William J. Danker

Danker was ed­u­cat­ed at Con­cor­dia Col­lege, Mil­wau­kee, Wis­con­sin; Con­cor­dia Sem­in­a­ry, St. Lou­is, Mis­sou­ri; Whea­ton Col­lege (BA); the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Chi­ca­go (MA); and the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Hei­del­berg (DTheol, mag­na cum laude). Af­ter or­din­a­tion, he pas­tored at St. Paul’s Lu­ther­an Church, Har­vard, Il­li­nois (1937-42), and Trin­i­ty Lu­ther­an Church, West Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois (1942-48). From 1948-55, he served as the Lu­ther­an Church Mis­sou­ri Synod’s first mis­sion­a­ry to Ja­pan. Up­on re­turn to Amer­i­ca, he be­came a pro­fess­or at Con­cor­dia Sem­in­a­ry, and di­rect­ed the World Mis­sion In­sti­tute. His works in­clude:

Two Worlds or None—Re­dis­cov­er­ing Mis­sions (Con­cor­dia Pub­lish­ing, 1964)
Profit for the Lord: Eco­nom­ic Ac­tiv­i­ties in Mo­ra­vi­an Mis­sions and the Ba­sel Mis­sion Trad­ing Com­pa­ny, with R. Pierce Bea­ver, 1971
Economic Ac­ti­vi­ties in Sup­port of Ear­ly Pro­test­ant Mis­sions (Mis­sion­ary Re­search Lib­ra­ry, 1971)
More Than Heal­ing: The Sto­ry of Ki­yo­ko Mat­su­da (Con­cor­dia Pub­lish­ing House, 1973)

--www.hymntime.com/tch/

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As the son of teachers, Rev. William J. Danker had a love of learning that wasn't surprising.

But Mr. Danker fused his constant quest for knowledge with his love of faith, becoming a Lutheran pastor who spent his life convincing people in power to help people in need.

During more than half a century of work in the Chicago area and around the world, Rev. Danker played the roles of pastor, missionary, author, professor and rebel, blending the skills of a CEO with the grass-roots work ethic of a store-front preacher.

Rev. Danker, 86, died Thursday, May 17, 2001in his home in Arlington, Va., of stroke-related complications.

He was born in Willow Creek, Minn., and his family moved from place to place when he was younger.

Rev. Danker graduated from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1937. He spent the next 11 years as a pastor in Harvard and West Chicago.

Then in 1948, in what his family says he considered his proudest professional accomplishment, he was selected by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, to be the first Lutheran missionary to post-war Japan.

He and his family lived in Japan for eight years and he founded the Japan Lutheran Church, which still exists.

When he returned in 1956, he became professor of missionlogy at his alma mater, Concordia Seminary.

His tenure there was cut short in 1973 when he was part of a group of 50 faculty members who were forced out of their posts by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which took issue with the school's teaching of a more liberal interpretation of the Bible.

The battle led to the formation of Christ Seminary-Seminex, where Rev. Danker taught until 1983, and to the creation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, a split Frederick Danker says his brother always hoped would be mended.

In 1983 Rev. Danker moved to Chicago to teach classes in missions and world hunger at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. While there, he and his wife also founded the Center for World Christian Interaction, for which they were both honored with an award in 1994.

--articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-05-22/ (excerpts)