Chris Hartmire

Wayne Clyde "Chris" Hartmire Jr. (June 5, 1932 – December 18, 2022) was an American Presbyterian minister, civil rights activist, and labor organizer. As director of the California Migrant Ministry, he organized Protestant church support for César Chávez and the United Farm Workers. He later became the founding director of the National Farm Worker Ministry.

Early life and education Chris Hartmire was born in Philadelphia in 1932 and raised in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, in a middle-class Presbyterian family. He attended Upper Darby High School and in 1954 earned a degree in civil engineering from Princeton University. He was a naval officer in the mid-1950s, and later he enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he was influenced by Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology of social justice.

Ministry and early activism After receiving his Master of Divinity, Hartmire was ordained in 1960 and began working with East Harlem Protestant Parish, running youth programs primarily for African American and Puerto Rican teens. In 1961, he joined a Freedom Ride to challenge segregation in the South. He was arrested in Tallahassee, Florida for unlawful assembly while peacefully asserting the right to be served in a segregated airport restaurant.

In 1971, the CMM’s work evolved into the National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM), with Hartmire as its founding director. He stayed at NFWM until 1989, when differences with Chávez led to his departure.

Later life After leaving the UFW, Hartmire joined Loaves and Fishes in Sacramento, California, a nonprofit serving the unhoused.

In retirement, Hartmire and his wife continued to advocate for fair wages for service workers at their retirement community, Pilgrim Place, in Claremont.

Death Chris Hartmire died on December 18, 2022, at age 90, in Claremont, California, from congestive heart failure.