Frank E. Gaebelein

Frank E. Gaebelein

Frank Ely Gaebelein (March 31, 1899 – January 19, 1983) was an American evangelical educator, author, and editor who was the founding headmaster of The Stony Brook School in Long Island, New York. He is the author of more than twenty books, and also served as editor for Our Hope, Christianity Today, and Eternity magazines, style editor for the translation committee of the New International Version of the Bible, and general editor for the 12-volume Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

Early life and education

Gaebelein was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the youngest of three sons, to German immigrants Arno Clemons Gaebelein and Emma Fredericka (née Grimm) Gaebelein. His father was a noted preacher and outspoken early leader of the dispensationalist and fundamentalist movements. Frank graduated from Mount Vernon High School, where he was editor of the yearbook with E. B. White (later contributor to The New Yorker magazine and author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little). He earned his B.A. from New York University (1920), where he was the piano soloist performing with the University Glee Club. Gaebelein’s studies were interrupted briefly in 1918 to serve in the U.S. Army, where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He earned his A.M. from Harvard University (1921), where he studied English and comparative literature. In 1923, Gaebelein married Dorothy Laura (née Medd), with whom he had three children: Dorothy Laura G. Hampton, Donn Medd, and Gretchen Elizabeth Gaebelein Hull (who later gave birth to artist Jeff Hull (1955), Dr. Rev. Sanford Hull (1956), and Meredyth Hull Smith (1957)).

Career

Shortly after graduating from Harvard in the spring of 1921, Gaebelein was approached by John F. Carson and Ford C. Ottman to be the headmaster of The Stony Brook School, which was an outgrowth of the Stony Brook Assembly. Frank Gaebelein began organizing The Stony Brook School, which opened in the fall of 1922. He held the position of headmaster for more than four decades. During this time, he also served as an ordained deacon and presbyter at the Reformed Episcopal Church. In 1954 he served as vice-chairman for Oxford University Press’s preparation of the New Scofield Reference Bible. Toward the end of his tenure at Stony Brook, Gaebelein and the school came under pressure from fundamentalists because of their embracing “new evangelicalism”. One of the leaders of this movement, Harold Ockenga, invited Gaebelein to be the dean of the newly founded Fuller Theological Seminary, an offer he considered but ultimately declined.[1]

After retiring from Stony Brook in 1963, Gaebelein joined Carl F. H. Henry as co-editor of Christianity Today. While covering the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches for civil rights, he was criticized for abandoning his role as a reporter and joining as a protestor. In 1968 he served as style committee chairman for the New International Version of the Bible. From 1969 to 1972, Gaebelein was director of the faculty summer seminar on faith and learning at Wheaton College (Illinois). In 1971, he took on the role as general editor for the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, an endeavor he continued until his death.

Death and legacy

In October 1982, Gaebelein attended the dedication of the Frank E. Gaebelein Hall at The Stony Brook School. In November 1982, he underwent a double bypass surgery, and never fully recovered. Gaebelein died two months later at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Published works

References

  1. ↑ Marsden, George M. (1995). Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 27. ISBN 0-8028-0870-0.
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