†     Kurt Erik Marquart     †

Lutheran Pastor and Confessor

1934 – 2006 A+D

Marquart says "Goodbye" to the Haitian brethren

The Rev. Dr. Kurt E. Marquart, seventy-two years a baptized child of God, forty-seven years an under-shepherd of Christ's people, and thirty-one years Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, father, and grandfather, died September 19, 2006 from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." Dr. Marquart is survived by his wife, Barbara (nee Martens), and five children-Danny, Cynthia (Johnson), Barry, Angela (Hill), and Anthony-along with 18 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He is remembered for his genuine concern and unreserved generosity to all around him, and for his faithful confession of his Lord Jesus Christ.

Kurt Erik Marquart was born June 20, 1934 in Tallinn, Estonia, and reborn into God's kingdom through Holy Baptism soon after. In 1941 his family immigrated to Vienna, Austria, and later, to Displaced Persons Camps in North Germany where he received his primary and secondary education in German and Russian exile schools. After the war, the family immigrated to the United States. He was confirmed in Nyack, New York, in 1952.

Dr. Marquart attended Nyack High School and then earned a three-year Associate of Arts degree in only two years from Concordia Collegiate Institute in Bronxville, New York, in 1954. He earned the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity in 1959 from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. His senior thesis there compared Gustav Aulen and Francis Pieper on Prolegomena. He later received the Master of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1982. Concordia University Wisconsin awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 2001.

Upon completing studies at St. Louis, Dr. Marquart received a call to Trinity Lutheran Church, Weatherford, Texas and was ordained on July 19, 1959. In 1961, he accepted a call to Redeemer and Good Shepherd congregations, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. In Australia he served the church on the Commission on Theology and Inter-Church Relations, Queensland District Church Council, and the Concordia College (Toowoomba) Council.

Marquart preaches at an ordination in Haiti

Dr. Marquart was called in 1975 to the Department of Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield (and then Fort Wayne). A popular professor, writer, apologist, and speaker, Dr. Marquart taught a full load of classes every quarter, wrote many scholarly articles in the Concordia Theological Quarterly and in other publications across the Missouri Synod, and was widely sought after as a speaker at pastoral conferences, district meetings, and congregational events throughout Synod. Many times, he traveled to far off places such as Kenya, Russia, and Haiti, to train pastors in those places. He represented the CTS faculty on the Synod's Commission on Theology and Church Relations.

Most well known in Dr. Marquart's expansive bibliography is his examination of the controversy in the LCMS in the 1960s and 1970s, Anatomy of an Explosion: A Theological Analysis of the Missouri Synod Conflict (1977). A very important work is his monumental, tour-de-force analysis, history, and critique of the modern Church Growth movement, "Church Growth" as a Mission Paradigm (1994). He authored The Church and Her Ministry, Fellowship, and Governance for the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series (1990), and was preparing a new volume on Prolegomena for this series at the time of his death.

Dr. Marquart taught one final class, "Church And Christian Hope" during the first week of the 2006-2007 school year at CTS. During that week, he expressed to the class each day that he knew His Lord would soon be calling him to His nearer presence to await the Final Resurrection. He looked forward with great anticipation to meeting his Savior in person. Yet, each day he grew stronger as he taught the class from the Holy Scriptures and the Confessions, sharing much of his wisdom and insight to his students. This included his hope that the Lutheran Church in Haiti and her pastors would continue to be blessed in the one true faith, and that students would support and keep the Haitian Church in their prayers. After his last class on Friday, September 15th, as Mrs. Marquart came to pick the Professor up to go home (for what would be the last time), Dr. Marquart sprang to his feet, and danced out the door as he wished the remaining students a blessed weekend, and said, "See you gents next week." They did, as the Seminary Community, Marquart family, and Dr. Marquart's fellow pastors in Christ joined together at Kramer Chapel on Septermber 22nd, 2006 for the consecration of his body to rest in peaceful slumber until the Final Resurrection upon Christ's return.