by Margaret Patton, Bryn Mawr Class of 2004

James Maxon Yard was born July 19, 1880, in Farmingdale, N.J. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan in 1905. He married Mabelle Merriman Hickcox in 1908. Yard studied at the Hartford Theological Seminary from 1905 to 1906 and 1907 to 1909. During the interim between his two periods of study at the seminary, Yard served as the secretary of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Students' Association (Y.M.C.A.). In 1909, Yard received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from the seminary. The Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Church sent him to do educational and church work in Chengtu, West China, from 1910 to 1922, and he served as district superintendent of schools and churches, as well as on the faculty of the West China Union University. From 1922 to 1925, he was in Shanghai as the editor of the China Christian Advocate and director of World Service for the Methodist Church of China. Yard was a delegate from China to the General Conference of the Japanese Methodist Church in 1924.

In 1925, Yard returned to the United States and served as a field representative of West China Union University until 1928. In 1926, Wesleyan awarded Yard an honorary Doctorate of Divinity. From 1928 until 1933, Yard was director of religion and a member of the department of political science at Northwestern University. Throughout his adult career, he remained active in religious and social movements. From 1933 to 1935, he was the secretary of the Chicago Commission for the Defense of Human Rights. After this position, Yard became the director of the Chicago office of the National Conference of Christians and Jews when it opened in 1935. He was the Midwest director of the National Conference until he retired in 1948. Yard served as director emeritus until his death on August 31, 1950.

 

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