Albert Simpson Reitz

Full Name: Reitz, Albert Simpson, 1879–1966
Birth Year: 1879
Death Year: 1966

Albert Simpson Reitz was an American Baptist minister and hymn writer active in the first half of the twentieth century. He was born on January 20, 1879 in Lyons, Kansas, United States. Reitz was the son of Methodist clergy and later pursued his own Christian ministry. Early in his career he worked with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and traveled as a musician with evangelist Henry Ostrom. In 1917–1918 he attended the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. After completing his theological training, he served as pastor of the First Baptist Church, Berlin, Wisconsin (1918–1921), the Rosehill Baptist Church, Los Angeles, California (1921–1926), and the Fairview Heights Baptist Church, Inglewood, California (1926–1952), where he was pastor for 26 years.

Reitz wrote more than one hundred gospel songs and hymn texts during his lifetime. Hymnological records attribute to him numerous texts that appear in hymnals and songbooks, including Teach Me to Pray, Lord, Teach Me to Pray, I Know That Some Day, I Have a Redeemer, O Worship His Name, I Was Lost in Sin When Jesus Found Me, and The Shepherd of Love Is Seeking the Lost. Many of his texts were published individually and in collections of gospel music.

Reitz married Elsie May Oehmcke on August 29, 1918 in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, and they had at least three daughters. After retiring from active pastoral ministry in 1952, he continued to reside in Inglewood, California. Reitz died on November 1, 1966, at the age of 87 and was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.