610 DAVID LUTHER VIKNER
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
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David Luther Vikner was born on December 1, 1916 in Linru, China to David Wilhelm and Lili Callerstrom Vikner, missionaries of the Augustana Lutheran Church in the United States. After completing both his primary school and his secondary school education at the American School in Kikungshan, he enrolled at Luther College in Wahoo, Nebraska and then transferred to Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. After graduating from Augustana College, he pursued a Bachelor of Divinity degree at the Augustana Theological Seminary, also in Rock Island, Illinois, and was ordained into the ministry in 1944. In 1942, he married Anna Louise Lindbeck, a classmate all the way through his studies at the American School in Kikungshan in China and also a child of Augustana Lutheran missionaries. After the Second World War, Louise and David Vikner retuned to China as missionaries themselves and remained until the Communist Party took control of China in 1949. Then, in 1950, the Vikner family, which by that time included three children -David, Peggy and Paul - went to Japan with the Augustana Lutheran Church serving for three years in Tokyo and five years in Hiroshima. In 1958, the family returned to the United States. Between 1958 and 1982, Louise and David lived in the New York metropolitan area where David held a number of executive positions in the area of world missions, first with the United Lutheran Church in America and then later with the Lutheran Church in America. In 1982, Louise and David retired in Wilmette, Illinois, close to their daughter Peggy's family, which by that time included four young children. They were also able to spend a good deal of time with their three other grandchildren as well. In retirement, David taught on a part-time basis at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Chicago, led tours of China with his son, David, and was frequently invited to deliver lectures and sermons across the United States. David Luther Vikner died on April 22, 2003 in Evanston, Illinois. |
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