Gratitude for Hubert Locke
Hubert G. Locke will conclude his distinguished service as a trustee at the end of this year. He was first elected in 1998. In addition to making estimable contributions to the Board of Trustees, he has regularly engaged DDH students. He is 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. Mr. Locke is the author or editor of eleven volumes, including Searching for God in Godforsaken Times and Places: Reflections on the Holocaust, Racism, and Death and The Detroit Riot of 1967. 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 U.S. Holocaust Museum. He was a 1959 BD graduate of the Federated Faculty at the University of Chicago.
Mr. Locke has been awarded seven honorary doctorates and numerous other honors. One citation noted: "His words clarify, unite and motivate. His actions embolden and inspire. With an eye towards the future, he challenges all to look deeper, to understand, and to act for the good of humanity." That depiction reflects his contributions to public life in the city of Detroit and elsewhere, as well as his career as a scholar of the Holocaust and his academic leadership in the field of Public Affairs. It also applies to his service as a trustee of the Disciples Divinity House, where he has clarified, motivated, and helped to attune DDH to the future.
His charge to DDH's graduates at the 2007 Convocation 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.