Rev. Carl H. Douglass, Jr. (STH '53)
Rev. Carl H. Douglass, Jr. (STH ’53)
Carl Henry Douglass Jr. of Moneta turned to the ministry as a young man because he was puzzled by questions that he couldn’t reconcile with traditional views of the Bible — questions like, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
“He felt that as he puzzled, he could help others do the same thing. He was interested in wrestling with the deepest questions and found that many in his congregations likewise were seeking answers,” said a son, John C. Douglass of Richmond.
“His sermons invited people to ask good questions, and he encouraged people to find faith in their own way.” The Rev. Douglass labored for almost six decades to fuse poignant stories and self-deprecating humor in his sermons in “an attempt to link the everyday with the everlasting.” The 86-year-old Moneta resident, who died Saturday in hospice care in Hardy, served 16 congregations in the Virginia Conference of what now is the United Methodist Church. They ranged from four churches on the Brookneal Circuit and Pace Memorial Church in Richmond to Patmos United Methodist Church in Huddleston, where he retired in 2011. From the mid-1960s into the 1980s, he was a fixture on Channel 12, teaching “Lessons for Living,” sponsored by the Virginia Council of Churches. A Harrisonburg native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Emory University and a divinity degree at Boston University. An early advocate for civil rights, “he came out of (Boston University) with the sense that part of his mission was to gently bring along his congregations to a more inclusive world,” his son said. “His early sermons have that theme. He did a lot of persuasion quietly and privately in addition to in the pulpit.
“In the very early stages of his ministry, he was welcoming to black members, which at the time was certainly unusual.”
Although he was entitled to use the title “Dr.” after receiving an honorary degree from Randolph-Macon College, he thought that would be “putting on airs,” his son said. He was much fonder of the term “Daddy,” and 10 children of a combined family used that endearment. In addition to his son, survivors include his wife, Brenda Mosier Douglass; two other sons, Brent Douglass of Staunton and Steven G. Douglass of Leesburg; a daughter, Carol Jacoby of Richmond; two stepsons, Andrew Stafford and David Stafford, both of Raleigh, N.C.; four stepdaughters — Jacque Atkinson of Florence, S.C.; Cynthia A. Hales of Timmonsville, S.C.; Sonya A. Secor of Mount Pleasant, S.C.; and Lynn A. Semones of Christiansburg — and eight grandchildren, 15 stepgrandchildren, three great-grandchildren and one stepgreat-grandchild.