Concordia College - Spire / Concordian Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

Page 8 text:

Dedicated... to the hundreds of Alumni who have molded the history of Concordia from 1839 to 1956. . .

Page 7 text:

Sormanrd wth Christ is our theme, Derr an chosen, not in i ag spite of, but be- cause of the fact that our school is soon to pass out of our hands. For well over a century Concordia College has sent her graduates forward with Christ. after 116 years, and on the verge of death, a school has a right to show signs of old age. Yet we, the last mem- bers of the Concordia family, are aware of no such signs of old age in our school. It is this fact which leads us to believe that perhaps our school will never die. Certainly she will live as long as we and all her former members have memories. But more important, the Christian spirit, her spirit, the spirit she has in- stilled in us will go on, for- ward. . . with Christ.

Page 9 text:

...and in special dedication to Julius A. Fredrich, D. D., who is, as closely as can be determined, our oldest living alumnus. His subsequent life history in the service of the Lord began in 1887, when, in an aban- doned chapel which had been used as a chicken stable, he was ordained and installed as missionary to the Chatanooga, Tenn. area. He was installed as pastor of the First Lutheran Church at Knoxville, Tenn., on June 7, 1892, which at that time belonged to the Holston Synod. From 1901 to1923, he was pastor of Immanuel Church at St. Charles, Mo., and after that at Creighton, Mo. ‘ As Director of Foreign Missions, he made the first inspection of our mission in India, 1912-1913. f From 1924 to 1928, he was student pas- tor at the State University of lowa and insti- tutional missionery at lowa City, lowa. Dr. Julius A. Friedrich is in many ways a remarkable person. He was born in St. Peter’s Lutheran parsonage, Huntington, Indiana, where his father was the minister, on Janu- ary 9, 1862. Malaria in Indiana caused his father to move to Illinois, and then to Lancaster, Ohio, where Dr. Friedrich had his first schooling. He attended school for a half a day for only three or four months a year. He had the equivalent of five grades of schooling when he entered Fort Wayne in 1877, at the age of fifteen. While here at Ft. Wayne, he lived in what is now the ad- ministration building. He ran errands for Di- rector Hanser, who rewarded him with an il- legal supply of cigars. He remembers Rector Schick and also Professor Crul. (He later mar- ried Rector Schick’s daughter!) In his day, the Spring Turnfest, resembling our “play days”, were held along the Maumee River, with the local brewery supplying the refreshments. It was here that Director Hanser threw Dr. Fried- rich into the river, but he never learned to swim. Upon graduation from Concordia Col- lege, Fort Wayne, Ind., he entered Con- cordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., in 1884. During his second scholastic year, he was Walther’s private secretary. He was grad- vated from the Seminary on April 20, 18- 87, with the unique distinction that his di- ploma bears the last signature of Dr. C. F. W. Walther, then on his deathbed. A man who has lived under nineteen United States’ Presidents, and through fourteen major wars in the world, our old- est living alumnus is in amazingly good health. He has every chance of outliving his Alma Mater. 1880— ‘‘to”’ Dr. Friedrich while a student at Fort Wayne.