John Nelson came to see me during my office hours (around 2:30 this Thursday) to talk about his bibliography for the ACE exam in anthropology and education. He told me he was being sent by Chuck Harrington who had told me that I was the one who knew all about it. As usual for John, he was enthusiastic, happy, and completely naive about what he did not know.

{Actually, I was initially annoyed since he has been hanging around for so long and has not appeared to move one step since he started. I hoped he had become attached to Lambros and that I would not have to deal with him}

We talked about his bibliography and then it came to me that he had told us many time that he had been a pastor (or was the pastor of a church now). I thought it was in Brooklyn but still thought he might know people in Harlem. He told me that, in fact, he was a pastor in charge of programs for the elderly "at Salem." He first told me that he had been a pastor "on 125th." When I asked him what church exactly, it told me it was Salem on 129th street. He was not working as a pastor anymore because of trying to complete his degree.

[The name of the church is "Salem United Methodist church." It is located in the middle of a particularly large low income housing project, the St. Nicholas Houses]

He got very excited and told me that, "of course he could talk to us and introduce us to people. He knows Butts (of Abbyssinian) personally and is sure that he could get us an appointment." I expressed doubts but he dismissed them.

I got the point, I think, that he was with Salem for four years as a minister in charge of senior citizen programs. He gave me a sense that this was also a large service delivery machine.

I told him that Linda would call him and he gave me his e-mail address: jan53@columbia.edu

I have included the biographical details of his life at TC in his personal page