Harold L Yochum

Rev. Dr. Harold Leland Yochum was the ninth president of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, United States. He was installed as its president on October 24, 1946, and served until his retirement in 1969.

After graduating from that same university in 1923 and then earning a master's degree from Ohio State University in 1924, he became a teacher and high school principal in Attica, Ohio from 1924 to 1925. From 1925-28 he taught Latin and English at Capital University. Hr obtained his Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbus, Ohio in 1928. He served as pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Hessville, Ohio from 1928 to 1934 and as pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Detroit, Michigan from 1934 to 1939. He was also a former president of the Michigan District of the American Lutheran Church from 1937 to 1946. Dr. Yochum was beloved as a churchman, educator, administrator and was much sought after as a speaker. He was elected Vice President of the Church, a commissioner to the National Lutheran Council, and president of the American Lutheran Conference. He wrote extensively for the Church papers and published two books of sermons.

In August 1948 Dr. Yochum was appointed a delegate of the American Lutheran Church to the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam, where his travels included England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. The Board of Regents provided trips for Dr. and Mrs. Yochum to Europe in the summer of 1962 accompanying the Chapel Choir, and in 1966 to the Holy Land to celebrate his twentieth year of service to the university as President. In June 1967 the Yochums journeyed to Europe to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Reformation. They traveled to Eisleben, Wittenberg and the Wartburg Castle, and on to Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus.

On July 5, 1928 he married Agatha Amelia Pfeiffer and subsequently had three daughters: Doris, Marilyn and Faith. In the summers they enjoyed being at the family cottage, Cedar Haven, in the Les Cheneaux Islands of northern Michigan.

Rev. Dr. Harold L. Yochum was born on June 7, 1903 in Fostoria, Ohio and died on September 1, 1974 in Columbus, Ohio.