The dream lives on: Americans United's first executive director Glenn Archer died in November, but the organization he built is still fighting for freedom.

As a young man growing up in rural western Kansas, Glenn L. Archer yearned to be a great orator. Archer lacked an audience but had an ample imagination. To hone his skills, he would stand on a stump on the banks of the Solomon River and declaim to trees on the other side.

Those skills would serve Archer well years later when he became the first executive director of a new national organization. Thanks to his energy and vision, that group--Americans United for Separation of Church and State--flourished. Archer, who died on Nov. 15, 2002, at the age of 96, lived to see his handiwork become the nation's premier organization for defending church-state separation.

Archer, who retired from Americans United in 1976, led the organization for nearly three decades. Both professionally and personally, he lived a full life. He and his wife, Ruth Agnes Archer, who survives him, had two children, eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. In retirement, he remained active, overseeing a farm in West Virginia and devoting himself to his many interests.

Ironically, Archer had never intended to come to Washington, D.C. His 1982 autobiography, The Dream Lives On, makes it clear that Archer would have been happy to stay in his beloved Kansas and pursue a career in politics. But Archer had a way of impressing people, and his charismatic presence and spellbinding oratorical skills got attention--and job offers.

In 1938, Archer was elected school superintendent of Norton County and later served on the staff of Kansas governor Payne Rather. Appearing as a representative of the governor, Archer frequently gave speeches throughout Kansas. In May of 1941, he delivered 27 high-school commencement addresses in 24 days.

People in Kansas were soon talking about this young, silver-tongued orator. Speculation was that Archer would run for governor himself some day, or perhaps win a seat in the U.S. Senate or secure a spot on the Kansas Supreme Court. There was little doubt that his future lay in state politics.

Instead, Archer found himself headed for the nation's capital. In 1942, Archer was finishing up his work with Rather, who was completing his second term, when he was approached by officials with the Kansas State Teachers Association and offered the job of public relations director. Late in 1943, Archer addressed a meeting of public relations officials who worked in the field of public education. Dr. William Given, then director of the National Education Association, was in the audience and was so impressed that he insisted Archer come to Washington and head the organization's new lobbying arm, the Federal Relations and Legislative Activities Division.

Archer arrived in Washington in January of 1944. Later that year, he helped coordinate a White House conference on rural education. NEA officials were interested in keeping Archer on staff, but in 1945 he was offered a position at Washburn Municipal University Law School in Topeka, with the understanding that he would become dean of the law school after obtaining a law degree. The opportunity was too good to pass up, and Archer soon found himself back home.

Archer's Kansas sojourn lasted about three years. In May of 1948, now dean of the Washburn law school, he traveled to Washington for a legal conference and while there was approached by Dr. J.M. Dawson, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. Archer did not know Dawson. But the denominational leader, who late in 1947 joined the executive committee that formed Americans United, had been hearing good things about the Kansan. In a meeting with Archer, Dawson laid out the idea for a national organization that would defend church-state separation.

Archer liked the idea and assured Dawson of his support for church-state separation, but he seemed skeptical that the organization could take off. A month later, when he was formally offered the job, Archer made a series of excuses for why he could not accept.

But Dawson was persistent. In fact, he called Archer in July of 1948 and presented the matter as a done deal. The executive committee had voted to name Archer executive director. All that remained to be settled, Dawson told Archer, was when he would arrive in Washington.

Although at first left speechless by Dawson's audacity, Archer gradually gave in. He resigned his position at Washburn, sold some local business concerns and bought a house in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Md. He, his wife and their two children packed their things and moved to the nation's capital.

Reflecting on that fateful decision nearly 35 years later, Archer wrote, "Come what may, I had made my decision. Those who prize security, position, and political prestige will never understand my coming to this post. Governor Ratner, my former chief, expressed his regrets at my giving up `so bright a future' in traditional and less criticized endeavors. But I mused: Why did Horace Mann leave his lucrative law practice and brilliant political future to become a secretary of a school board at low pay? Because he regarded the cause of education more highly than his own personal advancement. The day I decided to accept this assignment, Horace Mann's noble charge kept running through my mind, `Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.' I believe something of his spirit and vision moved me to join AU."

