John M. Ramsay papers

Collection

Identifier: RG 09-9.38

Staff Only

Abstract

These are the personal papers of John M. Ramsay, in particular his papers regarding attempts to be classified as a conscientious objector with the Selective Service Board. Included in the papers are copies of his memoirs, personal correpsondence and correspondence with the US government (draft board), lawyers, and others involoved in working for his conscientious objector status, pamphlets, and official government papers.

Dates

Other: Majority of material found in 1950s-2002

Creator

Ramsay, John M. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Records can be accessed through the Reading Room, Berea College Special Collections and Archives, Hutchins Library, Berea College.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions on the collection other than federal copyright regulations.

Biographical / Historical

A Berea College (1952) alum, Dr. John M. Ramsay served as director of the Berea College Recreation Extension from 1973 to 1995. Ramsay also led the Berea College Country Dancers, founded and led Morris, Contra, and Oh Contraire groups, participated in leading the community-wide Adult Folk Dancing, and further strengthened the Danish American Exchange program. Dr. John Ramsay combined the values of teaching, traveling and performing in his work, especially through exchanges with Denmark. Dr. Ramsay organized various international dance tours to folk schools and festivals in South Korea, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, China, Denmark, El Salvador, England, Germany, Luxembourg, Scotland and Sweden throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. During its founding in 1995, he was elected president of the New Folk Circle Association, a nonprofit organization that acting as a clearinghouse for folk dance and recreation in the Berea region. As president he worked to preserve the folk dance heritage associated with Berea College by sponsoring dances and holding workshops. In 2010, Ramsay received a Lifetime Contributor Award from the Country Dance and Song Society of America for his contributions to the world of country dance. Ramsay received his PhD in Animal Breeding in 1960 from Iowa State University.