vĭlˈəm äˈdôlf vĭsˈĕrt hōft, 1900–1985, Dutch clergyman, a leader of the Protestant ecumenical movement, b. Haarlem, Netherlands, and educated at Univ. of Leiden. Visser't Hooft was named secretary of the World Alliance of YMCAs in 1924. He was appointed the general secretary of the World Student Christian Federation in 1932. He was the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches (1938–66). His best-known books are The Pressure of Our Common Calling (1959), No Other Name (1963), and Memoirs (2d ed. 1987).

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