David M. Fulcomer,a sociology professor at Colorado Women's College, and one of the first leaders and a long -time member of NCFR, offered the following reflections on the early years of the organization:

"The first year. . . I remember that discussions were held about having state organizations. . . We talked about regional conferences in the Southeastern states and out on the Pacific coast. . . right at the beginning we battled with the inclusion of state and regional organizations attached to the National Conference. . . it was a struggle over many years on just how to establish, maintain, and develop ties with regions and states. . . In those early days Ernest Burgess. . .took on the major responsibility for the state and regional conferences. Persons known to be interested in the social vision of the NCFR were contacted and urged to assume responsibility for their state organizations."

"One of the things that excited me in those early days was the amazing variety of professional person from many disciplines and organizations that were involved in some way. I have said many times that I could not have found a nicer group of humans to know and work with over the years than. . .those in NCFR - a very dedicated, kind, caring group of people. Of course, in those early days we had the advantage of being relatively small in number - thus knowing each other well and really caring for each other as persons, as well as caring for what we were trying to get done." [from 50 year history]

Another early supporter and helper was L. Foster Wood, who pioneered the Family section of the Federal Council of Churches, now the National Council of Churches. He said, "An interesting thing was the emphasis Paul Sayre, our first president, put on what he called 'the need for promoting human values in marriage and family life in a world of stress and strain' . . . he thought of this as the objective of the National Conference."