Clifford M. Drury papers

Clifford Merrill Drury was, a minister, professor, historian, and naval officer, born November 7, 1897, in Clinton Iowa to Will and Mae Charity Dell. His childhood was spent on a farm about six miles outside of Early. One of his articles was published in the Annals of Iowa describes his days of living on that farm and the skills he gained as an Iowan.

He finished eighth grade at age eleven and went on to finish high school at the age of fifteen, but he did not enroll in college until a year later. He continued his education at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake Iowa, was where he continued his schooling in 1914 until he graduated in 1918 out of a class of only seven students. He missed his own graduation because of World War I, during which he served in the army. He became an ordained Presbyterian minister after graduation in San Anselmo, CA. It was around this time that he also met Miriam Leyrer whom he married in 1922; they remained married until he died in 1984.

He continued his education after his travels visiting the American Church in Shanghai, China, at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland where he received his doctorate. He served at the Presbyterian Church in Moscow, Idaho, until 1938. He returned to California in the same year and got a job at the San Francisco Seminary teaching Church History. During this time he and Miriam became the parents of three children, Robert, Patricia, and Philip. During World War II he served in the Navy as a Captain in the Chaplain Corps.

After the war, he continued to write and work at the seminary until he retired in 1968 at a Presbyterian Retirement Center in Pasadena California. Under physical pain, he wrote his autobiography, titled “My Road From Yesterday,” which was published in the summer after he passed. Drury passed away on April 18, 1984, at the age of 86.