Forrest Church

Forrest Church is the son of late presidential candidate Sen. Frank Church (D-daho). The Church family has long been connected with Stanford University. The senator graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1947 and was in the Law School Class of '50.

The younger Church, was in the 1970s, a graduate student in early religious history at Harvard University, and was previousy at Stanford from 1966-1970. A history major there, he ran (and lost) a race for student body vice president during his freshman year, but later participated in ASSU programs as well as the anti-war movement. He even managed to take some time off, "moving to Woodside to put my head together." Church, who is also a Unitarian minister in Boston, says he feels it is very important for his father to run for president because "the basic issues are not being addressed." Despite his father's late entry into the race,"the response of the American people to my father's campaign has been very heartening," says Church, referring to his father's victory in the Nebraska primary. "We feel that we can win half of the primaries we run in." Victory for Church Church says there is a "strong" possibility of a victory for his father "if Carter is defeated on the first ballots," commenting that currently the most viable candidates for president are "Carter, Sen. Hubert Humphrey and Frank Church." On issues of personal interest, Church points out that his father favors decriminalizing marijuana, supports unconditional amnesty and would support the Supreme Court decision to allow states to decide on the availability of abortion on the state level. Since he has been campaigning for his father, "my life has been in suspended animation," says Church, "I've taken sabbatical from my thesis, my church and perhaps my marriage." Church characterizes the pace of the campaign trail as "back breaking.