Fonds Priv 29 - N. Keith Clifford fonds

Keith Clifford was born in Winnipeg in 1930. Following his undergraduate studies at the University of Manitoba, he completed his Bachelor of Divinity at United College, Winnipeg, in 1955, and was ordained by Manitoba Conference. Following ordination, Clifford completed his Ph.D at the University of London, England, in 1957. Returning to Winnipeg, he served as minister of Augustine United Church from 1958 to 1963. He then moved to Vancouver, where he was General Secretary of the Student Christian Movement at UBC for two years. After a year as interim minister at Ryerson United Church (1965-1966), he did a post-doctoral year at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He remained there and was appointed Associate Dean of the School from 1967 to 1970. In 1970, he returned to Vancouver to teache in the Religious Studies Department at UBC, where he stayed for the remainder of his career. Clifford's doctoral work focused on 16th and 17th century English Puritanism, but his primary field of interest was the study of religion in Canada. He completed a book, The Resistance to Church Union in Canada, 1904-1939 in 1985, and began work on a history of The United Church of Canada a few years prior to his death on February 12, 1990.