Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Cocke and related families Papers, Accession 2433-ac, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library by John Page Elliot of Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 1, 1992.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

Beverley Dandridge Tucker III was born on August 25, 1925, in Shanghai, China , where his father Augustine Washington Tucker was a surgeon at the Christian hospital of St. Luke's . Tucker received his A.B. from Harvard in 1949 and an A.M. in 1958; he received a divinity degree from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1952. After language school at Yale , Tucker left for Japan in January, 1953, as an Episcopal missionary priest. He spent another year at Kobe in further language training and received his ordination in the spring of 1954; at the same time he began his assignment as rector of St. Michael's Church in Sapporo, Hokkaido .

At that time Hokkaido was the weakest diocese in the indigenous Episcopal church or Nippon Sei Kokai. There were nineteen churches in the diocese but only nine priests, four of whom were near or past retirement age. Because of this shortage of Episcopal priests in post-war Japan , the indigenous church called on young American seminarians for relief. Tucker always pointed out, however, that he and the other American priests were serving at the invitation of the Japanese church under Japanese bishops and not as traditional missionaries.

St. Michael's had been started by a group of young men from Hokkaido University who had recently converted to Christianity. They bought land and built a small church building and notified the bishop that they needed a rector. Thus Tucker came to St. Michael's . Beside his work in the parish church, Tucker served as the chaplain for the Fukujuen Children's Home and the Misawa Tuberculosis Sanatorium , and began missions in Bibai , a small coal-mining area, and in Wakkanai , a fishing village at the northern end of Hokkaido .

While at St. Michael's Tucker wrote two books: God Gave the Increase , which told the story of St. Michael's Church , and Questions on the Way , a modern catechism especially for use in countries with a non-Judeo-Christian cultural background. In 1959 he married Jean Evelyn Morris with whom he had three children. In 1959 Tucker left the parish of St. Michael's in capable Japanese hands and began teaching at Kyoto 's Bishop William Seminary in 1969. In 1984 he also began teaching at Doshisha University , likewise in Kyoto , in which two positions he remains at present. Tucker has also assisted in Kyoto 's Episcopal churches, and has authored several books in the past two decades.

From the time of his arrival in Japan , Tucker sent mimeographed circular letters back home to "Family and Friends." Some of these letters were collected by Betty Cocke of Charlottesville . This collection consists of 26 letters, 4 printed Christmas cards, 2 photographs, a wedding announcement, and a copy of God Gave the Increase . Besides detailing the life and activities of his family and parish, Tucker used the monthly letters to instruct his readers on Japanese life, commenting on some larger aspect of his work and making astute reflections on Japanese culture.

The collection contains one monthly letter from December, 1961, ten letters and two Christmas cards from 1962, nine letters and two Christmas cards from 1963, and six letters from 1964.

Issues discussed in letters:

Japanese religion and culture: 1962 Mar 21, Apr 24, Dec 10; 1963 Jun 25.

Christianity in Japan: 1962 Feb 20, Apr 24, May 22, Jul 28, Dec 10; 1963 Jan 22, Feb 1;6, Apr 23, Jun 25, Aug 26; 1964 Mar 20, Aug 24.

Japanese economy: 1962 Jul 28, Aug 29; 1963 Feb 16, Nov 25; 1964 Feb 24, Sep 21.

United States and Japan: 1963 Nov 25; 1964 Sep 21.

Parochial concerns discussed in letters:

Orphanage and sanatorium: 1962 Jan 23, Sep 24.

Sister church of St. Margaret's: 1962, Christmas card from John Watanabe; 1963 Mar 19, Christmas card from John Watanabe; 1964 Apr 21.

St. Michael's activities: 1962 May 22, Dec 10, Christmas card from Tuckers; 1963 Jan 22, Feb 16, Apr 23, Aug 19, Christmas card from Tuckers.

Church at Bibai: 1964 Feb 24, Apr 21.