June 30 Today in OPC History

The Rev. Robert L. Atwell performed the wedding ceremony of the Rev. Arthur W. Kuschke, Jr., to the former Charlotte Milling on this date in 1951. At the time, Arthur was the librarian for Westminster Theological Seminary, a position he held from 1945 until his retirement in 1979. Before marriage, Arthur had graduated from Wheaton College in 1936 and earned his bachelor’s of theology from WTS in 1939 and a master’s of theology in 1940. He was ordained as an evangelist by the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1940 and served for four years as the assistant to the field secretary at WTS before becoming the librarian. A San Francisco State graduate, Charlotte had moved from San Francisco to become the first teacher at Kirkwood Christian Day School, educating first- through sixth-grade students in a basement room of Kirkwood OPC in Kirkwood, Pennsylvania. During a weekend visit to Ned and Grace Stonehouse’s home, she met Arthur during a walk around WTS. Arthur was pulling weeds in the tennis court.

After the births of their three children, Charlotte taught music and German to elementary students at Philadelphia-Montgomery Christian Academy from 1965–1990. During his tenure as librarian, Arthur oversaw the construction of Montgomery Library and the expansion of its collection. From 1949 to 1964, he served as secretary of the Committee on the Trinity Hymnal, which produced the original Trinity Hymnal. He also labored as chairman of the Committee on Candidates and Credentials of the Presbytery of Philadelphia from 1951–1979.

Picture: Arthur and Charlotte Kuschke on their wedding day