CORBETT, J(ack) Elliot 1920-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born November 27, 1920, in Oak Park, IL; died of a heart attack, March 18, 2003, in Washington, DC. Minister and author. Corbett was a Methodist minister who became known as one of the innovators of the social investment movement, advocating financial investment only in companies that were considered ethical. During World War II he served his country at home as a forest fire fighter in Oregon, as well as assisting at hospitals. He then earned a bachelor's degree from Temple University in 1950, and a bachelor's degree in divinity the same year from Crozer Theological Seminary. Years later, in 1967, Corbett also received his Ph.D. from American University. During the 1950s and early 1960s he worked as a minister in Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Always interested in ethics, Corbett joined the Methodist Board of Christian Social Concerns in Washington, D.C., in 1961 as a staff member of educational and legislative programs, becoming vice president from 1971 to 1996. In 1971 he founded and became vice president of Pax World Fund, which made investments only in companies that provided ethical goods and services that benefited mankind, such as food, health care, education, and housing. He was also founding president of the Pax World Service (now Pax World Foundation) in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1971 to 1990, and honorary chairman of the organization from 1993 to 2001. The purpose of Pax World Service was to promote international peace through Corbett's concept of "citizen diplomacy." After Pax World Service merged with another company, he founded Pax International in 2001, serving as chairman. Corbett was the author of The Prophets on Main Street (1964), Christians Awake (1970), Turned on by God (1971), and Becoming a Prophetic Community (1980).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

Washington Post, March 28, 2003, p. B8.