Dr. Howard Washington Thurman is considered a "Twentieth Century holy man." Ebony and Life magazines identified him as one of the 10 greatest preachers in America.

Howard Thurman - who is generally regarded along with Martin Luther King Jr., as one of the two outstanding alumni of Morehouse College-was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, on November 18,1900. After receiving his elementary-school education in Daytona Beach, young Thurman went to high school at the Florida Baptist Academy, where he graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1919. He next entered Morehouse, where he was a member of a Debating Team coached by Benjamin E. Mays and editor of the first senior yearbook in the history of the College. In 1923 he received the B. A. degree in economics as valedictorian of his class. At Morehouse, young Thurman was strongly influenced by President John Hope and Dean Samuel H. Archer and was inspired to study the ministry at Rochester Theological Seminary by Charles D. Hubert and Mordecai Johnson, who were graduates of that institution. During his study at Rochester young Thurman worked during the summers in Roanoke, Virginia, as Assistant to the pastor of the First Baptist Church, where he was ordained for the ministry.

After graduation from Rochester in 1926, Thurman accepted an appointment as Pastor of the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Oberlin, Ohio, where he remained for two years prior to resigning in order to study at Haverford College with Quaker philosopher, Rufus Jones. In the fall of 1929 he accepted a joint appointment as Director of Religious Life at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, where he was a great inspiration to students as a Chapel speaker and as a religious counselor. While working in Atlanta, he met Sue Bailey during the final year of her college preparatory work at Spelman, and in 1932 he married her and accepted an appointment as the first Dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University.

In 1935 Dr. Thurman took a leave from Howard in order to lead a YMCA and YWCA Afro-American delegation to India, Burma, and Ceylon. The highlights of this trip were personal encounters with Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, both of whom strongly influenced his thinking.

In 1944 Dr. Thurman accepted an appointment in San Francisco as co-founder and co-pastor of the Church for the fellowship of All Peoples, a congregation that is interracial, intercredal, and international in its membership. After nine years in San Francisco, he accepted in 1953 a position as Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, where he was the first black to hold such an assignment at a predominatly white university in this country. After twelve years in this position, he retired to San Francisco, where he founded the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, which provides scholarships for college students, supports intercultural community and school activities, and disseminates his recorder and published works. Throughout the rest of his life he was heavily involved in the work of the Trust.

In the several capacities in which Dr. Thurman served as a special Man of God he was preacher, teacher, poet, theologian, counselor, and friend. His eloquent voice of faith and commitment was expressed in 221 books including a recent autobiography, "With Head and Heart." He received honorary degrees from more than a score of American colleges and universities, including Morehouse, and in recent years he conducted seminars for seminarians and others as part of the program of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. There are Howard Thurman Listening Rooms located throughout the United States and in 17 foreign countries. To the Trust he has willed his library, his collection of 800 tapes and cassettes of his meditations, addresses, and sermons, and the royalties from his books.

Dr. Thurman died at his home on April 10, 1981. With him at time of his passing were his wife of 49 years, Sue Bailey Thurman, who shared closely in his life and work, his daughters Olive and Anne, his sister Madeline, and his grandchildren Emily and Anton Wong and Suzanne Thurman Ciarenza.

Because of Dr. Thurman's high standing as an alumnus of Morehouse College and his outstanding achievement as a minister and philosopher, a dormitory was named in his honor at Morehouse College in 1974.

"The time and place of a man's life on earth are the time and place of his body; but the meaning of his life is as vast, as creative, and as redemptive as his gifts, his times, and the passionate commitment of all his powers can make."       -Howard Thurman