K. Brooke Anderson Memorial Lecture

Biography of K. Brooke Anderson

K(arl) Brooke Anderson (1892-1975), executive secretary of the Brown Christian Association, was born in Cardwell, Virginia, on August 31, 1892. During his southern childhood he had what he called a “hang-up” about “Yankees,” but a shared camping trip with a northern boy when he was 11 convinced him, in the words of his daughter, “that all Yankees didn’t have horns," and he went on to a life of serving all people. After graduation from the University of Richmond in 1916 and graduate work at Cornell, he worked with the French Army Ambulance Service for two years, and was awarded the Silver Star. After the war he joined the YMCA and worked with prisoners in France. He helped rescue homeless Armenians driven into the desert by the Turks and to find them new homes in the United States. In 1921 he entered Yale Divinity School. When he graduated in 1924, he chose not to be ordained in any particular faith, as he wanted to work with all young people.

From 1924 to 1928 he was executive secretary of the first college YMCA in the country at the University of Virginia. In 1928 he came to Brown as executive secretary of the Brown Christian Association and remained until his retirement in 1957. During those years he was constantly engaged in counseling students and gave his special attention to foreign students. He took two leaves of absence, in 1947 to raise money for YMCA work in Europe and Asia, and in 1949 to work with Palestine refugees. He retired from Brown in 1957, but remained active, and took part in a Vietnam war demonstration in Newport in 1971. He died on October 18, 1975 in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts.

The above entry appears in Encyclopedia Brunoniana by Martha Mitchell, copyright ©1993 by the Brown University Library. It is used here by permission of the author and the University and may not be copied or further distributed without permission.

Past K. Brooke Anderson Memorial Lectures include

2006: Peter Ochs, Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of Virginia, Peace through Intimacy: Friendship among the Children of Abraham. Held April 17. (Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life)
2005: Kathryn Tanner, University of Chicago Divinity School, Economy of Grace. Held April 11. (Department of Religious Studies)
2004: Oren Jacoby '77 MFA '85, Sister Rose's Passion, 2004 Tribeca Film Festival Award Winner. Held May 2. (Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life)

Further Information about K. Brooke Anderson

K. Brooke Anderson: An Inventory of his Papers, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries. Also includes short biography.