# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S1262
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

FINANCIAL MATTERS 783

Report of Board of Support and Pensions
(Memorial 818)

The Board of Support and Pensions herewith submits its re-
port for the past triennium to the honorable convention.

The personnel of our Board underwent a number of changes.
The Executive Secretary, Rev. F. G. Kuehnert, retired from active
service with the Board on October 31, 1948, after having directed
its activities and endeavors ever since it was created by Synod
in 1917. His efforts during the thirty-one years of his tenure of
ofice brought comfort and relief into the lives and homes’ of
thousands of Veterans of the Cross and their dependents. Under
his energetic direction the Pension Fund was inaugurated, and its
membership has grown in a very satisfactory manner. Since No-
vember 1, 1948, Pastor Kuehnert has been enjoying his well-
deserved retirement. Pastor Edwin A. Sommer of Beardstown, HL,
became his associate on July 15, 1947. Since Pastor Kuehnert’s
retirement, Pastor Sommer has been the Executive Secretary of
our Board.

The only two other members of the original Board, ap-
pointed in 1917, and permitted to serve with Rev. F. G. Kuehnert
for thirty-one years, Mr. Theodore Doering and Mr. C. H. Dehn-
ing, were called away by death, Mr. Doering in May, 1949, and
Mr. Dehning in February, 1950. Both men gave willingly and
wholeheartedly of their time and abilities in the service of Synod’s
Board of Support and Pensions and its thousands of beneficiaries.
President J. W. Behnken appointed Mr. Arthur Hahn of St. Paul’s
Church in Melrose Park to replace Mr. Doering. The Board de-
ferred till this convention the act of filling the vacancy caused by
Mr. Dehning’s death. Mr. George Halter of Cleveland, Ohio, was
elected to membership on this Board in 1947. However, because he
had also been asked to serve on the Board for Public Relations,
he tendered his resignation as a member of our Board. Mr. Alfred
Handrich of Milwaukee was appointed by President J. W. Behnken
to fill this vacancy.

After having been located in Crystal Lake, IIL, for thirty-two
years the office of our Board was moved on November 1, 1949, to
the Fiscal Office of Synod upon the urgent request of Mr. Walter
H. Schlueter, Treasurer, and Mr. Theodore Eckhart, Assistant
Treasurer, of Synod. ;

The General Board met in plenary session at least twice each
year to discuss and to take action on problems growing out of our
Support and Pension activities, to determine on policies, and to
formulate recommendations for this convention. Dr. George A.
Huggins, our actuary, attended most of these meetings.

For the purpose of disseminating information, answering ques-