Sperry, Willard Learoyd, 1882-1954. Correspondence, 1933-1955.

Willard Learoyd Sperry (1882-1954) was born in Peabody, Massachusetts. He received his BA from Olivet College in 1903, an MA from Oxford in 1907, and another MA from Yale University in 1908. He was ordained a Congregationalist minister at the First Congregational Church of Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1908. Sperry served congregations in Fall River and Boston, until he resigned in order to serve as dean of the new theological school at Harvard University, a union of Andover Theological Seminary and Harvard Divinity School. When the union between the two schools was declared invalid, Sperry became dean of Harvard Divinity School in 1925. In 1928, he was appointed chairman of the Harvard Board of Preachers and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. Sperry was also a prolific author and published numerous volumes, including The Paradox of Religion (1927), Religion in an Age of Science (1935), Religion and Our Divided Denominations (1945), The Ethical Basis of Medical Practice (1950), and Worship in an Academic Community (1951).