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Bishop Walter Conrad Klein, 1971

Walter Conrad Klein (1904-1980) was the fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana, serving from 1963 to 1972. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he grew up in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and became a Naval Chaplain in 1943. In 1950, he became professor of Old Testament literature and languages at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and in 1959 he became Dean of Nashotah House Seminary in Wisconsin. Elected bishop in 1963, he is best remembered for having restructured the diocesan organization. He was gifted in conducting retreats, but he was personally very formal and reserved, with a very High Church or Anglo-Catholic liturgical style. He was interviewed in 1971 by the Rev. Robert Center in South Bend.

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