10.03.2006
Former Director of LWF Refugee Services Stewart Herman Dies
The Rev. Stewart W. Herman Jr, former director of refugee services with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) died on 16 February in Greenport, New York, following illness. He was 96 years old.Herman, a retired pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), joined the staff of the newly organized LWF in 1948 as director of its Service to Refugees, based at the Geneva headquarters. In 1952, he moved to New York as executive secretary of the Division of LWF Affairs in the National Lutheran Council, and as director of the LWF Committee on Latin America.
He was the first president of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), from 1964 until 1971.
LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko paid tribute to Herman as "a very able director and chairperson of several Lutheran and ecumenical initiatives, through which Lutheran churches sought to respond to human need around the world." The general secretary recalled he had invited Herman to the 1997 LWF Ninth Assembly in Hong Kong, China to join in the federation's 50th anniversary celebrations, but he could not attend due to poor health at the time.
"We are thankful to God for Dr Herman's exemplary life, lived among us as a translation of what he believed," Noko added.
Herman Jr grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of Lutheran pastor, Stewart Herman. In 1930 he earned a bachelor's degree from Gettysburg College, and a bachelor of divinity degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1934. He studied theology at the University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France, and pursued additional graduate studies in Göttingen and Berlin, Germany. He was pastor of the American Church in Berlin, 1936-1939. He subsequently worked with the World Council of Churches in the process of formation, 1945-1948, prior to joining the LWF. Upon retirement from the LSTC in 1971, he served as a trustee of the American Bible Society, and was active with the Union Chapel, an ecumenical summer ministry on Shelter Island, New York.
Herman is survived by his wife, Ethelyn, their four children and six grandchildren. (353 words)
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