Frank Ely Gaebelein

Education and Teaching

Born on March 31, 1899, Frank Ely Gaebelein was reared in Mount Vernon, New York, by German parents who immigrated to the United States in 1879. Frank was the youngest of Arno Clemens and Emma Fredericka (Grimm) Gaebelein’s three sons. (Evory, 1984). The Gaebeleins' daughter, Claudia, died in infancy (Lockerbie, 1972). Frank Gaebelein’s God-fearing home greatly impacted his life and ministry. Even at a young age his father’s passion and outspokenness were shaping him for the Lord.

Our home was a Christian home, not because my father was a noted preacher or because my mother was constantly talking to my brothers and me about Christianity, but because of the good sense with which they lived their faith. They never told me to read the Bible; yet I began to do so very early. I’m sure I learned to give some part of each day to the Scriptures from seeing my father and mother do so. (Gaebelein, 1985, p. 21).

Frank’s conversion to Christianity began during a rose garden walk with a 70-plus-year-old Plymouth Brethren preacher, F. C. Jennings. As they walked Jennings questioned the young boy, “Frank, have you ever thought about your soul? Have you ever thought about being saved…then gently and lovingly he spoke to me about Jesus" (Rausch, 1983, pp. 200-201). A few years later at age 10, Frank prayed with his mother before going to sleep and awakened the next day with a clear assurance that he was indeed saved. Frank considered his conversion an intellectually and spiritually expansive experience not a narrowing one, giving him the desire to embrace truth wherever truth is found.

Arno and Emma Gaebelein embraced and enjoyed sophisticated culture. Their home was filled with a collection of fine art and furniture. Family visits to the theatre and classical concerts were frequent. It is no surprise that much of Frank’s adult life was given to promoting excellence in the arts. The essence of his aesthetic philosophy was captured in his article “The Creator and Creativity” published in Christianity Today in 1976 and again after his death in October, 1984 (Gaebelein, 1984, pp. 33-38).

Music was an integral aspect of the Gaebelein home. Father, Arno, and brother, Paul, frequently played four-hand arrangements of major piano works. Recognizing young Frank’s fascination for the piano, his mother Emma started him on a lifelong love affair with music. Practicing two or three hours a day molded him into a concert pianist (Hull, 1984). Gaebelein pursued his musical interests at New York University’s Bronx campus where he was the piano soloist performing with the University Glee Club (Lockerbie, 1972).

Gaebelein’s personal fascination with literature and writing began early in his life. While attending Mount Vernon High School, Gaebelein served as the editor of the yearbook, assisted by his friend E.B. White, who later became the great essayist and humorist for the New Yorker. Frank earned a B.A. at New York University and was involved with undergraduate musical activities, the college yearbook, the campus newspaper, and the track team (Evory, 1984). His coach remembers that his most significant contribution on the varsity mile relay team came as he shared with his team his Christian faith (Lockerbie, 1972). Gaebelein’s formal schooling was temporarily interrupted in early 1918, when he enlisted in the United States Army's officer-training program. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant commanding a platoon and served his country faithfully until November, 1918 (Gaebelein, 1985).

Upon college graduation in 1920, Gaebelein furthered his education at Harvard University, studying English and comparative literature, and graduating with an A. M. on June 23, 1921 (Evory, 1984). During his time at Harvard, Gaebelein studied under several teachers who made a profound impact on his life, shaping his philosophy of education. John Livingston Lowes and Irving Babbitt gave Gaebelein his first formal introduction to the subject of aesthetics. The greatest impact, however, came from Dean L. B. R. Briggs who pushed Gaebelein toward a teaching and writing style of simplicity, clarity, and precision. Gaebelein had a tendency towards flowery language, probably springing from his love of music and the arts. Briggs evaluated his writing style as “too florid” (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 30). Briggs seeing in him a scholar and teacher worked to hone his writing skill. Briggs encouraged Gaebelein to enter the end-of-year competition for commencement addresses to represent the graduate school, which he won with his speech “In Behalf of Music.” At this point in his life Frank was hesitant and almost stuttering in his speech. After his rhetoric teacher declared him hopeless, Dean Briggs personally undertook preparation of Gaebelein as a polished speaker (Lockerbie, 1972). The investment yielded rich dividends, as much of Gaebelein’s adult life was given to public address in the classroom and in the church.

Shortly after his 22nd birthday, Gaebelein was approached by Dr. John Fleming Carson, visionary and founder of the Stony Brook Assembly, about launching a new Christian college-preparatory school in Long Island, New York. Carson was the pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, New York, the second largest Presbyterian church in America (Lockerbie, 1972). After much prayer and wise counsel, Frank agreed to take up this challenge. In September, 1921, he began organizing Stony Brook School and in 1922 was named headmaster (Evory, 1984). In spite of his inexperience in teaching at the secondary level and not having attended a preparatory school himself, this new venture appealed to him. Thus began his 41 memorable years as headmaster, and another 20 years as headmaster emeritus of Stony Brook Academy (Evory, 1984).

