Religion: Straton to Muncie

The late Dr. John Roach Straton, scorching, oratorical Pastor of Manhattan’s Calvary Baptist Church, who looked often on Manhattan’s pleasure domes and called them bad, was survived when he died last year by four sons—Hillyer Hawthorne, preacher; John (Charles, lawyer; Warren Badenock, sculptor; George Douglas, schoolboy.

Straton admirers interestedly follow the career of son Hillyer Hawthorne, 25, holiest issue of a holy man. He was acting pastor at his father’s church until that pulpit was officially filled a few weeks ago by the Rev. Will H. Houghton from Atlanta. Then he considered two calls, one to the Park Avenue Baptist Church of Paterson, N. J., another to the First Baptist Church of Muncie, Ind. Last week he chose Muncie, where he will, due to the church’s size, automatically acquire prominence among Indiana Baptists. Pastor emeritus of the Muncie First Baptist is soldierly William Graham Everson. last November appointed by President Hoover to be Chief of the War Department’s Militia Bureau (TIME, Nov. 11).

Tall, slim, fine-featured like his father. Hillyer Hawthorne Straton also inherits much of the paternal eloquence. He studied at Mercer University (Ga.), Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. He has been married two years.