- Anson Phelps Stokes (philanthropist)
Anson Phelps Stokes (1874-1958), was an American
educator ,clergyman ,author ,philanthropist and civil rightsactivist .Stokes was one of three men of the same name; his father was multimillionaire banker
Anson Phelps Stokes , and his son was Anson Phelps Stokes, an Episcopal bishop. [http://www.nathanielturner.com/ansonphelpsstokes.htm] Web page titled "Grandfather, Father, & Son / The Three Anson Phelps Stokes: Anglo-American Philanthropists" at the "ChickenBones: A Journal: for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes" Web site, accessedMarch 5 ,2007 ]He was born in New Brighton on
Staten Island , New York to Anson and Helen Louisa Phelps Stokes, and attendedYale University , graduating in 1896 with a bachelor's degree. He then traveled, mostly in East Asia. In 1897, he entered the Episcopal Theological School inCambridge, Massachusetts to prepare for the priesthood, and received his bachelor of divinity degree in 1900, although it wasn't until 1925 that he formally became a priest.In 1899, Stokes took the post of secretary of Yale University, second in command to the college president, and he also served as assistant rector of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in New Haven, Connecticut from 1900 to1918. Stokes was a favorite to replace
Arthur T. Hadley as president of Yale in 1921, and was said to have had the support of a majority of the board, but a vociferous minority insisted that an outsider was needed at the helm of the university, and Stokes was passed over. ["Angell Reported Choice at Yale: Anson Phelps Stokes Announces His Resignation as Secretary of the University" news article,The New York Times ,February 19 ,1921 ]Stokes married Carol G. Mitchell, and the two had three children, including Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr., (1905-1986), and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes II, both born in New Haven, Connecticut. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1933.
From 1924 to 1939, Stokes was resident canon at the
National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. During this time, he became involved in many social, cultural, and ecclesiastical causes, and guided the philanthropy of thePhelps Stokes Fund (established in 1911) to improve the lives of African and American blacks. In 1936, he published a short biography ofBooker T. Washington , which was an expanded version of a sketch he had written for theDictionary of American Biography .Stokes saw all of his work as "fellowship in the gospel" (Philemon 1:5).
He died after a lengthy illness in his
Lenox, Massachusetts home.Works
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