Elmore Jackson Papers

Wesley Elmore Jackson (1910-1989) was the son of John and Cora Osborn Jackson, of Marengo, Ohio. He was a birthright member of Gilead Monthly Meeting. His family transferred to Alum Creek Monthly Meeting in 1912 and then to Green Monthly Meeting, in Idaho where Elmore attended Greenleaf Academy, a Quaker school. He went to Pacific College (now George Fox College) and then on to Yale University, where he received his M.Div. in 1934 and did two years of graduate work in International Relations. In 1934 he married Elisabeth Averill, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke who had just received an M.F.A. in theater from Yale. Elisabeth Averill, born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1909, was the fourth of Carrie Brownell Averill and the Rev. Edward Wilson Averill's six children. The Reverend was an Episcopal minister. Further information about the Averill and Brownell families is located in Series 7, which includes photographs of Elisabeth's parents, siblings, and ancestors. Elmore and Elisabeth had two children, Karen Jackson Williams (b.1940) and Gail Elisabeth Jackson (b.1944).

Once he had finished school, Jackson worked for the American Friends Service Committee for twelve years, serving as Assistant Secretary, Personnel Director, Commissioner in England during the post WWII relief era, and for his last two years, as Assistant Executive Secretary. In 1948, Elmore Jackson began work as Director of the Quaker Program at the United Nations, a position he held until 1961. He was involved in mediation efforts in the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan (1952-3) and between Egypt and Israel in 1955. He traveled extensively in the Middle East, assessing economic and community development projects, and he lived in Beirut in 1957-1958.

From 1961-1965, Jackson worked for the Department of State, as Special Assistant for Policy Planning to the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. He continued to serve as a consultant for the Department of State for a few years, but he returned to the United Nations, this time as Vice President for Policy Studies at the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA). There he developed a Policy Studies Program "focused on major issues related to effective U. S. participation in international organization affairs." A number of panels were established with the assistance of a committee headed up by former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Cyrus Vance.

In 1973 Jackson became a full-time consultant to the Rockefeller Foundation, where he "assisted in the development of a new international affairs program focused on the analysis and control of international conflict." Jackson retired in 1977 and went on to serve as a Special Advisor to the Aspen Institute. In 1983, he published an account of his 1955 Middle East Mission in. In 1980 the Jacksons moved to Pennswood Village in Newtown, Pennsylvania, a Quaker retirement community, and were members of Wrightstown Monthly Meeting.