Dahlberg, Edwin T. (Edwin Theodore), 1892-1986

The Reverend Edwin Theodore Dahlberg (1892-1986) was an American Baptist minister. Born in Minnesota, he attended the University of Minnesota from which he graduated with a B. D. in 1914. He continued his training at Rochester Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 1917. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1918. Later, in 1939 he received a D. D. from Keuka College.

His first parish was the First Church in Potsdam, New York where he served from 1918-1921. He then took over the ministry at the Naple Street Church in Buffalo, New York from 1921-1931. From there he moved to the First Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minnesota where he worked from 1931-1939. From 1939-1950 he served as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Syracuse, New York. In 1950 he was invited to assume the ministry of the Delmar Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Despite his sometimes-controversial pacifism, Dahlberg was elected President of the American Baptist Churches (1946-1947) and later served as President of the National Council of Churches (1957-1960). He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Colgate-Rochester Divinity School and of Shurtleff College, and was invited to guest preach at locations across the country.

Throughout his career Reverend Dahlberg was known for his strong efforts for social justice and peacemaking. He was a pacifist and conscientious objector during World War I and an early leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and his efforts supporting the Civil Rights movement, opposing the Vietnam War, and promoting nuclear disarmament, led to the creation of the Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace Award by American Baptists in 1964. Awarded at the annual (now biennial) meeting of the denomination, recipients of the award have included civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964), President Jimmy Carter for his work on the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty (1979), founder of Pastors for Peace Lucius Walker (1989), and Marian Wright Edelman, African-American lawyer and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund (1997).

Reverend Dahlberg wrote a few books and many articles published in such religious magazines as The Baptist Leader, The New Century Leader, The Watch-Examiner, The Christian Evangelist, Consolation, and Topic . Many pamphlets of his sermons have been published by The American Baptist Home Mission Society. A biography of him, Edwin T. Dahlberg: Pastor, Peacemaker, Prophet (Judson Press: Valley Forge, PA), was published by his son Keith in 1998.

[Portions of this biographical sketch adapted from: Westmoreland-White, Michael L. "Dahlberg Award Winners". Levellers . 10 Apr 2008 http://levellers.wordpress.com/dahlberg-award-winners .]

From the guide to the Edwin T. Dahlberg Papers, 1921-1956, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)