Oswald Hoffmann, 91; Lutheran Evangelist

The Rev. Oswald C.J. Hoffmann, longtime voice of the “Lutheran Hour” radio program, died Thursday in St. Louis after a brief illness, radio station KFUO said on its website. He was 91.

The show, which is still broadcast weekly, is credited with making Hoffmann one of the best-known Protestant evangelists in America.

The Lutheran Hour Ministries said he consulted with former presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon, along with world religious leaders, including the Rev. Billy Graham.

“For more than 33 years, Dr. Hoffmann was a Sunday radio institution, touching millions worldwide with his inspirational broadcast of the Lutheran Hour,” the KFUO website said.

The station is owned by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, based in Clayton, Mo.

When Hoffmann retired in 1988, the show was carried on 1,200 radio stations in America and more than 600 stations in 30 other English-speaking countries.

Hoffmann was the author of eight books, including “Hurry Home Where You Belong” and “God’s Joyful People -- One in the Spirit.”

The Rev. Dale A. Meyer, who took over the radio show for Hoffmann after his retirement, described the evangelist as kind and encouraging.

Even after Hoffmann suffered a stroke and his health began to falter, “his commitment to the cause didn’t flag at all,” said Meyer, now the president of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.