Archief luth-2109 - Albert Riep fonds

Albert Riep was born in Grosliebenthal, Russia in 1911 to Jakob and Magdalene Riep, Germans who settled near Odessa. His father, a merchant, died while Albert was ten years old. His mother remarried Karl Muench. Albert was educated at the Technische Schule in Odessa where he began to study Engineering. In 1929, due to the political situation in Russia, he emigrated to Canada with his uncle Ernst to the Trochu area in Alberta. He worked as a farm labourer for a year, then came to Edmonton and enrolled at Concordia High School and Junior College. He completed his studies there during six years then continued to Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri where he graduated in 1940. Riep married Louise Elizabeth Shulz and they had three children. He was called to serve a congregation in British Columbia until 1942 when he returned to Edmonton to join the faculty at Concordia College. While working he completed studies at the University of Alberta, receiving his Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees. Other than his duties Riep was involved in the preparation of German language courses for the Provincial Correspondence School, writing and broadcasting German language programs for the CBC radio and teaching Russian classes to the Canadian Army. His duties at Concordia included teaching German and Greek language classes. He served as the Chairman of the Division of Languages and Humanities at Concordia for 25 years. Reip received his doctorate from Indiana University in 1966 and the following year took a position as Chairman of the Department of Foreign Language at Wartburg College there. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1980 and returned to Edmonton where he continued to serve the Concordia University College as a member of the Seminary Task Force, and Lutheran Church -- Canada as editor of the ABC District News and as a translator for the Lutheran Historical Institute. He died in 1995.