The Rev. Dr. Walton Harlowe Greever, secretary of the United Lutheran Church in America from 1932 to 1946, died Tuesday (March 30) in Columbia, South Carolina He was 94 years old.

Funeral services were held at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 1, 1965 at the Church of the Ascension in Columbia, South Carolina, a church he organized.

Dr. Greever, who lived in Columbia since he retired in 1946, was described in New York City by Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, president of the Lutheran Church in America, as a "pioneer” in American Lutheranism.

In his 50 years as a Lutheran minister, Dr. Greever served as parish pastor, editor, author, professor, statistician and church official.

In recent years, Dr. Greever found his active world restricted to a desk, a radio, a telephone and a wheel chair in his home.

Dr. Greever was born Dec. 18, 1870, in Burkes Garden, Virginia. He received his A.B. degree from Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia, in 1892, and was graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1896. He was ordained by the Southwestern Virginia Synod that same year.

In 1908 he received his D.D. degree from Newberry College, Newberry, South Carolina and an LL.D. degree from Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, North Carolina, in 1929. Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, also granted him a Litt.D. degree.

Dr. Greever served pastorates at Immanuel Church, Bluefield, West Virginia, St. Paul's Church, Columbia, South Carolina, Epiphany Lutheran Church, St. Matthews, South Carolina, and the Lutheran Church of the Ascension, Columbia, South Carolina.

From 1904 to 1914, Dr. Greever was editor of the Lutheran Church Visitor, and the American Survey from 1914 to 1928.

Dr. Greever was personally responsible for locating Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia. When it floundered at two other locations, he suggested Columbia as an ideal place.

Dr. Greever was a professor at Southern Seminary from 1922 to 1932.

He was manager of the United Synod Publishing Company from 1904 to 1906 and was manager of the Survey Publishing Company from 1914 to 1928.

He was a former president of the South Carolina Synod and was a member of the executive board of the United Lutheran Church in America.

Among books authored by Dr. Greever are "Workers With God,” "Work of the Lord,” "Human Relationships and the Church,” "What Matters,” "Ministers and the Ministry ” and "Realities of the Christian Religion.”

Dr. Fry, who was president of the United Lutheran Church in America in the period Dr. Greever served as secretary, said:

"Dr. Greever's passing marks the end of an era in American Lutheranism. He was a rare blend of administrator and scholar, serving for many years as secretary of the United Lutheran Church in America and long before that as theological professor who left an indelible mark on the lives of generations of pastors in the southeast.

"Few men of my acquaintance have been so richly entitled to the honorable name of pioneer, as editor of the first truly inter-synodical magazine in American Lutheran history, as founder of the publication house that served southern Lutherans....”

Secretary of the United Lutheran Church in America when it purchased the old J. Pierpont Morgan home at 231 Madison Avenue New York, New York, Dr. Greever collected pieces of fine wood as they were removed in reconverting it into headquarters for the church. He later made them into crosses as he pursued his hobby of whittling.

The Morgan home today is the headquarters of the Lutheran Church in America, formed in 1962 with the merger of four church bodies, including the United Lutheran Church in America.

Dr. Greever married Roberta Bruegel in 1901. Following her death 11 years later, he married Neta J. Umberger in 1916 who also preceded him in death.

Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Carl Plack of Arlington, Virginia, and Mrs. Grady Cooper of Newberry, South Carolina, and a son Walton Harlowe Greever Jr., of Columbia.