The mission of Stony Brook was “to give accurate teaching upon the Christianity of the Bible and demonstrate that this teaching belongs of right with thorough scholarship and sound education” (Gaebelein, 1985, 30). The curriculum at Stony Brook gave the Bible the greatest supremacy. Gaebelein believed that the Bible was the perfect foundation of a liberal arts or humanities education. In the brochure describing the new academy, Gaebelein wrote that he was determined to provide “in a Christian atmosphere and through Christian teachers, a sound education with a spiritual content, an education that has regard for the souls of our youth as well as for their bodies and their minds. To this end, the study of the English Bible and fundamentals of Christianity will have a place of first importance in the curriculum" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 32). This was a significant undertaking during a time in which public education was becoming more and more secular, baseless, and rootless as it disconnected from its Judeo-Christian values. Public education had ceased to prepare men and women with character, providing them only knowledge. Gaebelein took as the motto for the infant school, “Character before Career" (Lockerbie, 1972, preface). Having consulted with other experienced schoolmasters like Mather Abbott of Lawrenceville School, within one year Gaebelein recruited a faculty, a student body, and formed a curriculum with the Bible as central. The fledgling boarding school was to meet in the summer conference facilities of the Stony Brook Conference. Recruiting a qualified faculty would be challenging for Gaebelein as he sought to build a team that was thoroughly committed to the Christian faith and to its exemplification in their personal lives (Lockerbie, 1972). His first year he hired nine faculty, a nurse, a secretary, and an athletic director to teach an enrolled male student body of 38. The students ranged in age from 8 to 19, coming from eight states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas) plus China (Lockerbie, 1972). Despite its small size, the school fielded a football team that first year, which helped keep morale high.

Gaebelein articulated five guiding principles by which he would nurture the new educational experiment. First, the school would have a low student-to-teacher ratio. Second, teachers would be masters of their subject. Third, the school would maintain a Christian atmosphere consistent with its aim of building character before career. Fourth, spiritual matters would be given first place. Fifth, a balance would be preserved between religious, scholastic, and recreational matters. At the end of its first year, Stony Brook was approved by the Regents of University of New York, a most gratifying milestone (Lockerbie, 1972).

During the second year of Stony Brook’s existence, 1923, Gaebelein married Dorothy Laura Medd (Evory, 1984). “A Vassar graduate, well-bred, refined, utterly gracious, Dorothy Gaebelein was efficiently practical in ways her husband’s genius could hardly approach” (Gaebelein, 1985, p. 33). Gaebelein rode from the campus to her nearby home on horseback courting her until their marriage on December 8, 1923. Dorothy provided the essential balance between hospitality and refuge for her headmaster mate. She did her work quietly and avoided drawing attention to herself. She presided over formal occasions, such as weddings, at Stony Brook. With the help of her sister, Miss Miriam Medd, and other friends in the community, she transformed the “scrubby conference grounds into a campus of varied and park-like design…a natural beauty spot at all seasons" (Lockerbie, 1972). She exercised her quiet authority and example to members of the faculty and their wives and insisted upon courtesy, manners, and decorum, although never at the expense of good humor. The Gaebeleins’ shared love of the arts paved the way for Frank and Dorothy’s collection of beautiful paintings and watercolors.

Together, they parented three children: Dorothy Laura G. Hampton, Donn Medd, and Gretchen Elizabeth Gaebelein Hull (Evory, 1984). They introduced their children to the arts by taking them to meet such concert artists as Michel Piastro, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and Jorge Bolet, a giant of the keyboard. Each child took piano lessons at some point in his or her life, and all loved to hear their dad in concert. Originally intending to study music, Gaebelein was a phenomenal pianist. Their home was one of fond and lively memories. Frank and Dorothy shared almost 57 years together before she died in 1980 (Gaebelein, 1985).

Stony Brook experienced its share of financial struggles as well as its philosophical critics (Rausch, 245). During the Depression, teachers were asked to accept a graduated reduction in cash salary, which brought a good deal of gripping in some quarters but concerted prayer by faculty and students in others. World War II’s military draft robbed many quality faculty from the young school. Financial shortages brought austere times effecting the school’s ability to acquire equipment, supplies, conduct repairs to buildings and grounds, and securing adequate food (due to wartime rationing). Finding and keeping qualified teachers was an ongoing struggle faced by Stony Brook’s headmaster. Low salaries made affordable housing a challenge, and many faculty lived for several years in dormitories with students while struggling to establish their own family identity and privacy. As the school grew numerically, tensions increased between the Summer Bible Conference’s use of facilities and its residential school. While the school occupied the grounds for three-quarters of the year, the total number of summer conference attendees exceeded the number of students (Lockerbie, 1972). Faculty who were forced to vacate their living quarters to make way for summer conferees grew weary of the disrupted lifestyle. In time, private homes were purchased adjacent to Stony Brook property allowing those with longevity to live in quarters separate from students.

