Mott, John Raleigh (1865–1955)

US religious leader. An influential ecumenical leader for all his long life, he became honorary president of the World Council of Churches in 1948. He published 15 books, including The Larger Evangelism (1944). He shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1946 with Emily Greene Balch for his work in international missionary movements.

Born in Sullivan County, New York, he grew up in Iowa and returned to New York for college, graduating from Cornell in 1888. In 1891 he became foreign secretary for the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and was the organization's general secretary from 1915–31. He oversaw the Y's welfare programmes for Allied servicemen during World War I.