Richard P. Unsworth Papers

Eminent minister, educator, and race relations activist, Richard Preston Unsworth (1927-2016) served Smith College for more than fifty years as a member of the faculty and as Chaplain of the College. Unsworth came to Smith College after serving as the Assistant Chaplain at Yale University. First appointed an Associate Professor of Religion and Chaplain of the College in 1954, he left in 1964 to become the Dean of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation and Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College. During his tumultuous two years at Dartmouth, Unsworth was tasked with addressing several controversial topics including his personal activities with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, women's reproductive rights, and Vietnam.

Resuming his position as Chaplain of the College and Professor of Religion under President Tom Mendenhall, he saw his role as liaison between the college administration and students expand. In 1980 he assumed the role of headmaster at Northfield Mount Hermon preparatory school. In addition to strengthening the school's outreach and development program, he is credited with providing Northfield Mount Hermon with its reputation for minority inclusion and developing its resources in support of the curriculum.

Professionally, Unsworth was a noted figure in the development of ecumenical services across higher education campuses and the incorporation of ethics into rigorous cross-discipline curricula. He published numerous sermons, monographs, essays, and articles on a variety of contemporary He lectured widely and facilitated several national surveys across various institutions. In 1949, he and Joy Merritt (1927-2014) were married. Joy was a graduate of Wheaton College and later completed her Master of Social Work in 1959 from Smith College. In 1975, after serving various roles in the Northampton Public School system, she was named the first public school psychologist in Massachusetts. In 1980 Mrs. Unsworth was appointed the director of special education for the Greenfield Public Schools where she worked tirelessly towards pathways and policies to achieve student integration until her retirement in 1989.