1953-1979 President Oscar J. Naumann
Oscar J. Naumann
on June 24, 1909, was born in Wood Lake, Minnesota to Rev. Justus and Maria (nee Scherf) Naumann. When Oscar was 10 years old, his father died unexpectedly at the age of 51. The eight Naumann children (Oscar was #7) were raised by their mother in a Christian household in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Justus had last been serving. Desiring to be a pastor like his father, Oscar entered Northwestern College in Watertown and graduated in 1931; he then studied at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary at the new campus in Thiensville, where he graduated in 1934.
Naumann graduated in the middle of the Great Depression, a time that affected the synod severely. Many graduates were not assigned. Oscar, however, did receive a call to serve as tutor and assistant to the dean of men at Northwestern College.
In 1936 he was ordained and installed as pastor of Arlington Avenue Lutheran Church in Toledo, Ohio. He was later called to Doctor Martin Luther College as a professor, where he taught Latin and mathematics from 1940 to 1946. In 1946 his former congregation, St. John’s in St. Paul, Minnesota, called him to serve with the pastor who confirmed him, John Plocher. Pastor Naumann accepted the call and served there until 1959. He has the distinction of leaving the parish ministry and being the first full-time WELS president.
On September 5, 1936, he married Dorothy Schwarz. The Lord blessed Oscar and Dorothy with seven children: one daughter and six sons, three of whom followed their father into the ministry.
He served as president of the Wisconsin Synod 1953-1979 and guided the synod through the controversy with the Missouri Synod, through the expansion of home and world missions, and through the growth of the campuses in the synods ministerial education system. His strong, faithful leadership during the break with Missouri in 1961 and his mission zeal as we sought to reach “Every State by ‘78” have made his presidency one of the most consequential in WELS history. There were many painful trials, like the break-away of pastors and congregations who formed the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC), and there were also increased ties between the WELS and the ELS, our sister synod whose conventions Naumann always attended. In 1978, Pastor Naumann was hospitalized and he realized that his health was a real concern. In his last presidential newsletter in June 1979 he wrote,
“It is only right and proper to inform you—and all our members through you—that a new day will be dawning for our beloved Synod this summer. I feel I should inform you that I am asking the convention to elect someone else as their president this summer. My health is such that I could be stopped from functioning properly at any time, and I wouldn’t want the Synod to suffer in any way or to be hindered or delayed in carrying out its God-given work by an unexpected inability of its executive officer to function. I want to assure every one of you that it has been a genuine joy, but a wholly undeserved privilege to work with you and our Synod’s congregations these many years. I thank my God and Savior for that great privilege daily!”
Before this presidential message reached its intended audience, President Naumann suffered a major stroke on Saturday, June 16, 1979. He was called to his eternal rest with Jesus in the early hours of Tuesday, June 19. His obituary in the “Northwestern Lutheran” concluded with these words:
“We who mourn his death at the same time praise and thank the Lord for this devout and dedicated man of God whom the Lord in his grace placed at the head of our Synod in a time both perilous and exciting. Even as President Naumann took his stand on the Word of the Lord, so may we! And as he sought to share that saving Word, so may we! There is no better memorial.”
For Further Reading:
- “Oscar J. Naumann 1909-1979: The Making of a President” by Ross Henzi, in the WELS Historical Institute Journal, vol. 15., no.2 (Oct 1997), pp.3-19
- See also: “Oscar J. Naumann: Steadfast Leader in Turbulent Times” by Timothy K. Blauert