. 1 (Jan. 1911), 47-70.
  • Gaylord S. White, "Social Training of Lay Workers", Religious Education, vol. 8 (1913), 83-87. PDF
  • Gaylord S. White, "Reflections of a Settlement Worker," Scribner's Magazine LXXVI (July–December 1924), 633-638.
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See also

References
  1. "Rev. Dr. G. S. White Found Dead in Bed". New York Times. November 26, 1931.
  2. "White, Gaylord Houses". Archived from the original on January 4, 2016.
  3. "Arden, New York. Interracial activities at Camp Gaylord White, where children are aided by the Methodist Camp Service. Rest period".
  4. White, Erskine Norman (1905). Norman White, his ancestors and his descendants. New York City: No Publisher.
  5. Stone, William Leete (1892). The Starin family in America : Descendants of Nicholas Ster (Starin), on of the early settlers of Fort Orange (Albany, N. Y. ). Albany, N. Y.: J. Mursell's sons.
  6. Wertheimer, Leo Weldon (1917). General Catalogue of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity. 12. New York: Psi Upsilon Fraternity. pp. 49.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  7. "New Institutional Church". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1896-04-08. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  8. Kennedy, Albert Joseph; Woods, Robert Archey (1911). Handbook of Settlements. Charities Publication Committee.
  9. "Noted Clergymen Mourn Dr. G. S. White". New York Times. 1931-11-28. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  10. Reinhold, Meyer. "Moore, Frank Gardner". Database of Classical Scholars. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
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