Called to Glory: Rev. Dr Lowell Green

As noted below, Dr Green taught dogmatic theology at CLTS in the early years.

In Memoriam
East District
Lutheran Church–Canada

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Rev. Dr. Lowell Clark Green, 88, a well-known Lutheran theologian and pastor, died on Thursday, July 24, 2014 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He had a doctorate in theology from the University of Erlangen in Germany (1955) and wrote prolifically, publishing several books and scores of journal articles on the history of the Church and on theology. Perhaps his best-selling book is “Lutherans Against Hitler: The Untold Story” (2007). He taught in public universities and Lutheran Seminaries in the U.S. and Canada before retiring in the Buffalo, New York, area. Asteroid (12164) was named Lowellgreen in his honor by his son, an astronomer at Harvard University.

Rev. Green was parish pastor at churches in Texas, South Dakota, Minnesota, and the Chicago area in the 1950s and 1960s, and again in Buffalo in the 1990s. He went into teaching at Frederick College in Virginia (1967-1968) and Appalachian State University (1968-1978) in Boone, North Carolina. At ASU he taught in the history department, focusing on Renaissance and Reformation history. Dr. Green also taught at Concordia College in River Forest, Illinois, from 1978 to 1980, and at Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario, for several years starting in 1980. He travelled widely and spoke often at conferences. He was a self-taught pianist and organist who played as church organist for some years, including in the Buffalo area after retirement; after attending seminary, he studied under some leading Lutheran organists in the U.S. and Germany. For most of his life, Dr. Green moved from house to house with a large two-manual, 13-stop oak-wood Mason & Hamlin reed organ built around 1910 that he acquired from a church in the upper Midwest and that he enjoyed playing daily until well past the age of 80; it dominated his living room and intrigued all visitors.

Lowell Green was born on November 29, 1925 in Findlay, Ohio, to Clark Frederick Green and Gertrude Grace nee Kibler, and he spent his early years in the Bucyrus area of north central Ohio before moving with his family (also a brother and two sisters) to Greeley, Colorado, and then to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he graduated high school before graduating from Wartburg College (1946, English major) and Wartburg Seminary (1949) in Iowa. He married Violet E. Handahl (who died in 1980) in 1956 in Minneapolis, with whom he had four surviving children (Daniel, Katharine Olah, Sonja Link, and Barbara Savereide); along with five grandchildren (Andrew, Christopher, Jessica, Erik, and Laura); and his current wife Vilma K. Green of Buffalo, whom he married in 1989. He is also survived by his twin sister, Lois Hiller, of Laramie, Wyoming.

The funeral was held at his boyhood church, St. Paul Lutheran in Sulphur Springs (north of Bucyrus), on Friday, August 1, 2014. Dr. Green’s close colleagues from the Fort Wayne seminary, Pastor John T. Pless and Dr. Daniel Reuning, conducted the service; Dr. Reuning was organist for a special musical service that was designed by Rev. Green himself.

Dr. Green had a large collection of theological books spanning centuries, and these were donated at his request to the Valparaiso University Library; memorial donations to support his collection can be sent to the library (Christopher Center Library, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN 46383; state “for Lowell C. Green Memorial Collection of Theology Books” in cover letter).

“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds”  Psalm 147:3

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