Howard E. Spragg papers

Dr. Howard E. Spragg was a United Church of Christ clergyman who served as Treasurer (1959-1969) and Executive Vice President (1969-1983)of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries.

The items include a cover letter (1988) accompanying a copy of a 1940 statement on the Selective Training and Service Act, a letter concerning his enrollment in Union Theological Seminary (1941) and remarks made by Spragg before an annual meeting of Eastman Kodak Company Shareholders (1967). Three audiocassettes of interviews with him that were conducted by Dr. Clifton H. Johnson (1987-1988) of the Amistad Research Center. The interviews are biographical in part and describe his civil rights activities, his lifelong affiliation with the United Church of Christ, and his work with the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, especially for the time he was treasurer. Names mentioned include Ernest Halliday (Congregational Church Extension Boards); Edwin White, head of Pleasant Hill Academy (author of Highland Heritage); James Dombrowski and Miles Horton, founders of Highlander Folk School.

The bulk of the papers are personal in nature and document Spragg’s personal life and career as a UCC minister from 1934-1991; however, approximately one-quarter of the collection contains files and correspondence related to his work as the Treasurer and Executive Vice President of the UCBHM dating from 1959 to 1984. Of note are the files for the Committee on Structure from the late 1950s and early 1960s, which document the merger of the Congregational and Christian Churches with the Evangelical and Reform Church to create the United Church of Christ. Other UCBHM treasurer and vice president materials in the collection include correspondence for the Committee on Free Church Polity and Union (specifically correspondence from Truman Douglass, EVP 1930s-1969), the process of Spragg’s retirement from the UCBHM and the search for a new EVP, and EVP reports dating 1969 to 1984. The bulk of Spragg’s personal papers document his work with various organizations, such as the establishment of New College of the University of Southern Florida in Sarasota in which Spragg was a member of the Board of Trustees. The papers also contain a number of collected Congregational and UCC publications particularly focused on the 1956-1961 merger, as well as the history of Congregationalism. Lastly, a number news clippings and scrapbooking items can be found in the papers with a small amount of personal correspondence.