SECKINGER, ERNEST WARDLOW .
A Brief personalized history of Young Harris College, 1886-1993.

MANUSCRIPT NUMBER 265

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CITATION:  Ernest Wardlow Seckinger A brief personalized history of Young Harris College, MSS 265, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University. 

Ernest Wardlow Seckinger was born on May 20, 1917 to Frank B. and Gertrude Exley Seckinger in Effingham County, Georgia.  He attended Effingham Academy and Young Harris College. Seckinger received his A.B. from Emory University and his B.D. from Candler School of Theology at Emory.  He completed his Doctor of Ministry at Candler in 1984 after one year of post graduate work at Yale Divinity School.

A member of the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, Seckinger served churches in every district except Americus.  He retired in 1983 but continued to serve churches as a supply pastor.  Seckinger was active in numerous civic and conference activities including the Southeastern Jurisdiction Commission on Archives and History.   He was elected an Honorary Member of the Southeastern Jurisdiction Historical Society in 1995.

In addition to his history of Young Harris College, Seckinger wrote Grievers Becoming Healers:  Involving Laity in Grief Ministry (his dissertation), a history of Effingham Camp Ground, and numerous meditations for The Upper Room.

Quimby married Jessie Vannerson of Savannah, Georgia, in 1949.  They have five children.   The Seckingers live in Young Harris, Georgia, where they are active in Sharp Memorial United Methodist Church.

(Source: Biographical data supplied by Ernest W. Seckinger, Sr.)

This small collection consists of a copy of Seckinger's manuscript, A Brief Personalized History of Young Harris College, which he originally delivered to the North Georgia Conference Historical Society and Commission on Archives and History in 1993.  The history covers the time period 1886 to 1993.  The first part includes research for 1886 to 1936.  From 1936 to 1993, Seckinger includes his own memories and impressions of  the college.  The manuscript also includes an appendix that contains a history of Susan B. Harris Chapel written by T. Cecil Myers, a history of Sharp Memorial United Methodist Church written by Jerry A. Taylor, an address by Bishop C. W. Hancock delivered in 1944 at Young Harris, Seckinger's Haiku snow log of the blizzard of 1993, and copies of newspaper articles relating to Young Harris.