"Among those forces that In the age of vast material progress - and the setting up of God’s material success in such an age of commercialized ideals, one of the greatest factors in the deeper, saner life of the nation is the influence and leading of great men at the head of educational institutions. The power of a great personality placed in such a position is of the most momentous kind. To this class of men, heads of colleges, that play so vital a part in the life of time, belongs Rev. John A. W. Haas, D. D., who came to Muhlenberg College in 1904 from New York City to succeed the late Dr. P.L. Seip, who had presided over that institution from 1886 until the time of his death in 1904.
He was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia; the Protestant Episcopal Academy, of Philadelphia; the University of Pennsylvania, Mt. Airy Theological Seminary and the University of Leipzig. For a period of eight years he served Grace Lutheran Church, New York City, and for another eight years was pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Now York.
He brought with him to Muhlenberg College, qualifications that eminently fit the requirements of the work—thorough scholarship, a wide experience in dealing with the deeper aspects of national life and that indefinable power of leadership that sets him, whatever his official position, in the class of those who move others and are themselves unmoved. He is a forceful orator and the leader of Lutheran thought in America.
Those characteristics have marked his career at Muhlenberg College, upon which institution he has indelibly stamped his personality. And Muhlenberg has grown and prospered beyond all proportion to its former growth, steady and substantial as that had been.
Doctor Haas for several years was secretary of the Association of College Presidents of Pennsylvania; president of the Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania, and is a member of the Pennsylvania Society, of New York City. He is a frequent contributor to religious periodicals, and is the author of “Commentary on the Gospel of Mark in Lutheran Commentary,” 1895; ""Bible Literature,” 1903, and “Bible Criticism,” 1903. In 1914 the University of Pennsylvania, which had previously conferred upon him the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor, of Divinity, gave him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Thiel College, in 1902, conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Doctor Haas has won many fast friends since he has been president of Muhlenberg College. He takes an active interest in all civic affairs." |
