By Robert Schick
The American Center of Research is saddened to announce the passing of Dr. Edwin Schick (1921-2022), ACOR Annual Professor for the 1978–1979 academic year, on February 9, 2022, at the age of 100.
An ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and holding a PhD in New Testament studies from Princeton Theological Seminary, Edwin spent his career first on the faculty of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and then from 1964 until his retirement in 1986 at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.
The fourth of six children, Edwin grew up on a Homestead Act farm in north central South Dakota and was the first to go to high school.
Edwin first came to the Middle East in 1963 on a study tour of Israel that included participation in excavations at Tel Nagila. In 1970, for a sabbatical year he brought his wife, Barbara, and their sons, John and Robert, to Jerusalem, where he was affiliated with the Albright Institute and focused his attention on the Book of Revelation. During that year he participated in the 1971 season of excavations at Caesarea.
Edwin, Barbara, John, and Robert returned to Israel in the summer of 1974 to participate in the excavations at Caesarea, and at the end of that excavation season Edwin arranged to visit Jordan on a short trip as a representative of the Lutheran World Federation. The family was so favorably impressed with Jordan during that visit that Edwin chose to spend his next sabbatical year in 1978–1979 as Annual Professor at ACOR.
During that sabbatical Edwin focused his attention on pilgrimage and taught a course at the American Center on religious symbolism. His fellowship report was published in the ASOR Newsletter.
During that year, Barbara, an everything-but-dissertation PhD candidate in biochemistry, taught nutrition courses full-time in the University of Jordan’s Department of Home Economics. She also wrote the first version of the “Welcome to ACOR” booklet. Barbara passed away in 2015 at the age of 90.
