Lutheran Historical Conference Newsletter

Vol. 38, No. 1...February 2000...ISSN 0460-0274

Lewis W. Spitz Jr., 1922–1999

Dr. Lewis S. Spitz Jr., who had been an active member of the LHC, died on 22 December 1999 following a heart attack six days earlier. He was best known as an expert on Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation but also was author of a work related to American Lutheran history: Life in Two Worlds: Biography of William Sihler (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1968). A private burial service took place in Palo Alto, California, on 24 December 1999 with a memorial service held 15 January 2000 in Menlo Park, California.

Born in Bertrand, Nebraska, he lived much of his early life in Missouri, where his father had been a long-time professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He attended Concordia Seminary, the University of Missouri and Harvard University, where he received his doctorate. He held several honorary degrees as well.

From 1974 to 1993 he was William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History at Stanford University, Prior to that he had been on the faculty of the University of Missouri, Columbia, from 1953 to 1959. He served as visiting professor or scholar at several universities, including the University of Mainz in Germany, and was given the Danforth Foundation's Harbison Award for outstanding college teaching in 1964.

He also was active in the American Society of Church History, the American Society for Reformation Research and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He wrote or edited twenty-one history books, including The Religious Renaissance of the German Humanists, The Renaissance and Reformation Movements and The Protestant Reformation: 1517–1559.

Dr. Spitz is survived by his wife of fifty-one years, Dr. Edna Huttenmaier Spitz; sons Stephen and Philip of San Francisco and Fremont, California, respectively; a sister, Dorothy Rosin, St. Louis; and three grandchildren. The family requests that memorials be directed to the Lewis W. Spitz Memorial Fund, Center for Reformation Research, 6477 San Bonita Ave., Saint Louis, MO 63105.

[Back to Contents]