By Alexis Herman, Communications Coordinator
The Rev. Alvin Rueter, creator of Sing For Joy, died Friday, March 21, 2008 in Blair, Neb. Visitation will be from 9 a.m.–8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, at Campbell-Aman Funeral Home in Blair. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 27, at First Lutheran Church in Blair.
Alvin Charles Rueter was born Nov. 3, 1921 in Parkers Prairie, Minn. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Dana College in Blair before attending Capital University Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Al married Beulah Nielsen in 1944 and was ordained in 1945. He held a master’s degree and a doctorate in speech and communication. Together Al and Beulah served Lutheran congregations in Monterey Park, Calif., Inglewood, Calif., Tulsa, Okla., Lincoln, Neb., and St. Paul, Minn.
It was while leading the congregation in Inglewood in 1954 that Al arrived at a crossroad in his career. His first option was to continue his work as pastor of the church in Inglewood, where he had been serving for just three years. His second option was to move to Columbus to become the director of adult education for the American Lutheran Church, which would require quite a bit of traveling around the country. And his third option was to move to Tulsa to begin a new congregation.
With Beulah’s support, Al chose to start a new congregation in Tulsa. With no members and no receptivity of the Lutheran brand of worship, Al and Beulah developed several strategies for overcoming the suspicion of a liturgical church. One of these strategies was to go on the radio.
The decision would mean practically starting from scratch: building a new facility, recruiting workers, becoming known, and getting people involved — first to sample, and before long to stop in regularly.
As Al remembered, “TV was just starting up, really, and taking over many of radio’s national broadcasts, like Jack Benny. To survive, radio had to be transformed, and many stations chose to become a music box with a friendly voice. In going house-to-house inviting people to our church, I ran across the head of the Department of Radio and TV at the University of Tulsa. I told him I had decided to try to be a disc jockey with sacred music, and he suggested I try out the idea on the university’s station.” From that offer made to a young pastor nearly 50 years ago grew the unique radio program Sing For Joy, which toda y is produced by St. Olaf College.
From the beginning, Al recognized the usefulness of selecting the music with a thematic focus. “Like other DJs, I tried to keep my remarks to a minimum,” Al said. “But unlike others, I wanted my talking to add up to an important message. So having a theme helped those minimal announcements, in tandem with the music, achieve a unified impact.” But it wasn’t easy to sustain, and before long it became increasingly difficult to find meaningful themes that could be expressed through the available music without too much of a stretch. So Al decided upon one of Sing For Joy’s defining traits: using Western Christendom's "common lectionary" — a specific, predictable schedule of scriptural readings — as the basis for Sing For Joy and the music it presents through the weekly themes of the church year.
In 2002, Al made the decision to retire from Sing For Joy. His decision was difficult—although he wanted to keep working, he was also concerned about making sure Sing For Joy lived on in a new team of staff members. He helped that new staff through their transition, and stayed in frequent contact with them until his death.
Al will certainly live on through Sing For Joy. The program will continue to be produced as he desired, and it will undoubtedly continue to make an impact on its numerous listeners.
The family has asked that any gifts in memory of Al and Beulah Rueter go to Sing For Joy at St. Olaf College, or to Dana College in Blair, Neb. Please indicate that gifts are given in memory of Al and Beulah.
Sing For Joy has recorded a special program in memory of Al. This program will air during all regularly-scheduled times on Pentecost Sunday, May 11, 2008.
Listen to Al read the gospel at a Sing For Joy Hymn Festival
Click here to read Pastor Bruce Benson's remarks from Rev. Rueter's memorial service in Minneapolis, Minn.
For more information, please visit the following links:
Article in the Star-Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Obituary in the Washington County Pilot-Tribune & Enterprise
Obituary in the Omaha World-Herald
Marty Pelikan, former Executive Producer of Sing For Joy, and Kari VanDerVeen, Communications Specialist for St. Olaf College, contributed to this article.
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