Walter A. Maier - Walther League

Walther League

Upon receipt of his M.A. degree in 1920, Maier was offered a number of university teaching positions which would have facilitated his preparation for the doctorate. Although the opportunity to continue his academic career obviously held great appeal, Maier chose to first answer the call of the church. Founded the year of Maier’s birth, the Lutheran young people’s organization known as the Walther League was in need of a national director. Among other responsibilities, this office included editorship of the organization’s monthly journal, The Walther League Messenger. Forsaking his cherished New England for this position in Milwaukee, Maier was installed as executive secretary on October 7, 1920.

One of the first tasks suggested to Secretary Maier by the League’s executive board was to discontinue funding of the Wheat Ridge Tuberculosis Sanatorium, an expensive facility maintained largely through League support. The young League executive visited the clinic himself, planning to deliver the bad news in person. But after seeing the need of the patients and the vision of the Wheat Ridge staff, and without consulting his board, Maier ended up pledging the League’s support for capital expansion of the hospital. Amazingly, the young people of the Walther League were able to raise more than $200,000 in the following months to keep this promise. Today the Sanatorium is no longer needed, but a viable Wheat Ridge Ministries is still about “Lutherans seeding new ministries of health and hope in the name of the healing Christ.”

The new editor of The Walther League Messenger also enhanced the publishing arm of the League. Editor Maier increased the size of the magazine, added features and pictures, wrote stirring editorials, and wrapped it all in a new, more appealing format. Through these improvements and the rapid growth of League membership under Maier’s direction, the circulation of the Messenger doubled in a few months.

One of these new readers was a young suburban Indianapolis teacher by the name of Hulda Augusta Eickhoff. Impressed by the solid message and zestful writing style of the articles signed only with the initials “W.A.M.”, Miss Eickhoff decided to join the Walther League and become a part of their vision. Soon Hulda was elected secretary of the Indianapolis chapter. Her program material had to be approved by “W.A.M.” in Milwaukee, who became as smitten with her writing as she was with his. It was just a matter of time before the handsome twenty-seven-year-old national secretary met the secretary of the Indianapolis chapter; a slender brunette with expressive brown eyes and sparkling smile who was destined to become his bride. Married in 1924, they eventually had two sons: Walter A. Maier II, born in 1925; and Paul L. Maier, born in 1929. Maier continued in his capacity as editor of the Messenger through 1945.