In his final years at Stony Brook, Gaebelein withstood strong pressures from the fundamentalist wing of evangelical Christianity. Following the “Fundamentalist-Modernist schism of the 1920’s some of the more contentious fundamentalists took issue with what they considered to be a dangerous trend toward liberalism at Stony Brook" (Lockerbie 1972, p. 100). At issue were codes of external behavior deemed inappropriate for a Christian school student or faculty member – no smoking, drinking, theatre going, dancing, and card playing. Extreme fundamentalists argued that all these activities were sinful in and of themselves. While the outward behaviors required at Stony Brook were very similar, Gaebelein’s rationale regarding the Christian’s abstinence from such activities was based on detriment to health, mindless conformity to culture, and danger to self and others in the community (Lockerbie, 1972).

Gaebelein more closely embodied the “new evangelical” that Harold John Ockenga identified—one who demonstrated "an adherence to orthodoxy and an interest in the sociological problems of the day" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 103). Stony Brook endeavored to avoid the negative standards of fundamentalism, the isolation of parochial Christianity. Some of Gaebelein’s chapel speakers stirred up dissent, but nothing was more controversial than his active role in the Billy Graham Crusade in Madison Square Garden in 1957. A post-crusade regional rally of 6000 on the Stony Brook campus heightened criticism (Lockerbie, 1972). This apparent slide to apostasy led to the discontinuance of summer conferences at Stony Brook Assembly.

During the mid-1950s, Gaebelein labored to regain Stony Brook’s earlier intentions for excellence that had suffered during financial adversity. Faculty salaries were improved from the lowest among 32 independent schools in northeastern United States to being competitive with such schools. Better living conditions, assistance for graduate school, fairer distribution of responsibilities, and a voice in administrative policy making all improved the caliber of the faculty. Concurrently, entrance requirements for students were tightened, college entrance examinations for advanced placement were offered, and homogeneous groupings of students in English, mathematics, and foreign languages yielded excellence in learning (Lockerbie, 1972). Stony Brook received acclaim for its program of assisting graduates in their process of college selection. Scripture memory was a benchmark of the school and caused graduates to have long sections engraved on their memory.

But not all was well; inadequate facilities especially for science labs provided a nagging reminder that the school was not excellent in every way. Most ironic were the absence of a qualified, resident music instructor and the lack of organized intentional dramatic arts at a school founded by one so passionate regarding the arts. Gaebelein acknowledged the defect offering the explanation that “the problem I faced was always one of a shortage of money and the unhappy decision in favor of higher priorities" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 107). While the school struggled with financial resources necessary to have full-time faculty in the arts, it did offer many aesthetic outlets to its students. Distinguished painter Paul King provided Friday night art instruction in a club setting. A professionally printed school newspaper was released every other week. A group met to listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Students were regularly entertained by the headmaster with piano concerts in his private residence. Once a week school-wide full-harmony singing was a constant over four decades. Chapel choir and glee club, boys taking private piano lessons, and visits of guest musicians added to the artistic flavor of the school (Lockerbie, 1972).

Both Frank and his father, Arno, were deeply influenced by C. I. Scofield’s popularization of dispensationalism. Schofield’s dispensations identified seven periods of biblical history or economies in which God dealt differently with humanity (Grogan, 1981). Frank served on the revision committee for the Schofield Bible, much like his father before him on the original translation team. Rubbing shoulders and sharing thoughts with the bright minds of intellectual fundamentalism, Frank developed a passion to represent an intellectually and culturally credible Christian orthodoxy in his modern world. John Nelson Darby, W.J. Erdman, A.T. Pierson, R.A. Torrey, Lewis Sperry Chafer, and F.C. Jennings were among the Gaebelein family acquaintances. Arno, and Frank after him, were both classical dispensational fundamentalists (Rausch, 1983).

Shortly after Frank’s invitation to inaugurate the Stony Brook Academy, he was invited by the Epworth League, a young people’s society, to present a series of lectures to survey the Bible and its doctrines during the height of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy (Rausch, 1983). Frank used those lectures to develop an apologetic for the evangelical point of view. Thus began a lifetime of biblical scholarship. Unlike the mainstream fundamentalists with whom Gaebelein ministered, his fundamentalism was more irenic, more tempered, and more compassionate and moderate. Frank shared in an interview that “my father was a strong believer in grace, not law. So my home was less legalistic than some other fundamentalist ones" (Rausch, 1983, p. 259). Fundamentalists were often characterized as anti-intellectual and anti-American. Frank claimed there was little evidence to substantiate such a claim, especially not among the fundamentalist leaders he personally knew and with whom he fellowshipped. Many of them were graduates of Princeton, Harvard, and Yale (Rausch, 1983).

