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Pierre Dupont Vuilleumier

First Craigville Conference Center Director

In 1960, Rev Pierre Dupont Vuilleumier was named as the first director of the Craigville Conference Center. The Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ had recently leased Craigville’s public buildings from the Christian Camp Meeting Association. He was aided by his spouse, Marion Vuilleumier, who served as the Center’s assistant director. Pierre also served as an associate conference minister with responsibility to support 100 UCC churches in southeastern Massachusetts.

During this period, the CCMA added Andover, Yale Union, and Boston cottages (newly named for prominent Protestant theological schools), the Manor, Lodge and Marshview, the staff house, and the cranberry bog below the bluff. The Center grew in both size and scope.  By 1971, the center was serving nearly 7,000 meals for 170 groups and individuals and 13,714 overnight bookings. The Tabernacle program expanded to two ecumenical services each Sunday, one in the morning for the local community and conference center guests and another in the evening with nationally known preachers and a 40-member choir featuring the center’s summer student staff. Each evening service closed with Pierre’s favorite hymn, “For All the Saints,” with Elizabeth Kirk on the Hook and Hastings organ he had brought to Craigville from Wellesley College.

One of the most prominent Protestant clergymen in New England, before moving to the Cape Dr. Vuilleumier had served as  senior minister of the 1,200 member First Congregational Church of West  Springfield and at several other churches in the Congregational Christian tradition. In addition to his divinity degree from Yale, Pierre Vuilleumier graduated from Harvard School Architecture. Early in his time in Craigville, he designed the columns that now adorn the Inn.

After retiring as center director, Dr. Vuilleumier remained active in the CCMA. At the time of his accidental death in 1980, he served on the CCMA board as vice-president and as co-chair of the beach committee. In 1981, the Chronicle noted, “He did not leave before he showed us how to make a beautiful place more beautiful. He did it with the eye of the architect and the heart of a loving servant of God.”