Howard Center for the Family, Religion, and Society Records (Rockford), 1911+ | Northern Illinois University

The Rockford Institute, a conservative think tank located in Rockford, Illinois, was founded in June 1976 by John A. Howard then President of Rockford College.  It was established to promote the cultural values and beliefs which encourage responsible citizenship and freedom.  The Institute was located on Rockford College’s campus under the name of The Rockford College Institute with Howard becoming full time Director in July 1977. 

In August 1976, Leopold Tyrmand was hired as the Associate Director and the first full time employee.  Together with Howard, Tyrmand published the Chronicles of Culture, The Rockford Papers, and Persuasion at Work and hosted several conferences.  The first conference, held in September 1977 and entitled “Capitalism and Culture,” attempted to bring positive changes in American society and provide an educational forum in which key issues could be debated through scholarly discourse.  In June 1978, a second conference, “Corporate Responsibility,” considered various militant demands which most companies did not know how to handle.  In June 1979, the Institute hosted a third conference entitled “The Family: America’s Hope.”  This conference  focused upon the concerns of the American family. 

In February 1980, The Rockford College Institute received its charter from the State of Illinois.  Now independent of Rockford College, the name was changed to The Rockford Institute and moved off campus to 928 North Main Street.  The first Board of Directors was established in September 1980 and included Robert Krieble, Ed Meyer, Clyde Sluhan, Fred Wacker, John Howard with Clayton Gaylord as chair.  Allan Carlson joined the staff in July 1981 as Executive Vice President.

The Rockford Institute became internationally known with its conference in Frankfurt, Germany entitled, “For Your Freedom and Ours” held on November 18-20, 1982.  In 1983, The Ingersoll Milling Machine Company of Rockford, arranged, under a management contract, to have The Rockford Institute conduct the work of its corporate foundation.  John Howard became President of the Ingersoll Foundation.  The Foundation Directors approved Leopold Tyrmand’s proposal to present annual prizes to scholars and authors whose works reflect “... the creative articulation of permanent values–truth, faith, integrity, reason, conscience, tradition–rendered with merit in works of art or intellect.”  Tyrmand was named Executive Secretary of The Ingersoll Awards.  Two awards, The T.S. Eliot Award for creative writing and the Richard M. Weaver Award for scholarly letters were presented annually beginning in 1983.

The Rockford Institute created The Center on Religion and Society under the directorship of  Reverend John Richard Neuhaus in January 1984.  The Center on Religion and Society was established to encourage the reestablishment of religiously grounded values as the basis for private and public decision making.  Headquartered in New York, the Center hosted “The Erasmus Lectures,” and published The Religion and Society Report.  The Center also mounted a series of conferences, the speeches presented at them being published by Eerdmans, in a number of books entitled “The Encounter Series.”

In 1984 Thomas Fleming joined the staff.  He became the editor of  the Chronicles of Culture in 1985 after the death of Leopold Tyramand, and soon changed the periodical’s name to Chronicles.  Michael Warder joined the staff in 1985 as Director of Public Affairs later becoming Executive Vice President.  Howard retired as president August 1, 1986, and became counselor to The Rockford Institute and continued as President of the Ingersoll Foundation.  Allan Carlson became President of The Rockford Institute while Norman McClelland succeeded Clayton Gaylord as chairman of the Board Directors of The Rockford Institute. 

The Center on the Family in America was established under the temporary directorship of Allan Carlson.  The Center on the Family in America sought to continue the scholarly work of The Rockford Institute in providing research supporting the family unit within American society.  A conflict between Neuhaus and The Rockford Institute resulted in the releasing of Neuhaus as the director of The Center on Religion and Society in 1989.  The office moved to  Deerfield, Illinois, under the directorship of Harold O.J. Brown. 

The Rockford Institute split for philosophical and practical reasons in 1997.  In October of that year, the Board of Directors of The Rockford Institute unanimously voted to divide The Institute into two separate corporate entities, creating a new one, The Howard Center on Family, Religion and Society.  Thomas Fleming became President of The Rockford Institute and continued to publish the Chronicles and administer the Ingersoll Prizes.  Carlson, former president of the Rockford Institute, became the President of The Howard Center on Family, Religion, and Society.  The Center, named for the founder of The Rockford Institute John Howard, “endeavors to reinforce the family as the first and irreplaceable social unit, to renew the religious foundations of virtue and liberty and to restore the education of the young in the duties and responsibilities incumbent on free men and women.” The Howard Center incorporated The Center on Religion and Society directed by Harold O.J. Brown and took over the publication of both The Religion and Society Report and The Family in America.  The World Congress of Families, inaugurated in 1997, also became a Center project.  Int 1998, Dr. Robert Preston, President of Belmont Abey College in North Carolina, was named the successor to Tom Fleming as Executive Secretary of the Ingersoll Prizes and in 1999, a decision was made to increase the Prize Honorarium to $25,000 and discontinue the T.S. Eliot Prize for scholarly letters.  John Howard continues as President of The Ingersoll Foundation.  Norman McClelland served as president of both Boards of Directors for one year to ease the transition.

The Rockford    Institute continues to be housed at 928 N. Main Street and The Howard Center on Family, Religion and Society is next door at 934 N. Main Street.