Fran Fevrier took over the role as poetry editor for «The Florida Quarterly» from Martin Lee Curry who became general editor. This literary magazine began at University of Florida in Gainesville in 1967 and was the first of its kind at the university. Curry convinced Merton to send in a poem for the first issue. Merton also contributed the poem "Welcome" for the second issue, which was published in November of 1967.
Fr. James Justin Field was a Dominican and Bishop of St. Georges-in-Grenada.
George L. Fields was in medical school at the University of Kentucky in 1968 while writing to Merton.
Mother General of Figlie Della Chiesa writes from Rome.
Armando Rezende Filho writes from Brazil.
Art Fillmore, from St. Louis, Missouri, writes to Merton on stationery of the Hotel Tequendama in Bogotá, Colombia.
Jeremiah Stanton Finch was dean of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School at the time of correspondence and was trying to arrange a faculty retreat at Gethsemani.
James Finn was editor of «Worldview» "a journal of religion and international affairs".
Ed Finnigan writes from Chicago, Illinois.
Wesley First was director of the office of University Relations at Columbia University in New York.
Robert J. Fitzgibbon was editor of «Family Weekly» and writes from New York.
Sr. Patricia Fitzpatrick was a Benedictine from Mount Saint Benedict Convent and Corbett College in Crookston, Minnesota.
James Fitzsimmons was editor of «The Lugano Review» and writes from Switzerland.
Fr. Daniel L. Flaherty was a Jesuit priest and book editor for «America» magazine.
Archbishop George Bernard Flahiff, elevated to Cardinal in 1969, was bishop of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. At the Second Vatican Council, he was involved in what was known as Schema 13, which became «Gaudium et Spes», the Pontifical Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Merton was particularly interested in the sections on peace, war, and how it would address nuclear weapons.
James T. Flanagan was an attorney with the law offices of Driscoll, Flanagan and Ramos from New Orleans, Louisiana.
Flanagan, usually publishing under Fr. M. Raymond, was another Gethsemani author whose writing career started in the early forties, slightly before Merton's, and ran contemporaneously with Merton's through the late sixties. Quite different in style and substance from Merton's work, Flanagan's books include «The Man Who Got Even with God», «God Goes to Murderers Row», and «Burnt-Out Incense». Merton and Flanagan often saw each other at opposing ends of disagreements about theology or the training of novices.
Archbishop John Floersh served as bishop of Louisville archdiocese from 1924-1967.
Charles Fogarty was a high school student considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life and asks Merton whether the vocation of a Trappist fulfills "Our Lord's Commandment to go and preach the Gospel to every living creature."
Allan Forbes, Jr. was "a documentary filmmaker, writer, and peace activist" who "helped found Council for a Livable World with Leo Szilard, the physicist who worked with the Manhattan Project, then tried to get the US government to promise not to use the atomic bomb against Japan." He writes to Merton from Philadelphia. (Source: Marquard, Bryan. "Allan Forbes; pacifist found direction in war." Obituary from «The Boston Globe», online edition. 24 February 2006. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 4 April 2008. ‹http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/02/24/allan_forbes_pacifist_found_direction_in_war/›.)
Claude Forcellino writes from La Borie Noble, one of the Communautés de l'Arche of Joseph Jean Lanza del Vasto in France.
Anne Ford was an author and publishing executive for Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston, Massachusetts.
David Ford was an editor at New Directions publishing in Norfolk, Connecticut.
Fr. John C. Ford was a Jesuit priest writing from Washington, D.C. He was a professor at a number of universities, including Boston College and Weston College in Massachusetts. He founded the journal «Theological Studies».
Jack Ford was a philosophy professor at Bellarmine College during his correspondence with Merton and who later taught at University of Louisville. He and Merton met around 1960 and later developed a friendship.
John J. Ford succeeded William Dwyer as attorney for the Merton Legacy Trust, which drew up Merton's will and made agreements about the use of his artistic estate after his death.
A life-long activist for peace, Forest first came into contact with Merton through Dorothy Day while Forest was at the Catholic Worker in New York. He was active in the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and started the Catholic Peace Fellowship (CPF), an affiliate program of FOR, to assist those trying to obtain Conscientious Objector status in 1964. In 1977, Forest assumed the duty of General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) based in the Netherlands.
Linda married James Forest in 1967 and briefly corresponded with Merton.
Br. Dunstan Foretich was a Trappist monk at Gethsemani. He seemed to have been serving as a typist for Merton until he left the monastery in 1966.
Dom James Fox came to Gethsemani in 1927. He was serving as guestmaster when Merton's younger brother, John Paul, visited the monastery, and Fox made arrangements for John Paul's baptism. In 1948, Fox was elected abbot after the death of Dom Frederic Dunne. Fox had a keen business sense, a graduate of Harvard Business School prior to entering Gethsemani, and helped Gethsemani support itself financially through mechanization of the farm and through establishment of a mail order cheese and bourbon fruit cake business. Merton was not a fan of this mechanization, the cheese business, and had other philosophical differences with Fox. Although much has been written about their rocky relationship at times, Fox went out of his way to ensure that Merton had greater solitude in his later years, a decision which likely kept Merton at Gethsemani. He had enough faith in Merton to appoint him as his novice master and as Fox's personal confessor. Fox would eventually step down as abbot in 1967 to pursue to live as a hermit as Merton had done. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, edited by William Shannon, Christine Bochen, and Patrick O'Connell, pp.160-161.)
