Stewart Winfield Herman Papers

Stewart Winfield Herman, Jr., Lutheran pastor, Foreign Service worker, OSS Operative, first Lutheran World Federation Director of Refugee Services, and seminary president. Stewart W. Herman Jr. was born in 1909 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Gettysburg College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Herman pursued graduate work in Europe in 1934. While there he was called to serve as the pastor of the American Church in Berlin. When World War II broke out in 1939, Herman began his service with the United States Foreign Service serving as an official visitor to Canadian, British and French P.O.W. camps. Interned at Bad Nauheim with the U.S. Embassy staff, he returned home to write and share his experiences in the Nazi capital. Recruited by William Donovan, Herman served with the Office of Strategic Services from 1943-1945. He re-entered Germany soon after VE day as a member of the World Council of Churches Department of Reconstruction and Intra-Church Aid. In this capacity he would work to rebuild the German churches. When the Lutheran World Federation was formed in 1947, Herman became its first director of Refugee Services from 1948-1952. He returned to the United States that year to lead the LWF Committee on South America. From 1964-1971 he served as the first president of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. Responding to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s invitation to clergy, Herman travelled to Selma, Alabama in 1965. He retired in 1971 living on Shelter Island, New York with his wife Ethelyn. He died in 2006 leaving a legacy of Lutheran, ecumenical and international service.

Sources Consulted: Stewart W. Herman, Jr.. Lutheran Historical Society of the Mid Atlantic. (2021, January 20). Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.lutheranhistoricalsociety.com/stewart-w-herman-jr/.