Writer
Journalism

Mr. Willmar Thorkelson

Rome, Canberra, Geneva, Amsterdam, Minneapolis: Willmar Thorkelson has travelled the world on the religion beat. In his opinion, the religion beat is the best beat on any newspaper. If a journalist takes the religion column seriously, Thorkelson has commented, it will cover stories from all aspects of life. As Thorkelson sees it, the religion section overlaps with every other section in a publication, whether it’s politics, science, education, or the arts. The religion reporter thus has a variety of topics to cover that no other journalist enjoys.

Over the course of his 60 year career, Willmar Thorkelson has certainly made the most of the religion beat and of his career in journalism. Born in 1918 in Trail, Minnesota, Thorkelson was educated in the nearby towns of Gonvick and Fertile. As an undergraduate at Concordia College, Moorhead, he edited The Concordian, elevating the publication to its first All-America rating as a campus weekly. Concurrently, he served as a campus correspondent for the Fargo Forum. While at Concordia, he won the Minnesota State College newswriting contest. The prize was a dream come true for any young Minnesota writer: a day’s employment on the St. Paul Dispatch.

With his journalism career officially launched, Thorkelson wrote for the Bismarck Tribune and the Detroit Lakes Tribune before pursuing a Master’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. In 1942, he began what would become a forty year assignment at the Minneapolis Star, primarily as that paper’s religion editor. The length of his relationship with the Star is out-distanced only by his 5 decades as a correspondent for the Religion News Service and The Lutheran. In addition, he has contributed to The Christian Century, Christianity Today, National Catholic Reporter, United Methodist Reporter, Episcopal News, Presbyterian Outlook, New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Thorkelson’s career has taken him throughout the United States and to numerous denominations and religious groups. He has written countless articles about the most important developments in the religious life of the United States, covering the major conventions of the Protestant denominations, the annual conferences of the United States Catholic Bishops, and the meetings of Jewish rabbinical groups.

Thorkelson has also travelled around the world covering religious events and issues of international importance. He was a press officer for the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland and covered all seven WCC assemblies to date: Amsterdam, 1948; Evanston, 1954; New Dehli, 1961; Uppsala, 1968; Nairobi, 1975; Vancouver, 1983; and Canberra, 1991. He and his wife, Maxine, are planning to attend the eighth assembly this December in Zimbabwe. In 1961, he made a ten week tour of the world’s major religious centers and was part of an audience with Pope John XXIII, granted to members of the Foreign Press Association. He returned to Rome in 1963, 1964, and 1965 to cover the Second Vatican Council. In addition, he has reported on the meetings of the Lutheran World Federation, the Anglican World Congress, and the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops. He has also covered several Billy Graham crusades.

Since 1982, Thorkelson has continued to free-lance and contributes regularly to The Lutheran and the Metro Lutheran, an independent monthly newspaper published in Minneapolis. He holds an honorary degree from Concordia and has been honored by numerous organizations, including the Religion Newswriter Association, the Religious Public Relations Council, Minnesota Council of Churches, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Associating, and the Associated Church Press.

In his capacity as a journalist, Willmar Thorkelson has served as correspondent, providing information about pressing current religious events. Equally as importantly, he has acted as an ambassador, to Christian denominations and to others, in the United States and around the world. Next stop, Zimbabwe!