Wangerin, author and noted faculty member at VU, dead at 77
Described as both beloved and outspoken for his theological field, the Rev. Walt Wangerin Jr. did not mind that his work and professional-speaker persona were a catalyst for others to discuss, counter and debate, a result of his writing and lectures.
During his three-decade association with Valparaiso University, in addition to teaching theology and traveling the national lecture circuit, Wangerin wrote and published more than 40 books.
His written works earned page-by-page accolades for both fiction and nonfiction writings, such as his children’s book “The Book of the Dun Cow” (Harper & Row, 1978), which was named The New York Times’ Best Children’s Book of the Year and received The National Book Award in 1980.
Wangerin, 77, died Aug. 5 surrounded by his family.
His 208-page hardcover “Letters from the Land of Cancer” (Zondervan Press 2010) detailed his journey following a diagnosis of inoperable cancer and shared his challenges of dealing with his own mortality balanced by his faith.
“Shortly after the cancer had been diagnosed, I began writing letters to the members of my immediate family, to relatives and to lifelong friends,” Wangerin explained in the book’s first pages. “The following book consists mostly of those letters. They invite you into my most intimate dancing with the cancer, even as that partner and I have over the last two years swung each other around the tiled floors of ballrooms and bathrooms. Dizzy still, and day by day, I sat and wrote: This is what I’m feeling right now. This is what I think.”
The book received the Award of Merit in 2011.
“Walt was a remarkably gifted person in pretty much every way that involved words,” said his longtime faculty office neighbor and collegiate colleague Fred Niedner.
“He was a master storyteller and had a national and international reputation as both a writer and a preacher. His preaching style was most always storytelling, and he wrote books on many subjects, quite a few fictional but also many that used his own experiences as ways to talk about theology and facing life’s challenges. He was a popular teacher of writing, literature, theology, storytelling and preaching.”
Niedner, who taught at VU from 1973 to 2014 and now serves as a senior research professor in theology, said despite Wangerin defying odds and living with his cancer for 15 years after diagnosis, his death “still came as a surprise.”
While a high schooler, Wally, as his family and classmates called him, entered a pre-seminary school. But when it came time for seminary, he parted ways, did graduate study in literature at Miami University in Ohio and then began teaching at the University of Evansville in Indiana.
He returned to seminary and completed his studies to serve time as a pastor prior to arriving in Valparaiso in 1991. With his family’s blessings, they made their move and he joined the VU campus to accept appointment as writer in residence and occupant of the Emil and Elfriede Jochum chair in “the study of Christian values in public and professional life” as well as teaching literature, creative writing and theology until his retirement in 2012.
In 2000, he published a 445-page hardcover book, bound and weighing nearly 2 pounds, titled “Paul: A Novel” (Zondervan Press), the culmination of five years of writing and research and raising eyebrows and questions, along with brisk book sales, for Wangerin’s candid approach examining the life and experiences of the saint.
“I wanted to write about Paul because he’s one of those figures who has not only been controversial but also responsible for so much change,” Wangerin said in a September 2000 interview.
“What I find so truly amazing is that he was able to create this change by using only the power of his voice and words. Most people from history who are credited with creating change among the people had to do it with the force of an army.”
He was preceded in death by his brother, Michael Wangerin, and parents Walter and Virginia Wangerin. He is survived by his wife, Ruthanne; children: Joseph Wangerin (Catherine Preus), Matthew Wangerin, Mary Saugar (John Sauger) and Talitha Washington; eight grandchildren; and siblings: Paul, Philip, Deborah and Greg Wangerin and Dena Wangerin-Richter.
Services will be held at Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University at 1 p.m. on Sept. 18,
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Christ Lutheran Church in Valparaiso or Valparaiso University or the Southern Poverty Law Center.