Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2003, page 44

In Memoriam

 

L. Humphrey Walz, D.D. (1910-2003)

 

By Andrew I. Killgore

The Reverend L. Humphrey Walz, longtime chairman of the board of the American Educational Trust and religion editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, died Sept. 25, 2003 in Janesville, Wisconsin, where he had resided since 1988. He was 92 years of age. During his many years of association with this magazine, this gentlest of gentlemen gained our deep respect and affection as a man of principle and a tremendous scholar of church and religious affairs.

Born in California and raised in New York, he earned a B.A. degree at Amherst College, B.A. and M.A. degrees from Oxford University, and S.T.M (Master of Sacred Theology) at Union Theological Seminary. He also received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Amherst College in 1981.

He met his wife, Jean Menzies Sutherland, as a student in England. They married in 1934 at her home in Janesville. She died in 1989.

Also ordained a minister in 1934, Dr. Walz served as pastor of the Oceanside Presbyterian Church, Second Presbyterian Church and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, all in New York. He later served in Shaker Heights, Ohio as information officer of the World Council of Churches, and in the Chicago area as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Crown Point, Indiana from 1954 to 1962.

Reverend Walz was decorated by the British government and cited by the Norwegian government for service to war victims during World War II. He was a special refugee consultant to the Presbyterian Church, and performed refugee services for the Departments of Defense and State, the Church World Service, the Palestine Refugee Organization, and the Bear East Christian Council. In addition to the Presbytery of New York Distinguished Service Award and the National Religious Publicity Council Award of Merit, he received citations from American Friends of the Middle East and the American Council of Judaism’s Midwest Brotherhood Award. He was listed in Who’s Who in Religion and was honored by the American-Arab Affairs Council. In 1987, he received the Janesville YMCA Peace Award.

A writer, preacher and lecturer for the three monotheistic religions, Dr. Walz was founding editor of The Link periodical on refugee issues, published by Americans for Middle East Understanding. In addition to articles, book reviews, and columns for religious publications, he authored Synod Planning Workbook, Israel According to Holy Scripture (an anthology), and articles on psychosomatics and mental health for the Menninger clinic.

His interest in refugees continued throughout his life. The honorary degree from Amherst College sums up Dr. Walz’s humanitarian activities: “At home and abroad, you have worked tirelessly and with courage, for the victims of Nazism and Fascism and peoples dispossessed by the Second World War. The peoples you have served and the lands you have visited these past 30 years read like a grim travelogue of human oppression. North Africans, Russians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Cubans, Hungarians, Arabs, Palestinians, Armenians, and Israelis. You have been intimately involved in almost every major effort undertaken by religious groups to establish peace with justice and compassion in the Middle East….Now, in ‘retirement,’ you continue to read, write, speak and learn about these many themes that have been your life’s work.”

Dr. Walz was predeceased by a sister and a nephew, Alice Carolyn Mossner and David Mossner. He is survived by a son, Frederick Walz, of Littleton, Colorado; a daughter, Pauline Webb, of Ft. Myers Beach, Florida; four grandchildren, Paul Christy, Jennifer Lee, Carolyn Wagner, and Peter Walz; and by step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren.

The Washington Report will forever be grateful for Reverend Walz’s support and encouragement over the years. Most of all, however, we will miss this man of dedication and commitment, who embodied in his life and in his work the principles in which he so strongly believed.

Andrew I. Killgore is publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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