Hubert G. Locke
Hubert Gaylord Locke, former DDH Trustee, died on June 2 at his home in Seattle. He was 84.
An admired and consequential civic leader, scholar, and minister, Hubert Locke was the John and Marguerite Corbally Professor of Public Service Emeritus at the University of Washington, where he also served as Dean of the Evans School of Public Affairs and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. Previously he taught at Wayne State University and the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
His scholarship delved into matters of conscience, religion, and public life, particularly, the Holocaust. He was a co-founder of the Annual Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches and a former member of the Committee on Conscience of the US Holocaust Museum. He was the author or editor of eleven volumes, including Searching for God in Godforsaken Times and Places: Reflections on the Holocaust, Racism, and Death (2003) and his definitive The Detroit Riot of 1967, reissued on the fiftieth anniversary of the event with a new afterword.
Mr. Locke was born on the Old West Side of Detroit, Michigan, on April 30, 1934. He earned a BA (Latin and Greek) from Wayne State University in 1955; a BD from the University of Chicago in 1959; and a MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan in 1961.
After graduating from the University of Chicago, he became the minister of the Church of Christ of Conant Garden in Detroit and executive director of the Citizens’ Committee for Equal Opportunity, a civil rights organization. Even though Detroit had received “national acclaim as a model community in race relations in the United States,” as Mr. Locke put it, black neighborhoods knew the reality of police brutality. In 1966, he was recruited by the mayor to work with the Detroit police commissioner, and played a pivotal role in mitigating the effects of the 1967 riot.
Throughout his life, he continued to advise mayors, governors, and university presidents. His role in public life was once described as “a sort of civic-wise-man-in-residence, counseling patience and understanding in politicians and offering a voice of reason on contentious issues from race relations to growth management.”
For his public service and scholarship, he was awarded seven honorary doctorates and numerous other honors. He was first elected a trustee of the Disciples Divinity House in 1998 and served consecutive terms until 2014. He made estimable contributions to Board deliberations, regularly engaged DDH students, and helped to attune DDH to the future.
His 2007 charge to DDH’s graduates distills his own lifework: Whatever else you do, in whatever post to which you go, wherever you find yourself and whomever you become, … remember that people apparently thought of Jesus first and foremost as a prophet—as one who spoke God’s truths to his time, as we believe he does to all ages. That’s what you must do, wherever you find yourself, willing, ready and able to speak truth to power, to speak out on behalf of the oppressed, the poor, the dispossessed, the marginalized, to those who have the ability to make a difference in the world they confront, but who would just as soon forget or ignore the fact that such people exist.
He is survived by a sister, Joyce Bridgeforth; daughters Gayle P. Simmons and Lauren M. Locke; a grandson and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on July 28 at University Christian Church in Seattle, where he was a longtime member.