With this post we’re starting a new feature, "Collection Spotlight," which will focus on a particular collection at the DUMC Archives. For our first in this series,
we're excited to highlight the papers of Russell Dicks, a pioneer in modern pastoral care who worked at Duke during the 1950s.
Born in Oklahoma in 1906, Dicks received his BA from the University of Oklahoma in 1929 and his BD from Union Theological Seminary in 1933. He served as chaplain at Massachusetts General Hospital and multiple hospitals in Chicago before joining Duke in 1948 as a professor of pastoral care, the director of clinical pastoral training, and the chaplain of Duke University Hospital.
Dick’s methods and ideas about pastoral psychology, counseling, and ministry to the sick made him an innovator in his field. He was the first of the younger clergy to become a full-time chaplain of a general hospital, the first to keep detailed clinical records of his work with patients, and the first teacher of clinical pastoral training. His first book, The Art of Ministering to the Sick (1936) cowritten with Dr. Richard C. Cabot, took a new approach to patient care by encouraging the partnership of doctors and chaplains. To the left is an undated letter to Dicks from Cabot, a prominent physician who taught at Harvard Medical School, on their book’s progress. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
In much of his work, Dicks stressed the importance of listening to the patient and addressing individual needs. He had a unique insight into the patient 
experience: during his twenties he suffered from tuberculosis, and it was his illness and long hospital stays that sparked a desire to pursue a career in pastoral care. He also emphasized the importance of communication between pastors and physicians, contending that a patient’s physical, spiritual, and emotional wellness would best be addressed by the professions working together. As he notes in “The Growing Edge of the Relationship between Physicians and Pastors,” written during his time at Duke, “good medical care means using all of the resources we have for the benefit of our people.” (The first page of this lecture is to the right. Click on the image to enlarge it.)
Dicks was professionally active throughout his career. He wrote 15 books, founded (and for five years, edited) Religion and Health, served as the first president of the Association of Protestant Chaplains of the American Protestant Hospital Association, and was a sought-after public speaker. (The conference program to the left is one of many in the collection that shows him as the featured guest.) After leaving Duke in 1959, Dicks traveled overseas to Germany, Japan, and Okinawa to serve as a consultant for military chaplains. He died in 1965 while serving as director of the Central Florida Counseling Center in Orlando.
As the items highlighted here suggest, the materials in this collection provide a revealing look at mid-century pastoral care in the U.S. and the work of an ambitious and original thinker who dedicated his life to working with patients. The Russell L. Dicks Papers contains correspondence, manuscripts, lectures, sermons, articles, photographs, and ephemera. To learn more about this collection, visit the collection's finding aid.