“The fundamentalist-evangelical movement equated social concern with the ‘the social gospel,’ promoted by the Modernists, which to their mind was what [the apostle] Paul called another gospel…They felt this way because of the modernist denial of evangelical truth… But they didn’t realize the relationship (as many evangelicals do today) of social concern to the Gospel and evangelism,” Frank Gaebelein reported in an interview with Rausch (1983, p. 260). Gaebelein was sensitive to the wider issues of Scripture as they related to social concerns and aesthetic matters. In his thinking, the impetus for social action among evangelical believers was the doctrine of the atonement. Gaebelein charged evangelicals to “recapture a biblical position regarding questions of the environment, women’s roles, nuclear war, and the culture of narcissism" (Wright, 1999).

But in reacting against the modernism of many advocates of the social gospel and in complying with the mores, particularly in racial matters… they missed much of the biblical emphasis on compassionate responsibility for victims of prejudice and exploitation. …And had not awakened to the social implications of biblical ethics here at home — a lack of awareness shared by most Americans of the time. In retrospect, I am distressed that it took me so long to realize that social concern is a vital biblical imperative. (Gaebelein, July 31, 1970, p. 11)

As a 70-year-old correspondent for Christianity Today, Gaebelein covered the Selma, Alabama civil rights march in 1965 led by Martin Luther King. Convinced of the “rightness” of the cause he abandoned his reporter’s role and joined the march, coming under severe criticism (Gaebelein, 1983).

The significant molders of Gaebelein’s thinking and worldview were his father, Arno, his family life as a child, his own rigorous education, Dean L. B. R. Briggs, his wife Dorothy, and the Bible. These influences helped to focus much of his early writing on biblical topics. Besides contributing numerous articles to various religious journals, Gaebelein authored scores of books. Chief among his books are Down Through the Ages (1924), A Brief Survey of Scripture (1929), Facing the Fact of Inspiration (1934), Philemon: The Gospel of Emancipation (1939), Looking Unto Him (1941), The Christian Use of the Bible (1946), The Servant and the Dove (1946), and The Practical Epistle of James (1955), God’s Pattern of Truth (1968), The Christian, the Arts, and Truth: Regaining the Vision of Greatness (1985), and the editing of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary 12-volume set.

D. Bruce Lockerbie (1985) relates that Gaebelein’s first major influential writing project was Christian Education in a Democracy (1951), which explained his desire for a Christian approach to education blending together liberal and fine arts. Gaebelein’s treatise in response to the study of the Harvard Report entitled General Education in a Free Society propelled the world of Christian education forward significantly when he teamed with a group of scholars to write Christian Education in a Democracy (1951) on behalf of the National Association of Evangelicals. Soon after, Gaebelein lectured at Dallas Seminary on the implementation of this perspective on education. Those lectures gave shape to his next book, The Pattern of God’s Truth: Problems of Integration in Christian Education (1954). Public education was becoming more and more lax in its efforts to develop in students a deep sense of moral character due in part to its being “adrift on a sea of moral relativism" (Wright, 1999, p. 535). Gaebelein’s treatise was an “attempt to construct a public philosophy of education that up held the prior integrity of Christian identity…while it also claimed academic relevance to the educational and cultural crisis which gripped the post-war America" (Wright, 1999, p. 535-537).

Gaebelein served as an editor for The New Scofield Reference Bible, coeditor for Christianity Today, and general editor for the Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Thanks to Gaebelein’s diligent effort, the Expositor’s Bible Commentary contributes phenomenally to the study of the Scriptures. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary’s 78 contributors come from many parts of the world and from all denominational backgrounds. Committed to the divine inspiration of the Bible, these professionals have offered students of the Word the best in evangelical scholarship (Gaebelein, 1984).

Gaebelein forged significant paths in the domain of Christian secondary education. He is known as “a Renaissance man” (Gaebelein, 1985, p. 13). Gaebelein was held in awe by many of his students and faculty, blending the roles of scholar, writer, musician, and athlete with vibrant humor (Lockerbie, 1972). Gaebelein’s greatest contribution to Christian education was his call for the “integration” of faith, living, and learning. Gaebelein stated, “The central aim of this school [Stony Brook] is to correlate Christian principles, the great and eternal verities, with education of a type high enough to merit intimacy with such exalted ideals” (Gaebelein, 1985, p. 32). Gaebelein addressed integration on four levels: integration of subject matter, integration in the life of the teacher, integration in the life of the student, and integration at the administrative level (Wright, 1999). Gaebelein was widely known as a Christian humanist because of his insistence that a full education include the arts as well as the sciences and humanities. He promoted the idea that Christians should use their giftedness in painting, preaching, or music to express their love for God (Lockerbie, 1985). He desired others to taste the sweet riches that come from studying art and music. Gaebelein was so committed to the integration of Bible with every subject matter that he proposed the elimination of the Bible department as a separate entity at Stony Brook. He personally blended junior and senior year Bible with English and taught the courses himself (Lockerbie, 1972). His discussion of the integration of math and faith covered unique ground. In Gaebelein’s schematic, the teacher was of utmost importance and was to embody, not just verbally endorse, the integration of faith in life.

