wfn.org | Lutheran Memorials Celebrate the Life of Former President Robert Marshall

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: Lutheran Memorials Celebrate the Life of Former President Robert Marshall
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>February 6, 2009  

Lutheran Memorials Celebrate the Life of Former President Robert Marshall
09-038-FI

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Memorials have been planned to celebrate
the life of the Rev. Robert J. Marshall, biblical scholar and
president of the former Lutheran Church in America (LCA), who
died Dec. 22 in Allentown, Pa. He was 90. A funeral was held Jan.
3 in Burlington, Iowa.

In 1962 Marshall was elected president of the LCA Illinois
Synod, and six years later he was elected president of the LCA.
During his decade as LCA president, groundwork was set for that
church's merger with the American Lutheran Church and Association
of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in 1987 to form the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

The memorials will be held in three campus chapels of the
ELCA:

+ Feb. 22, 4 p.m., Christ Chapel, Lutheran Theological
Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C. The Rev. Edgar R. Trexler,
former editor of "The Lutheran" and a trustee of the seminary,
will preach. The Rev. Herman R. Yoos III, bishop, ELCA South
Carolina Synod, will preside.

+ Feb. 28, 11 a.m., Egner Chapel, Muhlenberg College,
Allentown. The Rev. Harold S. Weiss, former bishop of the ELCA
Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod, will preach. The Rev. Samuel R.
Zeiser, bishop of the ELCA Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod, will
preside and the Rev. E. Roy Riley, bishop of the ELCA New Jersey
Synod, will assist.

+ March 8, 2 p.m., Augustana Chapel, Lutheran School of
Theology at Chicago (LSTC). The Rev. H. George Anderson, former
presiding bishop of the ELCA, will preach. The Rev. James Kenneth
Echols, LSTC president, will preside.

In 1947 Marshall joined the faculty of Muhlenberg College as
an instructor in religion. He became head of the religion
department in 1952. From 1953 to 1962 he was a professor of Old
Testament at Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary (now LSTC).

 From 1981 to 1988 Marshall was professor of Old Testament at
the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary before returning to
LSTC as an adjunct professor of Old Testament. Marshall also
served LSTC as senior scholar in residence and director for its
Center for Global Ministries.

The family requests that memorial gifts be sent to the
Robert J. Marshall Graduate Fellowship at LSTC.
-- -- --

An obituary for the Rev. Robert J. Marshall is at
http://archive.ELCA.org/news/releases.asp?a=4011 on the ELCA Web
site.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog