Lutheran Historical Conference Newsletter

Vol. 38, No. 3...August 2000...ISSN 0460-0274

LHC Nominations

The following biographical sketches are for those persons who have agreed to be nominated to the Lutheran Historical Conference Board of Directors. The election will take place at the biennial meeting of the LHC in October 2000. Other persons may be nominated from the floor at that time. Outgoing members of the board comprise the Nominating Committee: Raymond M. Bost, chair; James W. Albers and Elisabeth Wittman.

Mark E. Braun is an associate professor of Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, where he teaches Old Testament theology, practical ministry and American and world religions. He received his B.A. in history and biblical languages from Northwestern College, Watertown, Wisconsin, and both a master of divinity and master of sacred theology from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wisconsin. In spring 2000 he was awarded a Ph.D. from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, from the Department of Historical Theology. Prior to 1987 and his teaching in Milwaukee, he served two vicarages in Anchorage, Alaska, 1975–1977 and was pastor from 1978 to 1987 at congregations in St. Joseph, Michigan, and Sparta, Wisconsin. He is the author of the People's Bible Commentary on Deuteronomy and is slated to write the Concordia Commentary Series volume on Judges. Currently, Mark is serving on the 2000 LHC program committee.

Maria E. Erling has been assistant professor of North American Christianity and global mission at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg since the fall of 1999. She had been serving as parish pastor in Nashua, New Hampshire, prior to that and had previously served a parish in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was also staff associate for urban ministry with the New England Synod of the Lutheran Church in America. She has her B.A. from Augustana College, Rock Island, 1978; her M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, 1981; and Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School, 1996. She was ordained in 1983. Maria’s dissertation studied the relationships between Swedish immigrant churches and American Protestants in New England. She has also made presentations and written articles and book chapters on the topic of Augustana Lutheran Church history. She was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the newly formed Augustana Heritage Association.

Marvin A. Huggins has been associate director for archives and library at Concordia Historical Institute since 1989. He was reference and research assistant at the institute from 1970 to 1978. He is a 1970 graduate of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and has also served as a parish pastor in Kansas (1978–1982) and an editor at Concordia Publishing House (1982–1989). He has served the LHC as a member of the Board of Directors from 1992 to1998 and as a program presenter and is currently publications coordinator and webmaster for the LHC website. He has also served on the commissions on publications and technical resources. He is a certified archivist and an active member of the Midwest Archives Conference.

Russell Kleckley is currently associate professor of religion at Newberry College, Newberry, South Carolina, serves on the Board of Trustees of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, is a graduate of both those institutions and was ordained in 1983. He is also a board member for the Eastern Cluster of Seminaries and is president of the board of the James R. Crumley Jr. ELCA Region 9 Archives, Columbia, South Carolina. His past presentations for LHC have been on Southern Lutherans and the Civil War and on the millennial views of J. A. Seiss and Gustav Seyffarth.

Robert E. Smith is electronic resources librarian at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and serves as archivist and historian for the Indiana District of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. He also teaches computer literacy for Concordia University Wisconsin's Fort Wayne Center (a degree completion program). He received his B.A. from Valparaiso University and his M.Div. from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Ordained in the LCMS, he has served St. Luke Lutheran Church, Winamac, and Messiah Lutheran Church, Wolcottville, Indiana. He is a regular contributor to the Lutheran Witness and has written on such topics as Indiana frontier spirituality, the life and philosophy of Friedrich Wyneken and the Fort Wayne seminary. He has appeared in several historical videos and is coordinator of Project Wittenberg, an electronic text initiative dedicated to Lutheran historical sources available on the Internet. He has been part of the team that produces the LHC annual bibliography on Lutheranism and served as the 1992 biennial program committee chair and the 1996 local arrangements committee chair for those LHC meetings. He also has made presentations at LHC meetings and helped with the initial design of the LHC web page. Bob currently serves as chair of the Christian Board of Education for St. Peter's Lutheran, Fort Wayne.

Carolyn Hoover Sung has been employed by the Library of Congress for over 35 years, including 15 years in the Manuscript Division and 20 years in managing research library programs, chiefly preservation and public service. Currently, she is chief of the Network Division National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. She has an M.A. in American history from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in American studies from the George Washington University and is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists. Originally from North and South Carolina, she is a 30-year member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Bethesda, Maryland, serving on the council and as a delegate to the ELCA Metropolitan Washington D.C. Synod. Her other Lutheran church activities include election as president of the Lutheran Student Association, 1964–65; serving on the ELCA Archives Advisory Committee, 1989–1992, including chairing the group, 1991–1992, and facilitating the regional archivists in developing a strategic plan. She is currently serving a second term as a board member of the Lutheran Historical Society and has contributed two book reviews to their most recent newsletters. She presented a paper at the 1994 LHC meeting.

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