Walter Arthur Maier (October 4, 1893 – January 11, 1950) was a noted radio personality, public speaker, prolific author, university professor, scholar of ancient Semitic languages and culture, Lutheran theologian and editor. He is best known as the speaker for The Lutheran Hour radio broadcast from 1930 to 1950.
Early life and education
Maier was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 4, 1893, the fourth of five children to German immigrants Emil William and Anna Katherine "Grossie" Maier.The life of Walter's mother, 'Grossie' (a diminutive of the German Grossmutter,) was memorialized as a biography by her pastor, Elmer A. Kettner, under the title, Grossie - The Woman Everyone Loved, the life story of Anna K. Maier, the mother of Dr. Walter A. Maier. (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949) Maier grew up in Boston as an integral part of this large, close-knit, devoutly Christian family, spending his summers at the family farm near Canaan, New Hampshire. Maier planned to enter the ministry from an early age. His family supported his goals by arranging for him to attend the Concordia Collegiate Institute in New York, an academy combining both high school and junior college in the fashion of a European Gymnasium. Here, Maier learned Greek, Latin, and German, along with other background materials suitable for an aspiring Lutheran minister. And here he first developed his love for studies in Hebrew, the language of most of the Christian Old Testament.
After graduating as valedictorian of the Concordia Institute, Maier obtained his B.A. from Boston University in 1913. From there, he went to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, where he supported himself by selling Oliver typewriters. Here, once again, it was the Hebrew language and Old Testament studies that engrossed Maier. Upon graduation in 1916, in recognition of his proficiency in the field, Maier was awarded a graduate fellowship in Old Testament studies at Harvard Divinity School.Dictionary of Missouri Biography, By Lawrence O. Christensen, University of Missouri Press, 1999, p. 513.
Maier studied at Harvard Divinity School from 1916 to 1918, and at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1918 to 1920. These four years saw the completion of course requirements for both Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees, and the creation of a first draft of his doctoral dissertation, Slavery in the Time of the Hammurabi Dynasty. His perspicacity concerning Biblical Hebrew led to the mastery of other Semitic languages such as Arabic, Assyrian, and Babylonian, as well as the Hittite and Sumerian languages; and included the ability to read ancient cuneiform. The study of Semitics also led to his deep understanding of the history, literature, and culture of the ancient societies associated with these languages. In 1917, Harvard Divinity School awarded Maier the Billings Prize for oratory. He received an M.A. in Semitic language, literature and history from Harvard University in 1920; and in 1929 became the twentieth person to ever receive his doctorate from Harvard in Semitics. Since America's oldest college had been founded in 1636, an average of one successful candidate every fifteen years had received this degree.
During these years at Harvard, Maier was ordained into the ministry on May 20, 1917. He served as assistant pastor for the Zion Lutheran Church in Boston from 1917 to 1920. To these duties he added service as a United States Army chaplain from 1918 onward. Much of his work in the chaplain corps was spent working with German prisoners of World War I being held in the Boston area. For his ministry to these captured Germans, Maier was eventually presented with a 1541 Luther Bible, 2nd edition.
Walther League Upon receipt of his M.A. degree in 1920, Maier was offered a number of university teaching positions that would have facilitated his preparation for the doctorate. Although the opportunity to continue his academic career obviously held great appeal, Maier chose to first answer the call of the church. Founded the year of Maier's birth, the Lutheran young people's organization known as the Walther Leaguenamed after Dr. C. F. W. Walther, one of the founders of Lutheranism in America was in need of a national director. Among other responsibilities, this office included editorship of the organization's monthly journal, The Walther League Messenger. Forsaking his cherished New England for this position in Milwaukee, Maier was installed as executive secretary on October 7, 1920.
One of the first tasks suggested to Maier by the League's executive board was to discontinue funding of the Wheat Ridge Tuberculosis Sanatorium, an expensive facility maintained largely through League support. The young League executive visited the clinic himself, planning to deliver the bad news in person. But after seeing the need of the patients and the vision of the Wheat Ridge staff, and without consulting his board, Maier ended up pledging the League's support for capital expansion of the hospital. Amazingly, the young people of the Walther League were able to raise more than $200,000 in the following months to keep this promise. Today the sanatorium is no longer needed, but a viable Wheat Ridge Ministries is still about "Lutherans seeding new ministries of health and hope in the name of the healing Christ". Wheat Ridge Ministries Financial Information Page
As editor of The Walther League Messenger, Maier also enhanced the publishing arm of the League. He increased the size of the magazine, added features and pictures, wrote stirring editorials, and wrapped it all in a new, more appealing format. Through these improvements and the rapid growth of League membership under Maier's direction, the circulation of the Messenger doubled in a few months.
