Parlin, Charles Coolidge

Charles Coolidge Parlin, an American lawyer and business executive, was an important Methodist layman. He was born July 22, 1898 in Wausau, Wisconsin, the son of Charles Coolidge and Daisy (Blackwood) Parlin. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and received the LL.B. degree at Harvard Law School in 1922. During World War I he served in the U.S. Army as a private.

In 1923, Parlin was admitted to the New York Bar, practicing law in New York City with the Wall Street firm of Shearman and Sterling. Through the years he served on the boards of a number of major corporations, was the chief counsel of the First National City Bank and was an authority on taxation. He was president of the United States and Foreign Securities Corporation and served for a time as president of the Celanese Corporation.

Parlin was thought by some to be one of the most important Methodist laymen in the history of the American Methodist Church. He was a member of successive General Conferences in 1940, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1970. In the immediate post-World War II period he took a leading role in the establishment of the National and World Council of Churches. Long a supporter of the World Methodist Council, he was elected president in 1970. His roles were many in the work of the larger church. He was secretary of the Commission on Church Union, 1948-64; chair of the Committee to Study the Jurisdictional System, 1956-60; on the Ad Hoc Committee on the Union with the Evangelical and United Brethren Church in 1964, at which General Conference and its adjourned session in 1966 he presented the report of the Committee calling for union. He was a member of the General Board of the National Council of Churches and its first vice president from 1958-1961. He was chair of the U.S.A. committee which raised the money for the founding of the World Council of Churches. From 1962 to 1968 he was one of the presidents of the World Council.

During the McCarthy era Parlin gained considerable attention when he counseled Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam in a hearing before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee and its investigation of communist influence in the U.S.

Parlin's interests were many. Among them was his chairmanship of the committee to restore Wesley's Chapel in London, securing over $1 million dollars. His own personal gifts were significant in developing the program of the World Methodist Council. Through his own Epworth Foundation he helped more than one hundred young people, many from minority groups and developing nations, obtain an education. He was a trustee of American University, Bethune-Cookman College, Drew University, Union Theological Seminary in New York, Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C. and North Central College. Honorary degrees were awarded him by a number of colleges and universities.

Charles Parlin was married twice. His first wife, Miriam Boyd of Philadelphia, was born 1924 and died 1972. Before their marriage, she was a missionary to China. Three children were born of that marriage: Charles C. Jr., Blackwood B., and Camilla. After Miriam's death, Parlin married Kaye Chiang. Together they had a step-daughter, Jean Chiang. Charles Parlin died on November 15, 1981.