Scion of the Pittsburgh oil and banking family, William Larimer Mellon, Jr., was married, the
father of three, and a successful rancher in Arizona when, at thirty-seven, he read a Life
magazine article about Albert Schweitzer’s philosophy of “reverence for life” which guided his
mission hospital in a remote area of Gabon, Africa. A correspondence between Mellon and
Schweitzer ensued, resulting in Mellon’s establishing a well-equipped hospital in one of the
poorest regions of Haiti, where, with his wife, he spent the rest of his life working as a physician
and a community development engineer. The hospital continues to thrive.

Author Jeannette Q.Byers has brought together sixty-five of the letters written between 1947 and Schweitzer’s death in 1965 in her book “Brothers in Spirit: The Correspondence of Albert Schweitzer and William Larimer Mellon, Jr.” Byers will read from these letters and tell us more about this extraordinary
humanitarian project on Saturday, June 10, at 5:30 p.m. Please register for this program on the library website or by calling 860-542-5075 ext. 2