Obituary

In Memoriam: Hubert G. Locke (1934–2018)

The Reverend Hubert G. Locke, an Associate Editor of this journal and an early leader in the field of Holocaust Studies, died at his home in Seattle, Washington, on June 2, 2018.

Locke held degrees from Wayne State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan. He began his career as an ordained minister in the Church of Christ in Detroit, Michigan, becoming involved in the civil rights movement during the early 1960s. This brought him into Detroit city politics; he served as executive director of the Citizen's Committee for Equal Opportunity in 1962 and was an assistant to the Detroit Commissioner of Police during the 1967 Detroit riots. His book, The Detroit Riot of 1967 (1969 and 2017), is still regarded as the seminal study. From 1967 to 1972 he was adjunct assistant professor of public policy at Wayne State University before becoming head of the College of Public Affairs at the University of Nebraska. In 1976 he moved to the University of Washington, where he was eventually named dean of the School of Public Affairs, serving from 1982 to 1987. In 1987 he returned to teaching, and retired in 1999 as dean emeritus of the Evans School of Public Affairs there.

Locke's interest in the Holocaust stemmed partly from his early involvement in interfaith activities as a pastor in Detroit, particularly his friendship with Rabbi Max Kapustin, a refugee from Nazi Germany who was the Hillel director at Wayne State University. In 1970 Locke joined Reverend Franklin Littell, a Methodist minister, to co-found the Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches. This forum's particular focus was the history of Christian antisemitism and the responses of the Christian churches between 1933 and 1945 to the persecution of the Jews. In the decades that followed, the Annual Scholars' Conference gained international prominence and was attended by leading scholars, students, Holocaust survivors, and clergy.

Locke was a fervent advocate on these issues, both as a Christian pastor and a civil rights leader. He was a strong supporter of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, serving on the Museum's Committee on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust (originally, Committee on Church Relations and the Holocaust) from its inception in 1989 until 2011, and on its Committee on Conscience from 1999 to 2005.

His own scholarship on the Holocaust was informed by his deeply held concerns about all forms of injustice, hatred, and persecution. Delivering the keynote at a Mandel Center program in 2005, Locke said: "I want to suggest that unless antisemitism is understood as a species of the larger problem of racism in the modern world, both Jews and non-Jews miss the opportunity to join hands in the battle to eradicate a common foe.… Since the event which this Museum memorializes stands in the forefront of a long and continuous chain of events that [manifest] the human capacity for evil, it should cause each of us to renew and redouble our commitment to be part of the ceaseless battle against bigotry."

Locke received honorary doctorates from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, the University of Bridgeport, Richard Stockton College, Payne Theological Seminary of Wilberforce University, the University of Akron, and the Chicago Theological Seminary. He served on a number of national and local civic bodies, including the boards of the Russell Family Foundation, Lakeside School, Common Cause, the Institute of European Studies, the Pacific School of Religion, the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), the Seattle Symphony, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Disciples Diversity House at the University of Chicago, Disciples Seminary Foundation at Claremont, and the Washington State Judicial Conduct Commission.

Professor Locke's books about the Holocaust include The Black Anti-Semitism Controversy: Protestant Views and Perspectives (1994); Learning from History: A Black Christian's Perspective on the Holocaust (2000); and Searching for God in Godforsaken Times and Places: Reflections on the Holocaust, Racism, and Death (2003). He edited or co-edited The German Church Struggle (1974); The Church Confronts the Nazis: Barmen Then and Now (1984); Exile in the Fatherland: The Prison Letters of Martin...