Interim Dean Harlon L. Dalton puckishly describes himself as an “African-American male child of God and of the ‘60’s”. A graduate of Harvard College (magna cum laude) and Yale Law School, his first career was as a public interest lawyer in New York City, and as an Assistant Solicitor General in Washington, D.C. His second career was as a Professor of Law at Yale, where he is now an emeritus.
In the mid-1990's, the Interim Dean responded to an insistent call to Holy Orders. He was ordained in 2002. Since then, he has served as Associate Rector at St. Paul and St. James (New Haven), Interim Rector at St. Ann’s (Old Lyme), ECCT Acting Canon for Mission Leadership, Priest-in-Charge at Christ Church Cathedral, Priest-in-Charge at St. Paul & St. James, and ECCT Interim Canon for Advocacy, Racial Justice, & Reconciliation.
Throughout his ordained ministry, the Interim Dean has “[taken his] share in the councils of the Church,” serving on the Standing Committee, the Program and Budget Committee, the Commission on Ministry (which he chaired), and the most recent Bishop Transition Committee. Currently, he serves as a Title IV advisor and as an Honorary Canon of the Cathedral.
The Interim Dean is the author of Racial Healing (Doubleday 1995) (a New York Times “notable book of the year”) and an editor of AIDS and the Law (Yale Press 1987) and AIDS Law Today (Yale Press 1993). He has also authored many articles, including "AIDS in Blackface," published in DAEDALUS (the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences) in 1989.
These days, he mostly writes poetry and short stories, none of which has escaped his hard drive and cloud server. He is an avid (but non-competitive) birder, a novice gardener, and an amateur musician whose current instrument of choice is the double bass. On Monday evenings he can be found rehearsing and making a joyful noise with the Salt & Pepper Gospel Singers.