Once in Washington, Archer hit the ground running. Operating out of a desk in the offices of the Baptist Joint Committee, Archer, with the aid of a sole secretary, began building the organization from scratch.

"Glenn Archer took that assignment with a desk in the corner of a room and gave the organization a remarkably strong beginning that issued from his sense of calling about doing the work," recalled Foy Valentine, a former AU trustee who met Archer in the early '50s. "He was a man of very high principles, a man of incredible strength of mind and heart and body. He was willing to work sacrificially and tirelessly for the cause. Even now the organization is reaping some of the benefits of his persuasiveness and his integrity and his tremendous commitment to the cause of church-state separation."

In those early years, the organization was seen primarily as an outgrowth of several Protestant churches and was called Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State (POAU). Early leaders of POAU came from Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Seventh-day Adventist and other Protestant bodies as well as from the fraternal, educational and political communities. Archer, a Free Methodist, was not formally ordained but held what was called an "exhorter's license" from the denomination, which enabled him to preach in churches and conduct funerals. Archer was no stranger to the pulpit when he came to Americans United, and he used his religious ties to shore up support for the group among Protestant denominations.

Given the opportunity, Archer would speak almost anywhere. He wrote all of his own speeches for Americans United, and his passion for church-state separation rang through every one. But despite his enthusiasm, Archer's speeches did not always go off without controversy.

Americans United took a strong stand against government aid to private religious education. Since most religious schools at that time were run by the Roman Catholic Church, the organization was sometimes accused of anti-Catholicism. Archer's high-profile opposition to President Harry Truman's proposal to exchange ambassadors with the Vatican further inflamed the situation.

In August of 1956, Archer arrived in Kansas City, Mo., to speak at the Second Presbyterian Church. Catholic Archbishop Edwin V. O'Hara had been railing against Archer and Americans United for months, going so far as to compare the organization to the Ku Klux Klan. When Archer arrived at the church, he was surprised to see two police officers standing outside. They had been warned by city officials that a "troublemaker" was coming from out of town to speak and wanted assurances that the meeting would be peaceful.

"I give you my word that there will be no disturbance of any kind here" Archer told the policemen. "You may even like my speech." The officers took their seats, and Archer strolled to the podium. One heckler had to be removed, but otherwise the speech went off without a hitch.

Under Archer's watchful eye, the organization began a slow but steady growth. By late 1948 AU was housed in a building on K Street in Washington, though by the middle of the following year Archer had raised enough money to buy AU its own headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue. Also in 1949, the group held its first national conference on church and state. (The following year, more than 4,000 people packed Constitution Hall to hear Archer speak at the second annual conference.)

Originally published bimonthly, Church & State Newsletter (later simply Church & State) became a monthly in 1949. Professional staff came on board, and local chapters began to take root. In those days before television was quite as common, Archer and other AU staffers regularly criss-crossed the nation, addressing thousands at a time.

With Archer leading the charge, AU continued to oppose tax aid to religious schools. In June of 1949, the organization was called upon to defend Eleanor Roosevelt, who came under fire from Cardinal Francis Spellman after she announced opposition to parochial school aid in her syndicated newspaper column.

Archer, who remained close to Mrs. Roosevelt after Franklin Roosevelt's death, had urged her to a write a column on church-state separation. He was pleased when it appeared but appalled by the stridency of Spellman's attack.

In the column, Roosevelt explained that she had sent some of her children to religious schools but never considered asking taxpayers to foot the bill. She went on to write, "Those of us who believe in the right of any human being to belong to whatever church he sees fit, and to worship God in his own way, cannot be accused of prejudice when we do not want to see public education connected with religious control of the schools, which are paid for by taxpayers' money."

