Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Christian Education Office of the General Secretary Records

The General Secretary was the chief executive officer of the Board of Christian Education of the PCUSA/UPCUSA. The Board was one of four major boards of the Church, along with those of National Missions, Foreign Missions and Pensions. It was organized as the Board of Christian Education in 1923, but its history began in 1819 under other official names. The Board provided scholarships, field education, and continuing education; during the years of Gailey's secretaryship it administered the Commission on Religion and Race, created in 1963 to involve the church in the struggle for racial equality. It was dissolved in 1973 during a church wide reorganization of board and agencies, and its functions were dispersed among the newly created agencies.

James Reed Gailey was born in 1905. He attended the University of Delaware and Princeton Theological Seminary. After ordination he served churches in Smyrna, DE and in Bristol, PA. He began his association with the Board of Christian Education in 1944 as a field director. In 1948 he joined the headquarters staff, and in 1962 he became Associate General Secretary. In 1965, upon the retirement of William Morrison, Gailey was elected General Secretary. He held this post until the dissolution of the Board in 1973.