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Gerhard Elston was born in Berlin, Germany on June 21, 1924; a teenage refugee in Great Britain, 1939-1941; emigrated to the U.S. in 1945; served with Signal Corps of the U.S. Army, 1946-1947; positions included Regional Executive for the World University Service (1958-1963), Director for Work Among International Students for the National Council of Churches (1963-1965), Associate Director of the Department of International Affairs for the National Council of Churces (1965-1973), Director of the [Lutheran] Center for Ethics & Society (1973-1976), Project Director for Theology in the Americas (1976-1978), Executive Director for Amnesty Internationl USA (1978-1981), and International Coordinator for the Planetary Initiative for the World We Choose; other work included helping with Church World Service’s Hungarian emergency resettlement program, acting as editor for the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, teaching economics and history at Carthage College, and, translating plays and other works and acting as interpreter at various conferences; served as board member of Bread for the World, CALC, World Student Federation (U.S. Committee), American Christians for the Abolition of Torture, ACLU’s advisory committee on church/state issues, Christianity and Crisis, International Working Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement Problems, Asian Studies Association, Christians Associated for Relations with Eastern Europe, and Survival International USA. Elston died on Oct. 29, 1992 of massive heart attack.
He was from Levittown, Pennsylvania. Married to Marie-Louise (Isse); three sons (Ken, Dirk & Jan); companion for last few years of his life was Bonnie Garchinsky.
Received @108 cartons of material in 1994 from Marie-Louise Elston and Bonnie Garchinsky; reduced to 98 boxes by curator. In Sept. 2003, the archivist sorted through all material and discarded 3/4 of it (mailings from many groups, photocopies of material from the groups for which he worked that did not include anything about his involvement, newspaper clippings, etc. etc.); biographical information, personal correspondence and family material was separated and labels as such; almost all of the rest of the collection is in unmarked folders and is totally unorganized. Photographs were removed to the Photograph Collection; slides and A-V items were removed to the Audiovisual Collection; periodicals were removed to the Periodical Collection; posters were removed to the Poster Collection; some pamphlets etc. were transferred to CDG & Subject File collections.
Box 1
Family papers
Box 2
Personal papers
-- biographical information
-- miscellaneous
Box 3
Personal papers (cont.)
-- personal letters written
-- personal letters received from individuals
-- personal letters received (general), 1930s-1978
Box 4
Personal papers (cont.)
-- personal letters received (general), 1979-1992
Box 5
Personal papers (cont.)
-- personal letters received (general), undated
Boxes 6 - 84
Professional papers
-- work efforts; involvements; correspondence; etc. [most material is in no
order]
Box 85
Reference material
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For more information, contact
Wendy Chmielewski, Curator, at
wchmiel1@
swarthmore.edu
or call 610-328-8557.