"The Reality of the Spiritual World"

Thomas Raymond Kelly (1893-1941) was an American Quaker educator. Kelly was born in 1893 in Ohio, the son of Quakers Carlton Weden Kelly and Madora Elizabeth Kersey. He was raised in Wilmington Yearly Meeting, and graduated from Wilmington College in 1913 as a chemistry major. He went on to attend Haverford College, where he was mentored by Rufus Jones. Kelly attended Hartford Theological Seminary to train as a missionary, and ended up working with German Prisoners of War during World War I, though he was fired due to his pacificsm. From 1919 to 1921, Kelly taught at Wilmington College. Kelly married Lael Macy and the couple had one child, Richard Macy Kelly (1936-). After working with the American Friends Service Committee in Germany, Kelly and his wife reutrned to the United States, and Kelly became the head of the Philosophy Department of Earlham College. Kelly worked on his second Ph.D. at Harvard Univerity in 1930, and taught at Wellesley College and Earlham while working on his Ph.D. In 1936, Kelly became a professor at Haverford College, and in 1938, he traveled to Germany to encourage Friends living under Hitler's regime. Kelly died of a heart attack in January, 1941.