Guide to the Eugene Carson Blake Papers

Eugene Carson Blake was born in St. Louis on November 7, 1906. He graduated from Princeton University in 1928 and spent the following year teaching English in Forman College, Lahore, India (now Pakistan). He returned to his studies in 1929, spending a year at New College, Edinburgh, Scotland and two years at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he received a Th.B. in 1932. Blake married Valina Gillespie in 1929. He served as pastor of churches in New York City, Albany, and Pasadena, CA from 1932-51.

In 1951 Blake was elected Stated Clerk of the General Assembly (PCUSA), a post he held until 1958. In 1958 the PCUSA became the UPCUSA, and Blake was elected Stated Clerk of the UPCUSA General Assembly; he served until 1966. From 1954-57 he served as president of the National Council of Churches, and in 1966 he became general secretary to the World Council of Churches, from which he retired in 1972.

Dr. Blake is noted for his contributions to the 1967 confessional revision in the Presbyterian Church, to the civil rights movement, to church union efforts, for his leadership in the WCC's Programme to Combat Racism, and to the WCC's world development activities.