Edward M. Blumenfeld

Blumenfeld, Edward Martin. (Chicago, Illinois, September 23, 1927- ). United Church of Christ. After attending schools in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee, he served in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, 1945-1946; graduated B.S. from Carroll College, 1949; studied at Marquette University's School of Medicine, 1949-1950; service in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, 1950-1951; worked for a year in the steel mills of Gary, Indiana; B.D., Hartford Theological Seminary, 1955; M.A. in religion, Garrett-Northwestern University, 1961. After serving student charges in Connecticut and Vermont while at the seminary, he was ordained in July, 1955, by the Congregational Conference of Vermont, a year after marrying an organist from that state, Flora Merriam. Subsequently he served federated or community churches in Vermont, Wisconsin, and Illinois. In 1980, he was pastor of the United Church of Christ in El Paso, Illinois. He began writing verse when his Grade 3 class were directed to copy from the blackboard a poem for the Mother's Day cards they were making; having a twin brother in the class, he wrote a verse of his own to spare his mother two identical cards. In medical school, he wrote verses about the bones of the body; as a minister, he wrote them to illustrate his sermons and to comprise a column in the local newspaper. Not being musical, he found the appearance of his lyrics in various hymnbooks mystifying but gratifying.

--Hugh McKellar, DNAH Archives (based on information supplied by Blumenfeld)