In Vestur-Íslenskar Æviskrár V there is a nice summary of the work of the Unitarian pastort Reverend Valtýr Emil Guðmundsson: “He is the regional head of the Unitarian Church in 11 Midwestern states of the United States and 3 provinces of Canada. He has studied theology at the University of Iceland 1945-1947, at the University of Chicago College 1947-1949 and Meadville Theological School, which is connected to the University of Chicago and the Unitarian’s main seminary and graduated from there as a pastor with a B.D. degree in 1952. He has won many awards for his academic achievements, e.g. D.D – Doctor of Divinity – honoris causa – in June 1978 from Meadville Seminary, Chicago University. In the years 1952 to 1965, he did press work all over the United States, was director of supervision and outreach for the Unitarian Church Society for a time and lastly, as mentioned above, the regional director of the church society in the middle states of the United States and the Canadian prairie provinces, based in Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.A. In recent years, he has been working on a book about the beginnings of the Unitarian movement among Icelanders in the West and was well along with it, when he died suddenly in his childhood home, Borg, while the family was there on a Christmas visit… Reverend Emil came to Iceland several times. First for university studies in 1945-1947, then in the summer of 1973, when the whole family stayed in Iceland, and then for two months in 1981, when he was collecting material for his book about the Unitarian movement among Western Icelanders.”
The summary above ends with information about the pastor’s wife, which follows: “Married June 14, 1951: Barbara Jane Rohrke, b. February 15, 1927 in Chicago. Parents: Lloyd Ernst Rohrke, b. March 13, 1902, teacher, of German descent and his wife Helen Bullard, b. August 15, 1902, sculptor. They divorced in 1930. Barbara has studied at many universities and her specialty is ecology. She has a B.A. degree from University of Tennessee 1950, M.A. degree from Mankato State University in 1965 and Ph.D – Doctor of Philosophy – from Iowa State University in 1969. As an Ecologist, she works at the Metropolitan Waste Control Commission in St. Paul, Minn. and elsewhere.”