Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. General Assembly Moderator Lois Stair Records

Lois Harkrider was born in Waukesha, WI, on June 22, 1923. She earned her BA at Smith College in 1944. She married Ralph Martin Stair of Waukesha; they had two sons.

In 1957 Stair was ordained a ruling elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Waukesha. She was a commissioner to the 171st General Assembly (PCUSA) (1959) and was elected secretary to the Standing Committee on Theological Education. She became Vice-Moderator of Milwaukee Presbytery in 1965 and was subsequently the first person to serve two successive terms as moderator of that presbytery. In 1968 she was named vice-moderator of Wisconsin Synod and moderator the year after that.

In 1971 Stair became the first woman to be elected moderator of the General Assembly, in the face of a storm of controversy which had begun only days before. An agency of the Church had set up a $10,000 fund to support the defense of African-American militant Angela Yvonne Davis, who was charged with conspiracy and murder. Over 7,000 church members from across the country protested the fund, but Moderator Stair held firm in defense of it, stating that "Angela Davis may be the symbol of the Black's fight for justice." Stair maintained her involvement with the Presbyterian Church after her term as moderator ended, working with the Council on Church Union until her death in 1981.