Purd E. Deitz

Born: Oc­to­ber 22, 1897, York, Penn­syl­van­ia.
Died: After 1968.

Son of Har­ry Will­iam and Ada Ger­trude Gil­bert Dietz, Purd sang as a boy in the choir at St. James Epis­co­pal Church in York, and lat­er in York’s St. James Epis­co­pal Church. At col­lege, he be­longed to both the col­lege choir and glee club. He was ed­u­cat­ed at Ur­sin­us Col­lege, Col­lege­ville, Penn­syl­van­ia (AB 1918, DD 1937); Cen­tral The­o­lo­gi­cal Sem­in­ary, Day­ton, Ohio; and the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Edin­burgh (a year of grad­u­ate study around 1940).

Ordained in 1921, Dietz mar­ried Thisbe Eliz­a­beth Schultz that same year. He served at the Fourth Re­formed Church in Day­ton, Ohio, for four years, and for 13 years at Trin­i­ty Church, Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia. He then be­came pro­fess­or of prac­ti­cal the­ol­o­gy at Eden Sem­in­ary, St. Lou­is, Mis­sou­ri. He served on the com­mit­tee that com­piled the Evan­gel­i­cal and Re­formed Church’s Book of Wor­ship, and was pre­si­dent of the de­nom­in­a­tion’s Board of Na­tion­al Missions (elect­ed the board’s ex­e­cu­tive sec­re­ta­ry in 1949).

--www.hymntime.com/tch/