Scope and Contents

Approximately half a linear foot of documents, photographs, and a yearbook donated by J.R. Scott-Welch. Included in the documents are his letters home to his parents sent during his tour of duty and copies of his service record. The photographs include images of Hill 55 in Vietnam (near Da Nang) and graduation photos from basic training and various schools that Scott-Welch attended. This collection also includes three audio reel-to-reels, a DD-214 form and two poems document John R. (Dick) Scott-Welch's service in the United States Marine Corps, May 1967 - May 1973.

Biographical / Historical

John Richard Welch was born on 2 July 1947 in Ruston, Louisiana. In 1965, Welch graduated from Westbury High School in Houston, Texas and joined the United States Marine Corps in May 1967. Trained as a radio repairman, Welch served with the 1st Marine Division (reinforced) in South Vietnam from late August 1968 until September 1969 with Headquarters (HQ) Battery, Third Battalion, 11th Marines and then with Hotel Battery, 3/11. In 1970, Welch was released from active duty and was honorably discharged in May 1973. He then attended college at Louisiana Tech and the University of Texas at Austin before graduating from Centenary College of Louisiana in 1973 with a BA in History with Honors. In 1978, Welch graduated from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University with a Masters of Divinity and on 14 September 1974 Welch married Melanie Anne Scott and legally changed his surname to ^D<'Scott-Welch^D>'. Welch then went into the ministry and was ordained an elder in the Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church on 4 June 1980. In June 2005, Welch retired from the Louisiana Conference and moved to McMinnville, TN, where he is serving as a part-time Associate Pastor at FUMC.