In addition to Gaebelein’s contribution to the discipline of Christian education, he also impacted many lives, including hundreds of Stony Brook students. Through Gaebelein’s professional life, he exerted a powerful impact on several influential evangelicals. The list of friends who attended his memorial services at Stony Brook and in Virginia included Billy Graham, Carl Henry, Mark O. Hatfield, Kenneth Kantzer, Harold Lindsell, James M. Boice, Donald Barnhouse, Stephen Olford, and John Perkins (Wright, 1999). His own family were profoundly touched by his life and ministry. His own son, Don M. Gaebelein, succeeded him as headmaster of Stony Brook following his own career in Christian school leadership in the South (Lockerbie, 1972). Gretchen Gaebelein Hull is considered by some to be the intellectual heir of the Gaebelein family as she speaks regarding roles for women in evangelical circles (Wright, 1999). Gaebelein encouraged a young man named Carl F. H. Henry to get a solid education. Heeding these words, Henry eventually became the first editor of Christianity Today and later welcomed Gaebelein as his coeditor (Gaebelein, 1985). Gaebelein served as a private counselor to many senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill. Chief among those influenced was Senator Mark Hatfield, who often sought the wisdom of Gaebelein. Hundreds of Stony Brook Academy alumni credit Dr. Gaebelein with a profound impact on their lives. Dr. James Montgomery Boice, class of 1956, shared his life lesson of perseverance learned through participation on the school’s cross-country team (Lockerbie, 1972). Dr. Bruce Lockerbie, former dean of faculty at Stony Brook School, was also greatly influenced by Gaebelein’s profound wisdom. Gaebelein was Lockerbie’s teacher and friend, as well as his administrative superior. He helped Lockerbie develop into a solid writer, spending precious time critiquing his work. “Dr. Gaebelein has been both an inspiring and a demanding mentor,” shared Lockerbie of his early attempts at writing (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 48). Lockerbie wrote the only complete biography on Frank Gaebelein to date on Stony Brook’s 50th anniversary, providing recollections of the founding, inauguration and formative years in The Way They Should Go (1972).

Over the years, Gaebelein provided leadership and administrative expertise for numerous endeavors. After finishing his education, he assumed the role of organizer and headmaster of Stony Brook School from 1921-1963. This led to his position as headmaster emeritus from 1963-1983. Throughout these years at Stony Brook, Gaebelein also served as an ordained deacon and presbyter at the Reformed Episcopal Church from 1940-1941 (Evory, 1981). Gaebelein described himself as a “moderate Calvinist,” which reflects his Reformed theology influenced by the Dutch Reformed theologians and philosophers Dooyeweerd, Kuyper, Seerveld, and Wolsterstorff (Wright, 1999). Frequently he was engaged as a guest preacher/lecturer at colleges, universities, and theological seminaries. He was a freelance editor and noted writer. Following his formal years at Stony Brook, he joined Carl F. H. Henry as the coeditor of Christianity Today from 1963-1966. From 1969-1972, he served as director of the faculty summer seminar on faith and learning at Wheaton College.

Gaebelein played a significant part in several notable writing projects. Serving as the general editor for The Expositor’s Bible Commentary from 1971-1983, he elevated the nature of biblical scholarship. Following closely in his father’s steps he served as the vice-chairman for Oxford University Press’s preparation of the New Scofield Reference Bible in 1954. His role as the style committee chairman for the New International Version of the Bible in 1968 was another significant contribution to Bible students worldwide.

Gaebelein participated in numerous professional organizations reflecting his greatest loves of Scripture, excellent academics, and nature. His religious professional memberships included the American Academy of Religion, Evangelical Theological Society, Society of Biblical Literature, Evangelical Books, Inc., and American Tract Society as president (Evory, 1981). Membership in Headmasters Association, Council for Religion in Independent Schools, Phi Beta Kappa, Kappa Sigma, Harvard Club (New York), and the Cosmos Club (Washington D.C.) demonstrate his lifelong love of learning. He served as both a trustee and regent of Dallas Theological Seminary (Lockerbie, 1972). Gaebelein’s adoration of the created order is clearly seen in his memberships with the American Alpine Club, Alpine Club of Canada, and the Appalachian Mountain Club (Evory, 1981).