One of these new readers was a young suburban Indianapolis teacher by the name of Hulda Augusta Eickhoff. Impressed by the solid message and zestful writing style of the articles signed only with the initials “W.A.M.”, Eickhoff decided to join the Walther League. Soon she was elected secretary of the Indianapolis chapter. Her program material had to be approved by “W.A.M.” in Milwaukee, who became as smitten with her writing as she was with his. Eventually the handsome 27-year-old national secretary met the secretary of the Indianapolis chapter; a slender brunette with expressive brown eyes and sparkling smile who was destined to become his bride. Married in 1924, they eventually had two sons: Walter A. Maier II, born in 1925; and Paul L. Maier, born in 1929. Maier continued in his capacity as editor of the Messenger through 1945.
Concordia Seminary In 1922, Maier became Professor of Old Testament History and Interpretation at Concordia Seminary. At 29 years of age he was the youngest person to hold the rank of full professor in the institution's 83-year history. In order to take the post in St. Louis, Maier resigned as executive secretary of the Walther League, but retained the responsibility of editor for the Messenger. At the seminary Maier was known as "a bear in the classroom, but a prince at home" by the generation of young seminarians to whom he expounded the Hebrew language and Old Testament exegesis. Maier would invite entire classes of students – sometimes over 100 strong – into his home for meals and entertainment.Lagerquist, 1999, pp. 55-68see also http://www.lutheranhour.org/speakers/maier.htm
In 1926, Concordia Seminary moved from southern St. Louis on Jefferson Avenue into a newly constructed facility west of St. Louis in the suburb of Clayton. The Maier family moved into a house built on the Clayton campus, where Maier lived for the rest of his life.A Man Spoke, a World Listened: the Story of Walter A. Maier, by Paul L. Maier, McGraw-Hill, 1963, Pp.81-83
Entry into radio broadcasting In March 1923, the Messenger featured a W.A.M. editorial entitled “Why not a Lutheran Broadcasting Station?” Meier had long recognized the potential of radio to carry the gospel message to the masses, and dedicated numerous articles, editorials, conferences, and addresses towardd the realization of this goal.See the following editorials by W.A.M. in the Messenger: XXXI (1922/23), 314, 378, 434 ff.; XXXII (1923/24), 104, 356 ff. Cp. also XXXIII (1924/25), 109, 272, 336, 400, 464, 526, 592, 668 ff.; XXXIV (1925/26), 26, 408, 550. Funded by appropriations from the Walther League, the Lutheran Layman's League (LLL), friends, and seminary students, a 500-watt transmitter was purchased and the first Christian radio station was born at Concordia Seminary. The new station, designated KFUO by the Federal Radio Commission, first proclaimed “The Gospel Voice” upon a 545.1 meter wavelength on Sunday, December 14, 1924, at 9:15 p.m. Maier had two weekly programs on the fledgling station, but repeatedly promised, “This is only the beginning!”
Although KFUO was well received and well supported, Maier envisioned a broader audience than could be reached by constructing local radio stations. By 1929, with the goal of spreading the gospel from coast-to-coast, he was investigating the logistics of network broadcasting. At this time, the major radio networks donated air time to the Federal Council of Churches, but no single denomination had ever produced a nationwide radio show dedicated to spreading the gospel. Having persuaded the Missouri Synod of the validity of this project, Maier contacted the National Broadcasting Company early in 1930. He was disappointed to find that NBC would not donate air time to the Lutheran Church, or any other single denomination. Worse still, they would not even allow the Lutheran Church to purchase air time. NBC's policy, Maier was told, precluded putting religious time on a commercial basis.
Maier then approached the Columbia Broadcasting System. CBS accepted paid religious programs but would the charge full commercial rate of $4500 per half-hour to broadcast over its thirty-four city network. An expense of over $200,000 annually seeming too much for the Synod during the depths of the Great Depression, the project was turned over to the Lutheran Layman's League. The LLL had already shown enthusiasm for religious broadcasting, and had great respect for Maier. In the end, the LLL. and Walther League were able to raise commitments of $94,000 by late summer – enough to sign the contract with CBS and commence broadcasting. With Maier as speaker, The Lutheran Hour premiered on Thursday, October 2, 1930, at 10:00 (Eastern) or 7:00 (Pacific); immediately following CBS's hit mystery, The Shadow.
Polling systems for ratings had not yet been invented. The size of a listening audience was estimated by counting each program's fan mail. 15,000 communications were received during the first few weeks of broadcasting. Within a few months, with the listening audience estimated at five million hearers, The Lutheran Hour was receiving more mail than such top secular shows as Amos ‘n’ Andy. The Lutheran Hour was featured in over eight-hundred newspapers nationwide and regularly selected by both the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Post as a recommended program for Thursdays. The program ran for 36 weeks its first season, and received over 57,000 pieces of correspondence. Due to financial concerns, The Lutheran Hour was discontinued from June 1931 through 1934.
Public speaking