Biographical note: Born in Spartanburg, SC in 1929, the Rev. Dr. Ralph Alston Cannon graduated from Wofford College in 1950. At Wofford, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Senior Order of Gnomes. He then enrolled at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating in 1953. He returned to South Carolina and joined the South Carolina Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. Ordained a deacon in 1955 and an elder in 1957, he served churches in Chesnee, Spartanburg, Bethune, Mt. Pleasant, Darlington, Rock Hill, Camden, and Greenville before retiring from the ministry in 1994. In 1965, at only 36 years of age, he was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree by Wofford College for “an interest in scholarship that does not stop with graduation” and “a keen conscience, both social and personal.” He was a regular columnist for the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, and his column, “Cannonaids,” made “the profound appear simple,” as an Advocate editor put it. In retirement, he lived in Charleston, SC. Dr. Cannon died on February 25, 2008.
Organization note: Organized into 5 series: Memoirs; Pastoral Record; Books and Articles; Personal Items; Official Files.
Access note: unrestricted
Summary note: The papers consist largely of Rev. Cannon’s memoirs, both in typescript and manuscript form. After his retirement, he began to write notes about his life and ministry, and Mrs. Cannon began surreptitiously to copy them, and later to type them. The result was a typescript that runs some 359 pages and covers much of the goings-on of a minister’s life. As a leader in the Annual Conference, Rev. Cannon had particular insights into its operations. The collection also includes some of Rev. Cannon’s books, his pastoral record, and scrapbook items. One particular file covers his involvement with the committee that merged the black and white Methodist Conferences in South Carolina, and some items document his service as a delegate to General and Jurisdictional Conferences. Rev. Cannon’s 41 years of sermons were donated to the library of the Yale Divinity School.
Citation: Cite as: Papers of Ralph A. Cannon, Archives, Sandor Teszler Library, Wofford College
Location: Archives, Sandor Teszler Library, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC 29303
Administrative notes: Papers received by gift from Mrs. Mildred Bowers Cannon, February 2010. Processing involved re-foldering and minimal arrangement of correspondence and sermons.
Finding Aid: Folder listing
Series 1 - Memoirs
Memoirs (typescript) 6 folders
Introduction
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
Memoirs (manuscript) 3 binders
Introduction-1950s-1960s
1970s-1980s
1990s
Series 2 – Pastoral Record
Pastoral Record (1 volume)
Series 3 - Books and Articles
A Sickness in Society
The Faith of a Fiddler
Jots and Tittles
Series 4 - Personal Items
Yale Divinity School
Ministry
Series 5 - Official Files
Merger Committee
Methodism
Administrative Materials