William Sloane Coffin
E113054
William Sloane Coffin was an influential American Christian clergyman and social activist best known for his leadership in the civil rights and anti–Vietnam War movements.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| William Sloane Coffin canonical | 1 |
| William Sloane Coffin Jr. | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T941746 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: William Sloane Coffin Context triple: [Union Theological Seminary, hasNotableAlumnus, William Sloane Coffin]
-
A.
William Flynt Nichols
William Flynt Nichols was a U.S. Congressman from Alabama who co-sponsored the landmark Goldwater–Nichols Act that restructured the Department of Defense and modernized American military command.
-
B.
Stanley Grenz
Stanley Grenz was an influential late-20th-century evangelical theologian known for his work in systematic theology, postmodern theology, and especially his development of a relational, community-focused doctrine of the Trinity.
-
C.
Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr was a prominent 20th-century American theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual best known for his work on Christian realism and the authorship of the Serenity Prayer.
-
D.
Robert F. Goheen
Robert F. Goheen was an American classicist and academic leader best known for serving as the transformative 16th president of Princeton University from 1957 to 1972.
-
E.
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks was a prominent 19th-century American Episcopal clergyman and orator, best known as the author of the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and as a leading preacher at Boston's Trinity Church.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: William Sloane Coffin Target entity description: William Sloane Coffin was an influential American Christian clergyman and social activist best known for his leadership in the civil rights and anti–Vietnam War movements.
-
A.
William Flynt Nichols
William Flynt Nichols was a U.S. Congressman from Alabama who co-sponsored the landmark Goldwater–Nichols Act that restructured the Department of Defense and modernized American military command.
-
B.
Stanley Grenz
Stanley Grenz was an influential late-20th-century evangelical theologian known for his work in systematic theology, postmodern theology, and especially his development of a relational, community-focused doctrine of the Trinity.
-
C.
Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr was a prominent 20th-century American theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual best known for his work on Christian realism and the authorship of the Serenity Prayer.
-
D.
Robert F. Goheen
Robert F. Goheen was an American classicist and academic leader best known for serving as the transformative 16th president of Princeton University from 1957 to 1972.
-
E.
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks was a prominent 19th-century American Episcopal clergyman and orator, best known as the author of the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and as a leading preacher at Boston's Trinity Church.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (67)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Christian clergyman
ⓘ
anti–Vietnam War activist ⓘ civil rights activist ⓘ human ⓘ pacifist ⓘ social activist ⓘ |
| advocatedFor |
economic justice
ⓘ
gay rights ⓘ nuclear disarmament ⓘ racial equality ⓘ |
| almaMater |
Union Theological Seminary
ⓘ
Yale University ⓘ |
| arrestedFor | anti–Vietnam War protest activities ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | congestive heart failure ⓘ |
| citizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| conflictParticipatedIn | World War II ⓘ |
| countryOfBirth | United States of America ⓘ |
| countryOfDeath | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1924-06-01 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 2006-04-12 ⓘ |
| denomination |
Presbyterian
ⓘ
United Church of Christ ⓘ |
| educatedAt | Phillips Academy Andover ⓘ |
| employer | Central Intelligence Agency ⓘ |
| endTimeOfPosition |
1975
ⓘ
1987 ⓘ |
| familyName | Coffin ⓘ |
| fullName |
William Sloane Coffin
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
William Sloane Coffin Jr.
|
| givenName | William ⓘ |
| honor | honorary degrees from multiple universities ⓘ |
| knownForQuote |
The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.
ⓘ
There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. ⓘ |
| laterRole | Central Intelligence Agency officer ⓘ |
| mediaAppearance | subject of documentary film "The Trial of the Catonsville Nine" (context: antiwar activism) ⓘ |
| militaryService | United States Army ⓘ |
| movement |
anti–Vietnam War movement
ⓘ
American civil rights movement ⓘ
surface form:
civil rights movement
nuclear disarmament movement ⓘ |
| nationality | American ⓘ |
| notableFor |
leadership in the American civil rights movement
ⓘ
opposition to the Vietnam War ⓘ |
| occupation |
author
ⓘ
chaplain ⓘ clergyman ⓘ pastor ⓘ peace activist ⓘ |
| parent | William Sloane Coffin Sr. ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | New York City ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath | Strafford, Vermont ⓘ |
| positionContext |
Chaplain of Yale University 1958–1975
ⓘ
Senior Minister of Riverside Church 1977–1987 ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
Chaplain of Yale University
ⓘ
Senior Minister of Riverside Church in New York City ⓘ |
| relative | Henry Sloane Coffin ⓘ |
| religion | Christianity ⓘ |
| residence |
New York City
ⓘ
Strafford, Vermont ⓘ |
| servedAs | infantry officer ⓘ |
| spouse |
Eva Rubinstein
ⓘ
Harriet Gibney ⓘ Randy Wilson ⓘ |
| startTimeOfPosition |
1958
ⓘ
1977 ⓘ |
| wrote |
A Passion for the Possible
ⓘ
Letters to a Young Doubter ⓘ Once to Every Man: A Memoir ⓘ The Courage to Love ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: William Sloane Coffin Description of subject: William Sloane Coffin was an influential American Christian clergyman and social activist best known for his leadership in the civil rights and anti–Vietnam War movements.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
William Sloane Coffin Jr.