Despite Gaebelein’s lack of formal religious training, many honors were bestowed upon him. He wrote, Although I looked with a certain wistful respect at friends with earned doctorates, I recognized that for me [because of the demands of ministry] my scholarly work could only come through independent study. So, amidst the busy life [of ministry], nine books were written, seven on Bible study and two on the philosophy of Christian Education. So also the preparation for ordination was made through private study just as some years before I had taught myself the elements of New Testament Greek. (Gaebelein, 1970, p. 10)

Three different Christian colleges honored Gaebelein with honorary doctoral degrees. The first two came in 1951, when he received a Litt.D. from Wheaton College and a D.D. from Reformed Theological Seminary (Evory, 1981). In 1960, Houghton College recognized Gaebelein’s contributions and conferred on him a LL.D.

Gaebelein’s final public appearance occurred in October of 1982 in Stony Brook, New York, where he was the guest at the dedication of the Frank E. Gaebelein Hall, the school’s new academic building. This tangible memorial was a fitting tribute to the man who was loved and revered by many and who had contributed so much to the school. Three months later, on January 19, 1983, Frank Ely Gaebelein died at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Doctors said that he never fully recovered from a double bypass surgery they performed in November.

The measure of a ministry is often best determined by what happens after the leader has departed. When Frank Gaebelein presided over his final commencement exercises as headmaster, the faculty remained almost wholly intact. His summation of the first 41 years of Stony Brook was that the experiment had succeeded. “We can say that Stony Brook is the only independent boys’ school of good academic standing that not only holds firmly in teaching and worship to evangelical Christianity, as several other good schools do, but is also committed to a faculty made up wholly of regenerated Christians. As such it is respected by its peers" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 114).

In his earlier years some teachers and students found him to be distant and pensive. The complexities of running a school for which there was no prototype left him little time for petty affairs. At times his mental focus was taken as brusqueness. Some found him aloof, others were deeply touched by his intercession for a personal struggle or by a visit in the infirmary or hospital, and many who reflected on the Tuesday evening fellowship meetings in the headmaster’s home judged him to be deeply in tune with God (Lockerbie, 1972). “A man who has known Frank Gaebelein for more than forty years says, ‘He was stiff and formal as a younger man. I’m happy to see how much more relaxed and personable he has become later in life…Frank Gaebelein seems to be much more broad-minded and flexible. It shows in his improved relationships with people’" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 116). He left the lasting impression as “a man strong in his natural endowments but strongest when at prayer" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 116).

Frank Gaebelein was neither a professional theologian or philosopher nor an academic religious education theorist in the traditional academic sense. He was an amazingly reflective practitioner whose writings on the subject of Christian education demonstrate profound spiritual conviction, enormous erudition, breathtaking breadth of interest, and compelling integrative insight. His was a sanctified wisdom born out of a sustained attentiveness to Scripture, the catholic Christian tradition, and the positive features of both Western civilization and of custodial evangelicalism (Wright, 1999, p. 589).

As Christian educator, visionary, reflective practitioner, concert pianist, mountaineer, speaker, prolific writer, editor and Bible translator, Gaebelein left fingerprints all over his world. His articulation of the integration of faith, living, and learning in regards to Christian education ploughed new territory, providing a basis for on-going dialogue. His sound biblical teaching and writing stirred in evangelicals a desire for scholarship. The continuing influence of Stony Brook Academy as a model for Christian education with a Democracy is undoubtedly his greatest contribution to Christian education. His life and ministry demonstrated how a Christian should enjoy the best of culture, whether it be great literature, grand music, or lofty music.

Gaebelein knew that everything he accomplished came from the overflow of his daily time in the Scriptures. The February 1983 issue of Christianity Today states, “Gaebelein once was asked what counsel he wished to pass on to the next generation of Christians. He replied, ‘Maintain at all costs a daily time of Scripture reading and prayer. As I look back, I see the most formative influence in my life and thought has been my daily contact with Scripture over 60 years.’”

A man is often best evaluated by his contemporaries. Frank Ely Gaebelein’s protégé, biographer, and colleague declared him “a Christian educator without peer in this century" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 47). Robert Ells declared Gaebelein a “leading example of an evangelical educational reformer" (Ells, 1984, p. 13-29). “The evangelical Christian education movement’s most creative thinker and articulate apologist,” says another (McLeod, 1993, p. 43). Ken Gangel and Warren Benson praise Gaebelein’s Pattern of God’s Truth (1954) as “the one significant volume that must be mastered” if one is to grasp the true distinctiveness of evangelical perspectives on education (Gangel & Benson, 1983, p. 358). And finally, “one could perhaps say that Gaebelein’s stature as a statesman of the neo-evangelical movement, at a critical time in its postwar resurgence, allowed him, perhaps more than any other person except Billy Graham, Carl Henry and a few others, to give shape to and define the [evangelical] movement itself" (Wright, 1999, p. 531).

