Smith, H. Shelton (Hilrie Shelton), 1893-

Hilrie Shelton Smith began his association with Duke University in 1931 as Professor of Religious Education. He remained at Duke until his retirement in 1963.

Hilrie Shelton Smith was born near Greensboro, NC, on 8 May 1893. After graduation from Elon College as class valedictorian in 1917 with the B.A. degree, he received the Ph.D. from Yale University in 1923. He was ordained to the ministry in the United Church of Christ in 1915, and served in 1918-1919 as first lieutenant and chaplain with the American Expeditionary Force in France. His career as an educator began with the International Council of Religious Education in Chicago, where he served as the Director of Leadership Education (1923-1928).In 1928-1929 he was Associate Professor of Education at Teachers College of Columbia University, and then from 1929 to 1931 he was Associate Professor of Religious Education at the Yale Divinity School. He came to Duke University in 1931, where he was to stay until his retirement in 1963.

Smith's career has centered upon four major themes or tasks: the development of a graduate study program in religion at Duke; the cause of Christian ecumenism, which he upheld through his role as the founder (1935) and first president of the N.C. Council of Churches; the establishment of American Christianity as an autonomous academic field, where his own contributions were to be both theological and historical; and advocacy of civil rights for black Americans, in which his role as publicist and speaker made him an early critic of institutional and legal racism in the South, especially in the Southern church.

He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Gurney Harriss Kearns Foundation for Graduate Study in Religion, and the Amos Ragan Kearns Professorship in Religion. H. Shelton Smith has received numerous honors. The James B. Duke Professorship in 1953 was one of the original groups of J.B. Duke Professorships to be awarded. A Festschrift volume was published by Duke University Press in 1963: A Miscellany of American Christianity, edited by Stuart Henry. His other honors include the presidencies of the American Society of Church History (1957) and the American Theological Society (1958-1959), election to Phi Beta Kappa (1958), and election as "Alumnus of the Year" by Elon College in 1960. In 1978, the N.C. Council of Churched awarded him its "Citation of Merit" for his devotion to the cause of ecumenism.