School of Theology Celebrates
Dean Emeritus Walter G. Muelder’s 96th Birthday

On Wednesday, March 5, 2003 the School of Theology joined Dean Emeritus Walter G. Muelder in celebrating his 96th birthday.   A lunch in Muelder’s honor was hosted by the Office of Student Affairs in the Oxnam Room of the School of Theology, complete with a birthday cake and a heartfelt serenading of  “Happy Birthday” by the community.  

Muelder was born on March 1, 1907 in Illinois.   He followed in the footsteps of his father, who received degrees from Boston University in 1909 and 1913, and earned the STB in 1930 and a Ph.D. in 1933.   He and Paul Schilling studied with Paul Tillich in Berlin in 1933, and saw Adolph Hitler's rise to power.   He was active in the Alumni association of the School of Theology, and worked on the fund-raising for the building at 745 Commonwealth Avenue, which was in limbo during the Second World War. He established himself academically in the fields of Theology and Ethics, with articles on pacifism, labor issues, and economic justice.

In 1945, President Daniel L. Marsh named Muelder as Dean of the School of Theology, where he completed the fund-raising, design, and construction of our current building. His interest in the World Council of Churches opened the school to third-world students and to faculty from other religious and ethical traditions. His openly socialist sense of communitarian society made him a subject in a 1950 article in Reader's Digest , "Methodism's Pink Fringe." (Proud of his stand, Muelder appeared shortly thereafter at a school gathering with a pink fringe his wife, Martha, had sewn around the lapel of his jacket!) This brought an invitation to appear before Senator Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, along with Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam. Muelder retired in 1972, after 27 years as Dean, our longest-serving Dean (continuously at least, although William Fairfield Warren was an influence for over 50 years.)