A self-declared generalist and Christian humanist (Gaebelein, 1970, p. 10), Gaebelein’s life forged a three-strand chord with his love of reading, writing, and religion. A prolific writer and editor, his scholarly work came primarily through independent study. Much like his father Arno, Frank wrote, helped translate modern versions of Scripture, and provided leadership in the fundamentalist movement of the mid-nineteen hundreds.

Frank Gaebelein’s spiritual nurture came as he rubbed shoulders with the higher echelons of intellectual fundamentalism at the turn of the century. His father’s role on the translation team of the Scofield Bible provided interaction for Frank with the influential fundamentalists of his time. Frank’s passion was to forge an intellectually and culturally credible Christian orthodoxy in the modern world. He desired to retain the Protestant-American synthesis of the 19th century that appeared to be slipping away at the dawn of the Modern era as socialism, communism, bolshevism and fascism were consuming much of Europe and Asia . Frank claimed to be neither an individualist fundamentalist focused on separation nor an ecumenist who surrendered truth to enhance fellowship. He was deeply committed to fellowship at the practical working level with all that know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Frank’s more irenic than dogmatic dispensationalism garnered him criticism from both sides. To the evangelical, he was compromising with apostasy, and to the new evangelical, he was too much a fundamentalist. Yet he stood firm and called his generation by the power of the pen to engage their increasingly secular culture while remaining fixed on the ultimate truth of the Scriptures.

Frank contributed significantly to evangelical journalism as a freelance writer and later as associate editor and editor of Our Hope magazine, associate editor of Revelation, and consulting editor of Eternity, and as coeditor of Christianity Today (Gaebelein, 1970, p. 10).

His extensive writings focus on his lifetime passions: Biblical scholarship, evangelical and biblical philosophy of education, and compassionate response to the needy and oppressed. Gaebelein authored numerous commentaries on biblical books. His zenith however came as general editor of Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Combining the wisdom and scholarship of 78 biblical scholars into a multi-volume work, he raised the bar for evangelical scholarship.

The Gaebelein family was well known for its love of classical music, paintings, fine furniture, and mountaineering. The Christian, the Arts, and Truth (1985) gave expression to Gaebelein’s love of all things beautiful while serving as a clarion call for Christians to be involved in aesthetics. He also authored numerous journal articles on the Christian’s responsibility regarding the arts.

Possibly his best known and most referenced work originated in a lecture series at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. Later it was refined and presented at Grace College in Indiana. Ultimately the addresses were written in Pattern for God’s Truth: Problems of Integration in Christian Education (1954). This was one of the earliest articulations of the integration of matters of faith and learning. “Gaebelein’s educational theory and practice are premised upon the axiom, which he quoted in virtually all of his writing, and drew from the Reformation doctrine of common grace, that 'All truth is God’s truth'… His lifelong commitment to the Reformation principle led Gaebelein to construct his own brand of Christian humanism and to practice his vocation as a ‘Renaissance generalist’" (Wright, 1999, p. 519). Whether he created the phrase “All truth is God’s truth” or just used it enough to make it become his trademark, Gaebelein championed the beginnings of evangelicals honoring all truth as ultimately from the creator, God. “Gaebelein rightly focused the attention of the evangelical constituency on the priority of revelation and sought to discern the metatheoretical dimensions of Christian education in a democracy, extending the boundaries of Christian education well beyond narrow religious confines to include the whole of life" (Wright, 1999, p. 518).

Spearheading the evangelical response to the Harvard Report, General Education in a Free Society, on behalf of the National Association of Evangelicals, Gaebelein propelled the world of Christian education forward significantly when he lead a group of scholars to write Christian Education in a Democracy (1951). He challenged John Dewey’s popular philosophy of progressive education with education from a Christian world and life-view.

Of all his life accomplishments, the most significant educational contribution of Gaebelein came in the philosophical foundation he laid for the Stony Brook Academy in Long Island, New York. Launched during an anti-intellectual time among fundamentalists, Gaebelein strove to elevate the Christian academy to a level of scholarship and excellence of private college preparatory schools. Stony Brook became the laboratory for the out-working of his burgeoning Christian philosophy of education. His primary contribution was to the Christian school movement as he espoused a Christian faith that engaged its modern American culture. Gaebelein’s conviction that Christ transforms culture was strong. He served 41 years as headmaster and 20 additional years as headmaster emeritus at Stony Brook, riding the wave of good times and times of wanting (Evory, 1981).

