Wendell W. and Jeanne D. Frerichs Luther Seminary Endowed Financial Aid Fund

The Wendell W. and Jeanne D. Frerichs Endowed Scholarship Fund was created in 1998 with funding from a planned gift for any deserving Luther Seminary student preparing for full-time church-related vocations. Wendell, the eldest of five siblings, grew up on farms in Iowa and near Worthington, Minn. and Jeanne grew up in Red Wing, Minn. Wendell and Jeanne both graduated from St. Olaf College in 1948. Prior to that, Wendell was an electronics technician in the United States Naval Air Corps. Dr. and Mrs. Frerichs were married in 1948 and have five children. After being a full-time parent, Jeanne worked as one of the first three Seminary Relations staff in the Office of Development from 1974 to 1991 helping with the creation of the Luther Seminary Foundation and increasing philanthropic support to prepare future leaders for the church. They have been faithful members of St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church. Wendell began his career at Luther as a student, graduating with his Bachelor of Theology degree in 1951. After being ordained that same year, he and Jeanne moved to Cleveland, OH, then Stevens Point, WI where he served as a parish pastor for five years. It was then that John Milton, a Luther Seminary professor of Old Testament, encouraged Frerichs to study in Basel, Switzerland, with Walther Eichrodt, an Old Testament theologian. After two years of residency toward a Doctor of Theology degree, Wendell and his family returned home. Luther Seminary offered him a position as assistant professor of Old Testament. He received his doctorate in 1965. He began teaching in 1958, retired in 1995, and continued to teach a couple of courses until 2003 as a volunteer. As an emeritus faculty member, he was a steady presence on campus and felt that it was one small way to repay Luther for all that the seminary and faculty had given him. He said, “I consider it one of life’s greatest blessings that I was called to teach at Luther.” Since that first year in 1958 teaching 170 Middlers Old Testament, prayer, in particular, has been an important part of his life. A visiting professor had challenged Wendell and other faculty to commit to pray for the student body every day. He was Director of Kairos, and Editor of “The Luther Seminary Review”, the predecessor to Luther Seminary’s “Word & World” magazine. During the 1974 and 1976 summers in Cameroon, Africa, he helped translate the Old Testament from Hebrew into Gbya. Wendell had sabbaticals at Hamburg, Germany, Oxford University, Cambridge, England, and Collegeville, MN. In addition to praying daily for the Luther community after retirement, Wendell proofread “God Pause”, a daily email devotional. He also donated books regularly to the Lutheran International Library Assistance Project. Wendell occasionally led chapel services on campus and helped establish the alumni/ae-in-residence program at Luther Seminary. Also close to Wendell’s heart was the yearly observance of Yom Hashoah, a day of remembrance of the Holocaust at Luther which has been held for more than 40 years. Dr. Frerichs has written Take It to the Lord, (Augsburg), Real Prayers (Centered Life, 2004) and More Real Prayers (Centered Life, 2005).