R. Paige Birdwell papers

Collection

Identifier: 00202

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The R. Paige Birdwell papers consist of counseling source materials on family, marriage, couples, and adult education; workshop materials, seminar notes for courses at Michigan State and Western Michigan Universities, and sermon notes. The collection has been kept in the arrangement in which they were received from Leslie P. Birdwell, which starts with counseling materials followed by class and sermon resources respectively.

Dates

Creation: 1951 - 1996

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish material from this collection must be obtained from University Archives & Historical Collections, Michigan State University.

Biographical Note

R. Paige Birdwell was born outside of Louisville, Kentucky on November 30, 1929. He attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and then went on to attend the Chicago Theological Seminary. His ministerial career began in the Methodist Church. He moved over to the United Church of Christ after being found to be too liberal for the small churches he served in Chicago and Freeport, Illinois. He was the associate minister at Edgewood United Church, East Lansing, Michigan, from 1962 through 1980. In 1980 Birdwell took the ministerial position at a church in Coloma, Michigan.

Before moving to Coloma, Birdwell received his doctorate in Adult Education from Michigan State University. He also spent some time at Western Michigan University where he was an instructor for the counseling education program in the 1980s and 1990s. Paige Birdwell died on November 16, 1998 at the age of 68.