Biographical Sketch:
Loraine Boettner was born on 7 March 1901 in Linden,
Missouri, a small town about seven miles northwest of Rock Port,
Missouri, the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Boettner. His grade school
education was at the Lone Cedar and Fairview schools in rural Northwest
Missouri. He next attended Tarkio High School, followed by a brief
course in agriculture at the school in Columbia, MO, intending at
that time to become a farmer.
Mr. & Mrs. William Boettner,
parents of Loraine Boettner.
Photograph dated 26 September 1899 |
Loraine Boettner, 1917, age 16. |
1918 agricultural class in Columbia, MO |
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5Dr. J. B. Work, one
of Boettner's professors at Tarkio College |
But recognizing a need for further education,
he entered Tarkio College, a Presbyterian school in Tarkio, Missouri.
Boettner graduated from Tarkio in 1925 with a Bachelor of Science
degree, cum laude. It was while he was at Tarkio that he was mentored
by one of the professors there, Dr. J.B. Work. Boettner would in
later years tell visitors that it was under Dr. Work's instruction
that he became a postmillennialist.
[Tarkio College opened in 1883 and closed it doors in May of 1991.
There is apparently the possibility that the school may yet reopen
in a reorganized form, with a new name: Tarkio Valley College.]
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By graduation Loraine Boettner was beginning
to explore the possibility of God's call upon his life, and so he
entered Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey
in the fall of 1925. As a student there, he joined one of the dining
clubs, known as the Warfield Club. Boettner spent a total of four
years at Princeton, graduating from there first with the Th.B. degree
in 1928 and then the Th.M. degree in 1929.
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5Photo
of the students of the Warfield Club, circa 1926. Loraine Boettner
is on the left at the back of the grouping, with an arrow pointing
to him. The Princeton dining clubs began as a way of feeding the
students, but later became much like fraternities. |
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Princeton Graduate Loraine Boettner
on the steps of Stuart Hall.5
This photograph is
probably upon the occasion of his graduation in 1929
with the Th.M. degree.
It was his Th.M. thesis which later became the core of his first
book, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination.
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Mr. & Mrs. Boettner at their wedding,
15 July 1932
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Upon completion of his work at Princeton, Boettner
took a position as Professor of Bible at Pikeville College in Eastern
Kentucky, teaching there from 1929 until 1937. It was while there
that he met and married Miss Lillian Henry, a native of eastern
Tennessee who was also teaching at Pikeville. During his years at
Pikeville he also worked to complete his first three published books.
These were The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (1932);
A Summary of the Gospels (1933) and The Inspiration of
the Scriptures (1937).
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Though we are unclear at this time as to why,
the Boettners moved to Washington, D.C. later in 1937, and resided
there for eleven years. During these years he continued his writing,
and from 1942 to 1947, Loraine worked for the Treasury Department.
Quoting from the biographical account provided at Rev. Boettner's
funeral, "Those years included the Second World War, 1939
until 1945, at which time the United States gained a complete victory
over both Germany and Japan. Those were most interesting years to
be in Washington, as that city was then, in effect, the capital of
the free world, with intense activity national and international." |
The Boettner's home near Washington, D.C., 1937-1948. |
| In 1948 the Boettner's moved again,
this time to Los Angeles, California on account of Lillian Boettner's
failing health. The move to Los Angeles was apparently a matter of
convenience, as two of her sisters lived there and had volunteered
to assist with her care. Mrs. Boettner's health continued to decline
until her decease in 1958. Upon his wife's death, Loraine saw to her
internment at the Linden Cemetary outside of Rock Port, Missouri.
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| From 1958 until his own death
in 1990, Dr. Boettner lived a quite life in Rock Port. In 1933 he
had been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by Tarkio
College. The added honor of a Literary Doctorate was conferred by
Tarkio in 1957, a year before his wife's death. Though his books had
sold modestly well up to this point, it was really the years after
returning to Rock Port that Dr. Boettner began to enter into the ministry
for which he is so fondly remembered. |
5Dr.
Boettner at his desk signing a copy of one of his books. To his
right is the old Underwood typewriter which was
used to write several of his later books. |
For the remaining 32 years of his life, he generously sold his books
at cost to any who wrote to ask for them. In doing so, Boettner made
good conservative theology readily available at a time when such material
was often difficult to come by. Through his writings, he served to
popularize the Reformed faith and influenced literally tens of thousands
of men and women around the world. In some weeks, as many as 800 orders
would arrive at the Tarkio Post Office, and Dr. Boettner would single-handedly
sign each book, then wrap and ship it. He was generous to a fault,
and was always glad to entertain the occasional visiting student or
scholar, always at his own expense. Dr. Boettner was as well a very
humble and unassuming man. He would want us to be careful to point
out, and we concur, that in paying him this attention, our purpose
is not to emulate Dr. Boettner, but rather to give praise to his Lord
and ours, for the work that God accomplished through one of His servants. |
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Subject
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Box
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File
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School Photographs, 1929
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2
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Miscellaneous items
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3
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Correspondence Regarding Boettner's Death, 1990, Including letters
from Ernest Reisinger; Maurice Roberts; Albert Martin
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4
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Mattia, Tony, 1979-1988, Correspondence
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5
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Boettner, Loraine, 1954, History of the Boettner Family
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6
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Personal Photographs
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7
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Funeral Service for Dr. Boettner [Rockport, Missouri], 1990, Photographs
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8
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Rockport, Missouri, 1990, Photographs of Town and Surrounding
points
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9
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Boettner, Loraine and Lillian, Wedding Photograph
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10
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Boettner, Loraine, circa 1937, Portrait Photograph
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11
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Boettner, Loraine, 13 January 1956, Portrait Photograph
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12
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Boettner, Vina and William [parents of Loraine Boetter], 26 September
1899, Photograph
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13
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Boettner, Loraine, 1917, Photograph at Age 16
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14
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American Standard Version, Correspondence regarding Dr. Boettner's
1901 ASV Bible
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15
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Funeral Service for Dr. Boettner, 1990, Pressed Flowers
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16
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Funeral Service for Dr. Boettner, 1990, Audio Tape of Funeral Service,
5 January 1990
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17
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©PCA Historical Center, 12330 Conway Road, St. Louis, MO,
2007. All Rights Reserved.
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