Larry Ingle, the longtime history professor who retired from University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1997, was selected as the winner of the 2019 Kenneth Carroll Award of the Friends Historical Association.
The association was founded in 1873 and focuses on to the study, preservation and publication of material relating to the history of the Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers.
The Carroll Award is given to the best article written on Quaker history in the last three years. Ingle earned the award for a piece he wrote on Whittaker Chambers and Clarence Pickett that was published in the Quaker History journal.
Chambers was a former Communist whose life was greatly influenced by Quakerism and joined Pipe Creek Meeting in Maryland after leaving the paper; a political conservative, he was an editor of National Review. Pickett was executive secretary of the American Friends Service Committee who held what were considered by some Quakers as radical ideas about racism, capitalism and the Christian gospel.
“My article on Whittaker Chambers and Clarence Pickett sought to shine a light on incidents in the careers of two important Friends of the last century, one of whom, Chambers, has been ignored and misunderstood, partially through the efforts of Pickett. I hope the prize will gain my piece wider attention to help correct the historical record,” says Ingle, who lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Ingle taught in the UTC Department of History from 1969 until 1997 and now a professor emeritus in the department. He has written more than 20 published articles and three books about the Quaker faith and its adherents. He and his UTC colleague, James A. Ward, co-authored a U.S. history textbook, American History: A Brief View of 1978.
The Kenneth Carroll Award is named after the former president of the Friends Historical Association.
“Knowing Ken Carroll and something of his wide-ranging scholarship in Quaker historical studies, I’m doubly appreciative of the honor of the award,” Ingle says.
