William Sterling Cary (August 10, 1927 – November 14, 2021) was an American Christian minister. From 1972 to 1975, he was the first Black president of the National Council of Churches (NCC) in its history.
Born and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, Cary earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949 from Morehouse College, where he served as student body president. He was ordained a Baptist minister and studied at Union Theological Seminary, receiving a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1952. Unable to find a position in a Baptist church, he became a pastor at a Presbyterian church from 1952 to 1955 in Youngstown, Ohio, and then at an experimental interdenominational church in Brooklyn. Cary changed his denominational affiliation to the United Church of Christ (UCC) in 1958. He became increasingly active in the Black liberation theology movement in the 1960s, advocating for racial justice and equality within the UCC and on a broader scale.
He was elected administrator of the New York Metropolitan Association of the UCC in 1968, and four years later he was unanimously elected to a three-year term as president of the National Council of Churches. Cary was a harsh critic of U.S. President Richard Nixon's budget cuts to affordable housing and anti-poverty measures. Though he disagreed with Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, on issues related to the Vietnam War, they rekindled a long-neglected relationship between the NCC and the White House, and Ford later appointed Cary to an advisory committee that oversaw the resettlement of South Asian refugees in the United States. After Cary's presidency ended, he continued in his role as the executive minister of the Illinois conference of the UCC until his retirement in 1994.
Early life and education
Cary was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, on August 10, 1927. His father, Andrew Jackson Cary, was a real estate broker, and his mother, Sadie Walker, was a homemaker. He had seven siblings. Growing up in Plainfield, he was active in the Boy Scouts of America, and attended Washington School where he was the founding president of the junior high YMCA club and the eighth-grade class president. In 1944, the Courier News called Cary "the boy preacher" in an announcement of his sermon for Young People's Day at a local AME church.
He graduated from Plainfield High School in 1945. After the dean of the mostly white high school told him that he had lost an election for student body president—an election he believed he had resoundingly won—he decided to enroll in the all-black Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. At Morehouse, Cary majored in sociology and occasionally returned to Plainfield to preach at Calvary Baptist Church; by 1947, he was an assistant pastor there. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and was elected student body president in 1948. The same year, he was ordained a Baptist minister then graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949.
Cary continued his studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City while also serving as a student assistant to the minister of Grace Congregational Church. In 1950, at the end of his first year, he was elected class president for the upcoming year becoming the first Black class president in the seminary's history. He was elected student body president the following year and graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in 1952.
Career
Early ministry (1952–1964)
Cary worked in a factory after graduating from Union Theological Seminary because he had been unable to find a position in a Baptist church. He moved to Youngstown, Ohio, to become the pastor of Butler Memorial Presbyterian Church from 1952 to 1955. During that time, he co-chaired the United Negro College Fund in Youngstown and was active in other local organizations and committees including the YMCA and the Mahoning County Mental Health Council. He married Marie Belle Phillips, a teacher in the SoHo school system, on July 11, 1953. They were married in Carron Street Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later had four children: Yvonne, Denise, Patricia, and W. Sterling Jr. In December 1955, Cary was assigned to be the pastor at an interdenominational and interracial church in Brooklyn that included the Baptist, Congregational Christian, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Reformed denominations. It was the first interdenominational church built in a public housing project in the United States. He began his position at the church, named the Church of the Open Door, on January 1, 1956.