John William Behnken, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJohn William Behnken
Lutheran president
Date of Birth: 19-Mar-1884
Place of Birth: Texas, United States
Date of Death: 23-Feb-1968
Profession: theologian
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Pisces 
About John William Behnken
- John William Behnken (March 19, 1884 – February 23, 1968) was the sixth president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) from 1935 to 1962.
- He previously served as president of the Synod's Texas District from 1926 to 1929. Behnken was born on March 19, 1884, in Cypress, Texas, the eldest child of the Rev.
- George William Behnken and Helen née Wunderlich.
- George Behnken was a native of Hanover, Germany, immigrating to the United States in 1874.
- He died when John Behnken was three years old.
- Following George's death, Helen and her three children moved in with her widowed mother for five years, when she remarried.
- John Behnken attended Concordia Seminary in St.
- Louis, Missouri, from 1903 to 1906, and was ordained on August 12, 1906, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Fedor, Texas.
- He then worked as a missionary in Houston, Texas, and in 1908 became pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in that city, serving until 1935.In 1909, he married Gertrude Geisler, who died in 1910.
- In 1914, he married Hilda Grassmuck, who remained his wife until her death in 1954.Behnken served as president of the Texas District of the LCMS from 1926 to 1929.
- He then served a second vice-president of the LCMS from 1929 to 1932 and as first vice-president from 1932 to 1935.
- He was elected president of the LCMS at its 1935 synodical convention, and was reelected multiple times, serving until 1962, at which time he was named honorary president.
- During his presidency he worked to establish the Lutheran Council in the United States of America.Behnken died on February 23, 1968, in Hollywood, Florida.
- Among the books he authored are God Is Our Refuge and Strength (1942) and his autobiography, This I Recall (1964).
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