Morton, Helen

Helen Morton was born June 5, 1898 and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, spending summers at the family home on Yarmouth Island, Maine. After graduating from Vassar College she received a Master of Science degree from the Simmons College School of Social Work in 1923 and was involved in settlement work in Boston and internationally. From 1933 to 1940 Morton was executive secretary of the National Student Council of the YWCA, a position in which she traveled widely and was involved in interracial activities. In 1935 she took on the added assignment of co-executive of the new National Intercollegiate Christian Council and was elected a member of the World Student Christian Federation Executive Committee. Following a trip to Asia in connection with the WSCFin 1940, Morton became general secretary of the Cambridge (MA) YWCA, but with the coming of the Second World War, she returned to work with the World Student Christian Federation. For six months during 1946 Morton was a staff member of CIMADE (ComitÉ Intermouvement Aide aux EvacuÉs) in France and then, until 1948, served the World YWCA in Geneva. In 1949 she returned to Boston to become the Associate Headworkder of South End House. She remained in Boston until 1980 except for two years overseas with the World Council of Churches; she served as parish assistant and "lay reader" of St. Stephen's Church and was involved in urban renewal work in Boston. Morton served on the Board of the University Christian Movement of New England and these papers were received in connection with the UCM archives, YDSL Record Group No. 88.