Collection 446 Papers of Jack Wyrtzen
Scope and Contents
Oral history interviews, audio tapes and video tapes relating to the ministry of Jack Wyrtzen.
Series: Audio Tapes
Tape 1 to Tape 7: Oral history interviews with Jack Wyrtzen in which he describes his parents, childhood, early influences, conversion, relations with other Christian leaders, development of the Word of Life Fellowship, radio and television work and youth work. The time period covered by the interviews is 1913 to 1991.
Jack Wyrtzen was interviewed by Robert Shuster on October 5, 1991, at Word of Life Fellowship in Schroon Lake, New York.
Tape 8 & 9: Two cassette tapes of talks on love, courtship and marriage given by Wyrtzen at the Word of Life Bible Institute on October 10 and 11, 1991,
Series: Video Tapes
Two video tapes featuring Jack Wyrtzen, which describe Word of Life Fellowship.
Dates
- Created: 1991
Conditions Governing Access
Portions of interviews T1, T3, T4, T5, T6, and T7 are restricted until December 31, 2030.
Audio tapes T8 and T9 and video tape V1 not to be copied without written permission. For permission to make copies of material in this collection, contact:
Director
Word of Life Fellowship, Inc.
Schroon Lake, NY 12870
Biographical Information
Full Name: John Von Casper "Jack" Wyrtzen
Birth Date: April 22, 1913
Death Date: April 17, 1996
Family:
Parents: Father a foreman in a glass factory; mother involved in Republican politics
Siblings: Two brothers
Marital Status: Married Margaret Smith, April 18, 1936, who died in 1984; Married Joan Steiner, May 6, 1986
Children: Mary Ann Cox, Donnie John, David Booth, Ron, Betsy Lee Oris, Kathy Hahn, Don Steiner, David Steiner
Conversion: October 1932 after reading the Gospel of John given to him by a friend.
Education:
1929 Quit high school to support family when father lost his job
1938-circa 1940 Attended Hawthorne Evening Bible School, Hawthorne, New Jersey; did not graduate
1943 Received honorary degree from Hawthorne Evening Bible School
Career:
1929-1933 Leader of dance band at night
1929-1940 Worked for an insurance company during the day
1933-1940 Formed, with others, XBA, Chi Beta Alpha (Christians Born Again), a Bible study and fellowship group for young men; Phi Gamma organized for women.
1940 Chi Beta Alpha and Phi Gamma merge
1940 Group reorganized as Word of Life Fellowship
1940-1941 Preached on radio broadcast, WBBC, which went out of business
1941 Began Word of Life program over WHN; held rallies and Word of Life Fellowship Bible Conference
1941-1991 Director of Word of Life Ministries
1942 Began Word of Life Bible School
Circa. 1946 Purchased Schroon Lake for Word of Life Camp, opened camps in other cities in the U.S. and in countries around the world
Extent
9 Audio Tapes
2 Video Tapes
Language of Materials
English
Accruals and Additions
The materials in this collection were given to the Billy Graham Center Archives by Jack Wyrtzen in October 1991.
Accession 91-91, 91-100, 91-108
June 23, 1999
Janyce H. Nasgowitz
- Abortion
- Abortion -- Religious aspects.
- Barnhouse, Donald Grey, 1895-1960.
- Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
- Bollback, Harry.
- Bubar, Paul.
- Christian education, Outdoor.
- Christian leadership.
- Church work with prisoners -- United States.
- Church work with prisoners.
- Church work with youth -- United States.
- Church work with youth.
- Communism.
- Conversion.
- Crawford, Percy B. (Percy Bartimus)
- Darling, Edward Moore.
- Davis, Ralph T.
- Dawson, Charles H.,, 1916-
- Dodds, Gilbert, 1918-
- Evangelistic work -- Europe.
- Evangelistic work -- Hungary.
- Evangelistic work -- Poland.
- Evangelistic work -- Russia.
- Evangelistic work -- South America.
- Evangelistic work -- United States.
- Evangelistic work.
- Fuller, Charles Edward, 1887-1968.
- Graham, Billy, 1918-2018.
- High School Born-Againers.
- Houghton, Will H., 1887-1947.
- Ironside, H. A. (Henry Allan), 1876-1951.
- Johnson, Torrey Maynard, 1909-
- Jones, Bob, 1883-1968.
- Jones, Bob, 1911-1997.
- Jones, Bob, 1939-
- Ketcham, Robert T. (Robert Thomas), 1889-1978.
- Kline, Stanley R.
- LeTourneau, R. G. (Robert Gilmour), 1888-1969.
- Mass media in religion.
- McCarrell, William.
- McIntire, Carl, 1906-2002.
- Mission Aviation Fellowship.
- Pinebrook Bible Conference.
- Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.
- Preaching.
- Radio in religion -- United States.
- Radio in religion.
- Reed, Brandt.
- Shea, George Beverly, 1909-2013.
- Skinner, Tom, 1942-
- Stam, Peter.
- Street preaching.
- Sunday, Billy, 1862-1935.
- Sunday, Helen Amelia Thompson, -- Sermons.
- Sunday, Helen Amelia Thompson, 1868-1957.
- Television in religion.
- Templeton, Charles Bradley., 1915-
- Townsend, William Cameron, 1896-1982.
- Trotman, Dawson E.
- Word of Life, Inc.
- World Council of Churches.
- Wright, J. Elwin.
- Wyrtzen, Jack, 1913-1996.
- Youth
- Youth -- Religious life.
- Title
- Collection 446 Papers of Jack Wyrtzen
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Evangelism & Missions Archives Repository