Bertil A. Ogren Oral History Interview
Scope and Contents
Oral history interviews with Bertil A. Ogren (1914-2006) in which he describes his recruitment as a lay missionary in the Belgian Congo with the Covenant Church from 1948-56; his work there beginning and running the LECO Press, which served the needs of members of the Congo Protestant Council and relations between Africans and Western missionaries. Other topics discussed include: his family and early life, impressions of George Caprenter, independence of the Congo, Belgian influence on the Congo, and various other mission-related topics. The time period covered by the interviews is 1948 to 1956.
Bertil Ogren was interviewed by Robert Shuster on June 22 and August 25, 1982 at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.
Dates
- Created: 1982
Creator
- Ogren, Bertil. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.
Biographical Information
Bert Ogren was born in 1914 in Lockport, Illinois. His parents, Carl and Almida, were immigrants from Sweden. There were three other children in the family--Clarence, Carl, and Eleanor. While he was in high school, Bert took over a small printing business begun by his brother Clarence while he was in high school. After graduation, Bert expanded it and named it Ogren Press. The family were devoted Christians and he had a conversion experience in 1928 and attended an Evangelical Covenant church. While he was in the hospital for appendicitis at the age of twenty-three, he met his future wife, Jean, who was a student nurse. They had six children: Kathleen, Erik, Mary, Mark, Elizabeth, and Cynthia.
In 1947, the Ogrens volunteered to become vocational missionaries for the Covenant Church. In 1948, they were sent to Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo where Bert was placed in charge of beginning and running the LECO press, a religious press that served all the Protestant missionaries in the Congo by printing school and devotional literature. The family stayed in the Congo until 1956. After returning to the United States, Bert began working for the LaSalle Press in Chicago, where he remained until his retirement twenty-two years later. He died November 30,2006
Extent
2 Audio Tapes
168 Minutes
Language of Materials
English
Accruals and Additions
The materials in this collection were given to the Billy Graham Center Archives in June and August 1982.
Accession 82-91, 82-123
June 13, 1984
Robert Shuster
J. Diller D. Garton
J. Nasgowitz
- Belgium -- Administration.
- Belgium -- Colonies -- Africa.
- Bible -- Publication and distribution.
- Carpenter, George Wayland.
- Children of missionaries.
- Christian literature -- Publishing -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Christianity and culture.
- Church and state -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- 1908-1960.
- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- Civil War, 1960-1965.
- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Religion.
- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Social conditions.
- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Social life and customs.
- Conversion -- Christianity.
- Discrimination -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Education -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Evangelical Covenant Church of America -- Missions.
- Evangelical Covenant Church of America.
- Evangelistic work -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Lay missionaries.
- Management.
- Mass media in missionary work.
- Medical care -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Missionaries -- Training of.
- Missions -- Congo (Democratic Republic).
- Printing industry -- Management.
- Race relations.
- Racism -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Sex role -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Social change.
- Superstition.
Creator
- Ogren, Bertil. (Person)
- Shuster, Robert D. (Person)
- Title
- Collection 219 Oral History Interview with Bertil A. Ogren
- Author
- Bob Shuster
- 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