Founding Professor Called to His Eternal Rest

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!” (Rev. 14:13 ESV)

Rev. Dr Roger J. Humann, this seminary’s founding professor, was called by the Lord to his eternal rest on Sunday, 13 October 2024, at the age of 88. The seminary community joins his wife, Dianne, children Joel and Deborah and their families, in grief tempered by Christian faith and joy at this news.

When the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod agreed to found a new seminary in Eastern Canada, leaving the Canadian districts to determine its location, Rev. Roger Humann was the pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church, St. Catharines. His church became the seminary’s first home, and her pastor the seminary’s first full-time professor. His contacts in church and community led to an arrangement with Brock University that allowed a fine new building to be erected on campus in 1983.

He was affectionately and universally known as Dean Humann, both as Dean of the Seminary in his early years and as Dean of Students and Dean of Chapel through the rest of his ministry here. In his thirty-year teaching career, from the seminary’s founding in 1976 to his retirement in 2006, Dean Humann taught Biblical interpretation, New Testament studies, preaching, and worship to more than 200 seminary students. He also was instrumental in founding a daughter seminary in Nicaragua and regularly went there to teach.

Both Roger and his wife Dianne filled the seminary with their love of music. They ensured the seminary chapel was designed with chamber music in mind, and inaugurated a series of concerts that lasted for many years. They procured the gift of a fine pipe organ, ran a choir school for children, and organised regular conferences with musical and liturgical themes. Dean Humann also supervised installation of a stained-glass window and beautiful wood carvings behind the altar. His stamp has been left on every part of the seminary.

Roger Humann will be given Christian burial on Wednesday, 23 October, 10.30am, at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, 213 Linwell Rd, St. Catharines, with lunch and interment to follow.

The full obituary may be found here.