Howard Brinton

Howard Haines Brinton (1884–1973) was an author, professor and director whose work influenced the Religious Society of Friends movement for much of the 20th century. His books ranged from Quaker journal anthologies to philosophical and historical dissertations on the faith, establishing him as a prominent commentator on the Society of Friends.

Howard Brinton was born on 24 July 1884, in West Chester, Pennsylvania to a Quaker couple, who were from different strands of the Quaker faith: his father Orthodox and his mother Hicksite.

He studied at Haverford College with Rufus Jones and graduated in 1905, obtaining a master's degree in 1906. He taught at Olney Friends School in Barnesville, Ohio, and at Pickering College in New Market, Ontario. In 1909, he obtained a doctorate in Physics from Harvard.

In 1916, Howard Brinton was appointed acting President of Guilford College, North Carolina, at a troubled time for the college. He visited conscientious objectors imprisoned at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, who were not permitted to communicate with outside and whose location was not known to their relatives and friends.

This visit inspired him to join, in 1919, the American Friends Service Committee soon after, which allowed Quakers and other pacifists to serve during wartime in nonviolent means. It also co-ordinated relief to the victims of war.

The chaotic consequences of war, that he witnessed in Upper Silesia influenced his work as a pacifist speaker and writer in the 1920s and 1930s. It was during this period that he met Anna Shipley Cox (19 October 1887 - 28 October 1969), who also worked in Europe for AFSC. They married when he returned to the United States on 25 July 1921.

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