More Information about Dr. A.C. Reid

Dr. A.C. Reid with students in his Philosophy seminar at Wake Forest College

Albert Clayton Reid was born on July 26, 1894 on the rural Reid homestead built by his grandfather at the junction of Cabin Creek and the Yadkin River in Davidson County, North Carolina.  He graduated from Wake Forest College in 1917, and after teaching at Anderson College for Women in Anderson, South Carolina returned to join the faculty at Wake Forest in 1920.  He left for two intense years at Cornell University during which he earned his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1923 under Professor Edward Bradford Titchenor.  He married Eleanor Frances Jones of Canton, Georgia that year and returned with her to Wake Forest to teach Psychology and then Philosophy until his mandatory retirement at the age of 70 in 1965.   He is survived by his two children, Eleanor Reid Forrow and Albert Clayton Reid, Jr., and eight grandchildren, including Dr. Lachlan Forrow, President of The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship.

Dr. Reid’s reputation as a scholar and teacher spread far beyond Wake Forest College.  He was twice invited by Dr. Willard L. Sperry, dean of Harvard Divinity School, to Harvard where he led daily worship services in Harvard University’s Appleton Chapel in the summers of 1936 and 1946.  In his introduction to the published talks of 1946, Resources for Worship, Harold Tribble, President of Andover Newton Theological School, wrote:

The brief addresses are the distilled essence of devout Bible study.  They treat basic themes in clear perspective and with discriminating insight…The book stimulates the mind, warms the heart, and creates an atmosphere of reverence and obedience.  It is a lesson in action +-3n, for it shows how truth can be phrased in the language of worship.

Countless other students of Dr. Reid experienced these qualities of his teaching in his classes at Wake Forest, not just about Biblical texts, but also as he led them to understand, analyze, and appreciate the thoughts of great Western philosophers from Socrates and Plato to Hume and Nietzsche. 

Read Tributes from students of A.C. Reid

Read Excerpts from A.C. Reid’s writings

Read more about our Endowed Fellowships:

Rhena Schweitzer Miller

A.C. Reid

Antje Lemke

Mark L. Wolf