Rev. Albert Burroughs spent over 80 years serving the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in a variety of places and positions.  That probably sounds impossible, except for the fact that there were two people named Rev. Albert Burroughs, a father and a son, and together they served this many years.  The first Albert Burroughs was born on this day in 1887 in Frohna, Missouri.  He was the son of Frank and Mary (Schmidt) Burroughs.  He was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna.

On August 22, 1909, Albert married Marie Zschoche.  Marie was the daughter of Rev. Karl and Louise (Jabker) Zschoche.   Rev. Karl Zschoche was the brother of Rev. William Zschoche who was the pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna from 1883-1909, thus making Marie the niece of William.  If I have the story correct, Rev. Karl Zschoche came to Frohna as a recent widower, and then married Anna Marie Hilpert a while after he was here.  Anna Marie would have then been Marie’s stepmother.

Below is the marriage license for Albert and Marie.

Rev. William Zschoche died in April of 1909, so he was not alive at the time of this wedding.  The next pastor at Concordia did not arrive until 1910, so you will see Rev. H. Schmidt as the pastor performing this ceremony.  Rev. Schmidt was the pastor at Trinity in Altenburg at the time.

I am going to let obituaries tell most of the rest of today’s story.  It just so happens that an obituary for the first Rev. Albert Burroughs can be found on Findagrave.com.  I will put an image of that obituary here.

Marie Burroughs died in 1968 in Los Angeles, California, as indicated on the California death index.

Rev. Albert Burroughs was buried in the Grand Island Cemetery in Nebraska.  Here is the gravestone.

I don’t think you can tell for sure if Marie is buried here with Albert.  Her death date was never put on the stone, so I think it is more likely that she was buried in California.

Five children were born into the family of Albert and Marie Burroughs.  I will focus on just one of those children, the second Albert Burroughs, who also became a Lutheran pastor.  Since Rev. Albert Burroughs, Jr. died in 2005, which is fairly recently, his obituary can be found on a newspaper website.  Here is what that obituary stated.

Reverend Albert C. Burroughs, age 91, of Topeka, passed away, Thursday, November 3, 2005 at his home.

Rev. Burroughs was born September 3, 1914, at Grand Island, NE, the son of Rev. Albert M. and Marie Zschoche Burroughs.

In 1934 he graduated from St. Paul’s College, Concordia, MO, where he was President of the student body. He has his degree in Theology from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO. He was catcher on the Seminary baseball team for three years. He has done graduate work in Psychology and Social Studies at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. He has taken clinical

training in Pastoral care and received his MDV degree

from Concordia Seminary in 1971.

Rev. Burroughs had a dual career as a parish pastor and as District Executive Secretary of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Upon graduation in 1938 he served one year as a missionary at Riverton, WY. He was ordained as a Lutheran pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, Schuyler, NE, October 29, 1939. He served parishes in Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas for 25 years. During his 10 year pastorate at Bethany Lutheran Church, Omaha, NE, 1943-4953 the church grew from 175 to

1,000 members. From 1953-1963 he served as Executive Secretary in Kansas. In 1963 he moved to San Francisco where he became Executive Secretary of the California-Nevada district. His territory included the overseas churches in Hawaii. In 1966 Rev. Burroughs returned to the parish ministry at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he directed the church through a major building program. He returned to Kansas in 1972 as Executive Secretary and served until 1980. From 1980-1994 he served as a part-time Assistant in Church Extension. Besides being a leader in World Missions, Rev. Burroughs has helped start over 40 new churches in the United States. He served as a part-time counselor at the State Training School, Glenwood, Iowa; Lutheran Family Service of Nebraska; and Chairman of the family Life Committee Kansas District. On the national scene he has spoken extensively at the rallies and conference throughout the United States. On the national scene he has spoken extensively at the rallies and conferences throughout the United States. He also served part-time as Regional Stewardship Director of the Synod, 1957-1969; Secretary of

the National Finance Conference, 1962-1965 and

1972-1973; member of Synod’s Committee on Revised Structure 1975-1979. For 9 years he wrote sermons for Concordia Theological Monthly. His sermons have also appeared in the Concordia Pulpit and Christian Stewardship Education materials. In 1988 he helped produce the award winning video “Catch the Vision of our Mission”. It depicts the work of the Kansas District from the time of the Lutheran pioneers in 1861 through 1988. He was also an author of Portals of Prayer, December 1997.

He married Edna M. Gieske May 28, 1940 in Concordia, MO. She preceded him in death September 5, 2005.

Survivors include one son, David of Omaha, NE; Deborah of Tempe, AZ; one brother, Herb Burroughs of Layfayette, CA; & many other relatives & friends.

Here is the gravestone of Rev. Albert and his wife, Edna, in the Westlawn-Hillcrest Memorial Park in Omaha, NE.

I think the obituaries of these two men illustrate some very impressive contributions made by the two of them to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  In a previous post, A Band of Burroughs…..And Burroughs in the Band, the story was told about how several Burroughs orphans were once dropped off in Wittenberg and were raised by families in Perry County.  From that very traumatic set of circumstances, today’s story tells how God managed to use that situation to produce two full-time workers in the Lutheran Church.  I might add that these two pastors named Albert Burroughs were not the only church workers to come out of these orphan children.  I think it a pretty amazing story.