Randall, Claire (1919—)

First woman secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ. Born in Dallas, Texas, on October 15, 1919; Scarritt College for Christian Workers, Nashville, Tennessee, B.A., 1950.

Born in 1919, Claire Randall graduated from Scarritt College for Christian Workers in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1950. She later served as director of the Christian World Mission and, from 1962 to 1973, as program director and associate director of Church Women United. In 1974, she became secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ (an organization of 30 Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations), making her the first woman in America to hold such a high-ranking religious post. As secretary, she worked toward ecumenism and better ties between the council and the Roman Catholic Church. She also served on the National Commission on International Women's Year from 1975 to 1977, and on the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday Commission in 1985. In 1988, she was named national president of Church Women United, a post which she held until her retirement in 1992.

Randall received a number of honorary degrees and awards, including D.D. degrees from Yale University and Berkeley Seminary in Berkeley, California, in 1974, and an L.H.D. degree from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, in 1982. She received the Heritage Society's Woman of the Year in Religion Award in 1977, and in 1984 was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir by the Russian Orthodox Church.

sources:

Read, Phyllis J., and Bernard L. Witlieb. The Book of Women's Firsts. NY: Random House, 1992.

Jo Anne Meginnes , freelance writer, Brookfield, Vermont