Gaebelein would seek to foster a style of evangelical faithfulness which attracted the unbelieving world because of its spiritual depth, intellectual breadth, and visionary height (Wright, 1999). Gaebelein argues that because all truth is God’s truth, it should make no difference whether it is natural or revealed truth, as long as learning relates to life. Gaebelein points out that no man ever makes up truth because it is always around him. All truth that is experienced must be evaluated and critiqued through the grid of biblical truth.

Gaebelein placed a tremendous emphasis on the teacher as one who embodies this integration of culture and Christ. In The Pattern of God’s Truth (1954), Gaebelein states,

Briefly the plan is this. The Christian school that believes all truth to be God’s truth and that is serious about making Christ and the Bible integral to its curriculum must give up the concept of a completely separate Bible department. Instead it must seek and develop devoted Christian teachers who, along with competency in mathematics, science, languages, or social studies, are able also to give instruction in Bible. Such teachers, particularly on the secondary level, need not necessarily be technically trained as Biblical scholars, although such training is valuable…Out of that experience there is bound to come an awareness of the relation of the Word of God to his other subjects. (pp. 48-50)

Gaebelein was not the first to talk of integration of faith and learning or the maxim that “all truth is God’s truth,” but he did bring it alive with a force of conviction which evangelical education needed to hear. Integration became so integral to Gaebelein that it became the new foundation for learning, not something added on in a separate compartment.

Committed to scholarship and rigorous study, Gaebelein was sensitive to the wider issues of Scripture as they relate to social concerns and aesthetics. In Reflections in Retrospect (1970), he says,

But in reacting against the modernism of many advocates of the social gospel and in complying with the mores, particularly in racial matters…they missed much of the biblical emphasis on compassionate responsibility for victims of prejudice and exploitation…and had not awakened to the social implications of biblical ethics here at home—a lack of awareness shared by most Americans of the time. In retrospect, I am distressed that it took me so long to realize that social concern is a vital biblical imperative. (p. 11)

Gaebelein forged the thought processes that find Christian education searching for an overall logic of education which is truly spacious enough to comprehend all knowledge and dynamic enough to develop moral and spiritual maturity in the learner. Frank Gaebelein spelled out a definitive philosophy of Christian education in his Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary. Those lectures were later translated into his much sought after book, The Pattern of God’s Truth (1954).

Scholarship, biblical integration, and compassionate efforts to alleviate the suffering of human needs--these are the three harmonies upon which Gaebelein played out his life symphony. Gaebelein’s balanced life and passionate pursuit of bringing many to salvation and godly maturity has left lasting contributions on the world of Christian school education and the larger world of Christian education proper.

Works Cited

• Grogan, G. W. (1981). Dispensationalism. In J. D. Douglas (Ed.), The new international dictionary of the Christian church [Revised edition.] (p. 303). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
• Ells, R. (1984). Creation, redemption, and doing your best: Gaebelein’s approach to learning. In N. DeJong, (Ed.), Christian approaches to learning theory: A symposium (pp. 13-29). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
• Evory, A. (Ed.). (1981). Frank Gaebelein. In Contemporary authors. Vol.2.[New Revision Series.] Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company.
• Gaebelein, F. E. (1970, July 31). Reflections in retrospect, Christianity Today, 14, 9-12.
• Christianity Today. (1983, February 18). Frank Gaebelein dies at 83. Christianity Today, 27, 27-29.
• Gaebelein, F. E. (1985). Introduction. In D. B. Lockerbie (Ed.), The Christian, the arts, and truth: Regaining the vision of greatness. (pp. 13-48). Portland, OR: Multnomah Press.
• Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1984). The expositor’s Bible commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing house.
• Gaebelein, F. E. (1984, Oct. 5). The creator and creativity. Christianity Today, 28, 33-38.
• Gangel, Kenneth O. and Warren S. Benson. (1983). Christian education: It’s history and philosophy. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
• Hull, Gretchen Gaebelein. (1984, Sept. 24). Frank Gaebelein: Character before career. Christianity Today, 28, 14-18.
• Journal of Theological Society. (1984, March). Memorials, Frank E. Gaebelein, Journal of Theological Society, 27 (1). 127-128.
• Lockerbie, D. Bruce. (1972). The way they should go. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• McLeod, Philip. (1993). The rise of Catholic and evangelical Christian schools in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University,
• Rausch, David. (1983). Arno C. Gaebelein 1861-1945: Irenic fundamentalist/scholar; including conversations with Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein. [Studies in American Religion, 10]. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
• Wright, Dana. (1999). Ecclesial theatrics: toward a reconstruction of evangelical Christian theory as dogmatic practical theology. Part II: The Neo-Barthian Critique of Evangelical Christian Education theory. Chapter five: Frank Gaebelein and the “Pattern of God’s Truth” Revisited, pp. 515-616. Unpublished Dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princton, NJ.