ABSTRACT
James F. "Bill" Long was born on January 7, 1913, in Baltimore, Maryland, the second oldest of six children in the family of a produce and seafood distributor. After attending high school in Baltimore, Long joined his father's business for a period of four years. During that time he came under the influence of clergymen from the Evangelical and Reformed Church who preached the social gospel with much fervor. Long became interested in the typical ideological concerns of the reform movements of the 'thirties, bringing about greater economic justice, reducing racial prejudice, ending war. From this period we can date his passion for conversion, for getting other people to see the light, not only on religious but on social matters. With the intention of studying for the ministry, he enrolled at Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio and studied history and English until his graduation in 1940. By that time, however, he had lost his theological bent (though not his reformist ardor) and gave up a fellowship to the Yale Divinity School in order to take a position with the Ohio Farm Bureau and Cooperative Association, thus transferring his "missionary" activities to the cooperative movement. Six months later, he moved to Wooster, Ohio, as organizational and education director for that area. He was married in 1942 and has four children.
