William Sloane Coffin

William Sloane Coffin
William Sloane Coffin
	Coffin c. 1980
Church	United Church of Christ
Other post(s)	Riverside Church
Orders
Ordination	Presbyterian Church
Personal details
Born	William Sloane Coffin Jr.; June 1, 1924; New York City, U.S.
Died	April 12, 2006 (aged 81); Strafford, Vermont, U.S.
Denomination	Presbyterian, United Church of Christ
Spouse	Eva Rubinstein; Harriet Gibney; Virginia Randolph Wilson
Education	Yale College; Union Theological Seminary
Alma mater	Yale Divinity School

William Sloane Coffin Jr. (June 1, 1924 – April 12, 2006) was an American Christian clergyman and long-time peace activist. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ. In his younger days he was an athlete, a talented pianist, a CIA officer, and later chaplain of Yale University, where the influence of H. Richard Niebuhr's social philosophy led him to become a leader in the civil rights movement and peace movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He also was a member of the secret society Skull and Bones. He went on to serve as senior minister at Riverside Church in New York City and President of SANE/Freeze, the nation's largest peace and social justice group, and prominently opposed United States military interventions in conflicts, from the Vietnam War to the Iraq War. He was also an ardent supporter of gay rights.