Fonds contains textual records consisting of correspondence, memoranda, notes, diaries, speeches, sermons, lectures, articles, and other writings by Gordon; clippings, minutes, reports, print matter and reference materials; and other material relating to all phases of Gordon's life and career including his early life, family and personal matters, academic studies, tenure as a minister and professor, time as a travelling secretary, non-fiction editor and managing editor, CBC representative at the United Nations and UN career, and activities with various non-governmental organizations. Annotated file folders have been photocopied and the copy placed in the related files.
Fonds contains sound recordings of comments, descriptions and recollections of J. King Gordon about international relations, the United Nations, the Middle East, UN operations in the Congo and his career, 1947-1962.
Fonds also includes a sketchbook with 12 pencil drawings, 1934, by John King Gordon, executed during a visit of ministers to Russia, which depict scenes of Russia; unidentified individuals.
Fonds contains photographs depicting the activities, life, and career of John King Gordon, his years as a student at Oxford University, as a Presbyterian student minister, United Nations correspondent for the C.B.C., and Director of the United Nations Information Centre, Cairo, Egypt. Included are photographs depicting his family and family activities, portraits of Gordon, and photographs of other individuals.
Fonds also includes three postal covers that are American Air Mail Society salute to CAPEX 78 souvenir covers issued on the occassion of the Society's convention (16-18 June 1978 : Toronto, Ontario). 229 postally used covers, 1912-1984, bearing cancelled Canadian postage stamps, were addressed to J. King Gordon, at both Canadian and foreign addresses.
Gordon, John King, 1900-1989 : John King Gordon, minister, social activist, internationalist, was born and raised in Winnipeg by his parents, C.W. Gordon (the novelist Ralph Connor) and Helen (King) Gordon. After graduating from the University of Manitoba, King Gordon studied at Oxford as Rhodes Scholar (1921-1924). He then served as a Presbyterian/United Church minister in Giscome, B.C. (1924-1925), and in Pine Falls, Man. (1926-1929), and studied theology at Manitoba College, Winnipeg. After leaving Pine Falls he studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York and served concurrently as a Presbyterian minister in Bloomfield, New Jersey (1929-1931).
In 1931 Gordon was engaged as a professor of Christian ethics by United Theological College, Montreal. He helped found the Committee on Social and Economic Research of the United Church's Montreal Presbytery and was active in the League for Social Reconstruction and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. He was a co-author of Social Planning for Canada (1935), attended the CCF's founding convention, helped draft the Regina Manifesto, and served on the CCF's national executive until 1938. After his 1934 dismissal from UTC, Gordon was hired as travelling secretary of the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order. He unsuccessfully contested the federal riding of Victoria, B.C., for the CCF in the 1935 general election and in by-elections in 1936 and 1937.
In 1938 Gordon moved to New York after accepting an editorial position with Farrar and Rinehart, the publisher of his father's posthumous autobiography. He was a commissioner of the Canadian government's Royal Commission on the Steel Industry (1942-1943). In 1944, Gordon became managing editor of an American newsmagazine, The Nation. Laid off in 1947, he served as the CBC's representative at the United Nations until 1950, when he was hired to do information work in the UN's Division of Human Rights. Gordon's UN career took him from New York when he accepted positions with the Korean Reconstruction Agency (1954-1956), the Information Centre for the Middle East/Emergency Force (Cairo, 1956-1959), and the emergency force in the Congo (1960-1962). He also served with the Technical Assistance Administration (New York, 1959-1960).
After his 1962 retirement from the UN, Gordon taught International Relations at the Universities of Alberta (1962-1967) and Ottawa (1967-1975), where he was also assistant director of the Centre for International Co-operation. During 1973-1980 he was senior advisor on university relations for the federal government's International Development Research Centre. Other activities included organizing the Banff Conferences on World Affairs and the presidency of the Canadian University Service Overseas (1963-1969) and of the United Nations Association in Canada (1974-1977). During the 1970s and 1980s Gordon was also active in the International Ocean Institute/Pacem in Maribus and a peace organization, the Group of 78.
Honours received by Gordon included the Pearson Peace Medal, the Order of Canada, and several honorary degrees.
