 Arthur Carl Piepkorn (historian and theologian) Ordained by The Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod in 1930, Piepkorn served congregations in Missouri, Minnesota and
Ohio. A U.S. Army chaplain (1940-51), he served as senior chaplain of the U.S.
occupational forces in Germany (1945), commandant of the Chaplain School in Pennsylvania
(1948-50) and president of the Chaplain Board (1950-51). From 1951 until shortly before
death in 1973 at age 66, he was professor of systematic theology at Concordia Seminary,
St. Louis. Ecumenically, Piepkorn was in demand as a preacher and lecturer. Following
actions of the 1970 LCMS New Orleans convention, he joined the Concordia faculty majority
in signing protests that became pre-cursors to the Seminary in Exile (SEMINEX) and
formation of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC). When offered a
non-teaching position and then "honorable retirement" at age 65, he tendered his
resignation. He died a year later before completing his magnum opus, Profiles in belief:
the religious bodies of the United States and Canada. The four volume set, documenting the
existence and history of every religious group in the two countries, was completed by
colleague John Tietjen and published in 1977.
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