Spellman was incensed and went so far as to call Mrs. Roosevelt an "unworthy American mother." But the cardinal's harsh assault on the revered former first lady backfired, and Spellman had to make a personal apology. After the flap, Mrs. Roosevelt told Archer that she was worried about the future of religious freedom in America, remarking, "The battle for church-state separation may have to be fought all over again."

The organization soon branched out to other topics. In 1951 it lobbied hard against President Truman's plan to exchange ambassadors with the Vatican. Archer later called that controversy "the issue that put us on the map,"

In the 1940s and '50s, AU filed lawsuits to stop so-called "captive schools"--public institutions under religious control, usually in rural areas. The organization also spoke out against religiously based censorship and efforts by religious leaders to restrict access to information about birth control.

In the early 1960s, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued landmark rulings striking down government-sponsored prayer and religious worship in public schools, AU issued a statement asserting that the high court had made the right call. Throughout the 1960s, AU representatives testified in Congress against school prayer amendments.

Archer also found himself defending President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s--often against attacks launched, ironically, by the hierarchy of Kennedy's own church. Archer had entered into a correspondence with Kennedy in 1959, trying to assess the Massachusetts senator's views on church-state separation. Kennedy was blunt. In a letter to Archer, he pledged full support for church-state separation and outlined his opposition to government funding of religious schools. Kennedy noted that he had attended public schools "all my life."

On Sept. 14, 1960, Kennedy appeared before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in a nationally televised address. He again stressed his opposition to parochial school aid, said he did not approve of U.S.-Vatican diplomatic ties and vowed to move forward with birth-control programs. Although Americans United, as a non-profit group, had to remain neutral in the election, Archer believed Kennedy's speech in Houston had laid to rest doubts that the senator did not support church-state separation.

Archer continued to support Kennedy's church-state views throughout his presidency. In his memoirs, Archer asserted that Kennedy had the best record on church-state separation since Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Wrote Archer, "His presidency was a golden age for the separation cause, and it was a stirring example of one politician who kept his promises to the people."

In the 1970s, Archer oversaw AU's efforts to oppose parochial school aid in the form of vouchers and tuition tax credits and helped fend off more school prayer amendments. Upon his retirement in 1976, he was presented with a personal commendation from President Gerald R. Ford.

Archer remained active in retirement and followed developments relating to church-state separation. Although he kept a house in the Washington area, Archer often spent time at Glenmar Farms, a 541-acre retreat he had built in rural West Virginia. (He named the farm after his two children, Glenn Jr. and Marilyn.) Here he indulged in his love of horseback riding and took up the clarinet. Later, he moved to a retirement community in Silver Spring, Md., where he lived until his death.

Although he became physically frail as the years passed, Archer remained mentally alert. In 1997, during the 50th anniversary of Americans United, he appeared on a video recounting the early years of AU. He was 91 at the time. Later, however, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

During Archer's memorial service on Nov. 23, grandchildren offered their memories of Archer. They spoke movingly, describing him as a loving man who taught them values like hard work, integrity and honesty.

Current Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn issued the following statement on learning of Archer's death: "Glenn Archer was a figure of towering energy and intellect. During his professional career, he interacted with presidents, U.S. senators and leaders of national religious denominations. But he never forgot that Americans United was created to protect the religious liberty of the average person and to be a voice for those who would otherwise have no influence in the nation's capital. These principles--religious freedom for all and a fierce determination to stick up for the rights of the underdog--guided his tenure.

"Thanks to Dr. Archer's vision and hard work, Americans United was established as a permanent presence in American life and has built a reputation as a strong defender of religious liberty through the separation of church and state."

Former AU trustee Valentine agreed. "Glenn Archer was a man of incredible courage and indomitable pioneering spirit" Valentine told Church & State. "He plowed right ahead on principle for the things he thought needed to be said and done. We can say Americans United today is what it is because some good people have been able to stand on the shoulders of a true giant--Glenn Archer."