Introduction

Biography

Ewald was the son of Her­man Kock­ritz and Em­ma Wink­ler, and hus­band of Cla­ra Eli­za­beth Hart­man.

He grew up in Hen­der­son, Ken­tuc­ky, and as a young man, worked for a grain com­pa­ny, as a jour­nal­ist, and as a tel­e­graph op­erat­or. At age 16, he be­came pri­vate sec­re­ta­ry to Gov­er­nor John Young of Ken­tuc­ky, a post he held three years.

He then at­tend­ed Ed­en Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry (gra­du­at­ed 1901), and Lane Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry, Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio (gra­du­at­ed 1908).

Kockritz served pas­tor­ates in Clar­ing­ton, Ohio (1901–05); St. Luke’s, Cin­cin­na­ti (1905–10); Sa­lem, New Or­le­ans (1910–17); and Be­thel, Evans­ville (1917–31).

He be­came a lead­er in the Lu­ther­an Ev­an­ge­li­cal Sy­nod of North Am­er­ica: He ed­it­ed sev­er­al of the de­no­mi­na­tion’s Sun­day school pub­li­ca­tions (1907–15), served on the Sun­day School Board, and on the Board of Re­li­gious Edu­ca­tion (1913–29, chair­man for eight years).

He al­so served on the War Wel­fare Com­mis­sion in World War I, was his de­nom­in­ation’s mod­er­at­or in 1929, and was the sy­nod’s ge­ne­ral sec­re­ta­ry the last years of his life.