Jacob Aall Ottesen Preus II

Eighth President of the Missouri Synod: 1969-1981

Born: 8 January 1920, St. Paul, Minnesota
Died: 13 August 1994, Burnsville, Minnesota

J. A. O. Preus graduated from Luther Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1945 after serving a vicarage (internship) at Lake Nokomis. He was ordained in February 1945 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota six years later.

On 12 June 1943 Preus married Delpha Mae Holleque (1919-1996). Preus served as a pastor for several years in Saint Paul, Luverne and Mankato, Minnesota. In 1958 he became a professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, Illinois, and in 1962 he became the school’s president.

Preus served as the chair of both the Concordia Mission Society and the Standing Committee on Pastoral Ministry. From 1969 to 1981 he was the president of the LCMS, and in 1992, he was named president emeritus.

Preus is the author of What Stands Between? (1949), It Is Written (1971), and The Second Martin: The Life and Theology of Martin Chemnitz (1994). He has also translated several works of Martin Chemnitz: Justification: The Chief Article of Christian Doctrine as Expounded in Loci Theologici (1985), Loci theologici (1989), The Lord’s Supper (1979) and The Two Natures in Christ (1971), as well as the Loci communes of Philipp Melanchthon (1992).

Preus is buried in Concordia Cemetery, St. Louis, MO, along with his wife, Delpha Mae Holleque Preus.

For more information about J. A. O. Preus see James E. Adams, Preus of Missouri and the Great Lutheran Civil War (New York: Harper and Row, 1977).

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