Historical Institute presents awards to authors

A display of the 2014 publications honored at the Concordia Historical Institute awards banquet, Nov. 12 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. (Todd Zittlow/Concordia Historical Institute)

At its 41st annual banquet on Nov. 12, the Awards Committee of Concordia Historical Institute (CHI) presented 17 “Awards of Commendation” for works published in 2014. The banquet, held on the campus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, brought together awardees and guests from all over the United States and Europe to recognize significant contributions to research and writing on topics touching on Lutheran history in North America.

Categories of published works included journal articles, major publications, congregational histories, histories of Lutheran organizations and nonprint media.

Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis author Tim Townsend, right, poses alongside Col. (Ret.) “Hank” Gerecke, son of Chaplain Rev. Henry Gerecke — the subject of Townsend’s award-winning book. (Todd Zittlow/Concordia Historical Institute)

Under the theme of “Trumpeting the Mercy of Christ to All,” the awards banquet spotlighted the publication of Tim Townsend, who won a CHI Award of Commendation for his book Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis, a historical account of Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Chaplain Rev. Henry Gerecke. Townsend, former religion reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, spoke about writing his best-selling book, a research project that began after his visit to a museum exhibit on LCMS chaplains at Concordia Historical Institute.

Also commended this year for their contributions to Lutheran history in North America were:

Pioneer Church Records Speak: Immanuel Lutheran Church, Jackson, Wisconsin, 1847-1974, by the Rev. Dr. Royal Natzke.

“The 150th Anniversary of Concordia University Chicago,” Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 3, Fall 2014, organized by the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Leininger.

“Centennial of the Lutheran Hymnary,” Lutheran Synod Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 1, March 2014, by the Rev. Peter Faugstad.

“HMong Mission in LCMS,” Missio Apostolica, Volume XXII, No. 1 (43), May 2014, by the Rev. Kou Seying.

“Olive Gruen: The Connection Between LCMS Mainland China and Taiwan Missions,” Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 1, Spring 2014, by Benjamin Riley.

“God Directs — We Follow Divine Guidance: The First Polish Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Christ the Lord, Dundalk, Maryland,” Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 2, Summer 2014, by Thomas Hollowak.

“The Past, Present, and Future of American Lutheran Bishops,” Lutheran Forum, Reformation 2014, by the Rev. Dr. Cheryl Peterson.

Jan Kilian: Pastor, Poet, Emigrant, edited by Trudla Malinkowa.

Carl F. Schalk: A Life in Song, by Nancy Raabe.

Conrad Bergendoff’s Faith and Work: A Swedish-American Lutheran, 1895-1997, by Dr. Thomas Tredway.

Sister Elisabeth Fedde “To Do the Lord’s Will”: Elisabeth Fedde and the Deaconess Movement Among the Norwegians in North America, by Dr. Gracia Grindal.

Paul O. Manz: The Enduring Legacy of the Hymn Festival, by Dr. James Freese.

Lutherans on the Yangtze: A Hundred Year History of the Missouri Synod in China, by David Kohl.

When Everybody Boosts Everybody Wins: The Untold Story of Evansville Mayor Benjamin Bosse, by Jeffrey Bosse.

Gerhard O. Forde — A Life, by Marianna Forde.

The Nazi Spy Pastor: Carl Krepper and the War in America, by the Rev. Dr. J. Francis Watson.

For the first time, the CHI Awards Committee also noted 11 “Honorable Mentions” to encourage those authors to continue their pursuit of excellence in research and writing.

“This annual awards program is essential in Concordia Historical Institute’s mission to highlight the best in research and writing on Lutheran history in North America,” said CHI Executive Director Daniel Harmelink. “This year’s commendations were selected from over 100 entries. We would encourage these works to students of Lutheran history and encourage authors of publications to submit copies of their works to CHI’s awards committee meeting next spring.”

Concordia Historical Institute, in striving to be the premier provider of Lutheran history resources in North America, actively searches out publications that advance research and writing in the area of Lutheran history and archives. For more information on nominations for works published in 2015 for consideration for next year’s awards program, contact the Rev. Todd Zittlow at 314-505-7900.

Concordia Historical Institute, the department of archives and history of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, is the most extensive Lutheran archive in North America. CHI publishes the Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, the longest-running journal on Lutheran history in North America, presents museum exhibits and facilitates research and writing on topics related to Lutheran history, especially the history of the LCMS.

Posted Dec. 7, 2015