Turnbull, Helen Brogden

Helen Brogden Turnbull was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 23, 1907. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland in 1929 and completed her graduate studies at Teachers College of Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary, and Windham House.

After earning her master’s degree in Religious Education, she accepted a position as the Executive Secretary of College Work for the Episcopal Church in the Province of New England. In 1944, she became the director of Windham House, the national graduate training center for women of The Episcopal Church. During this time she was also a part-time lecturer in religious education at both Union Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary.

After ten years at Windham House, Turnbull was appointed to the staff of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, serving as associate secretary in the Department on Cooperation of Men and Women in Church and Society. Organizational changes in her department led to her resignation, after which she began working for United Church Women of the National Council of Churches as Director of Leadership and Field Outreach.

A 1966 reorganization led to the separation of United Church Women from the National Council of Churches. Turnbull was named Director of Ecumenical Relations of the renamed body known as Church Women United.

Upon leaving Church Women United in 1969, she worked as the director of the Hannah Harrison School (in association with the YWCA in Washington, D.C.) for three years before retiring in 1973.

Helen Brogden Turnbull died on July 23, 2001 in Towson, Maryland.