OCALA, FL, April 11, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Conrad H. Massa, Ph.D., with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Massa celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Returning home from service with the Army of Occupation, Japan Theater, at the end of World War II, Conrad Massa was no longer certain that he wanted to prepare for the engineering profession he had anticipated. As he sat with the choir in his home church and listened to a guest preacher he realized he was being called to the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus began preparation for a 40- year professional career of 20 years in pastorates of three churches and 20 years of teaching and administration in theological education.
The son of a working family growing up in Brooklyn, NY, in the great depression of the 1930s faced the need for seven years of higher education. Under the GI Bill of Rights he applied only to Columbia University in New York. He was admitted and graduated with honors in three years. Admission to Princeton Theological Seminary for graduate work he was awarded a Fellowship at graduation in 1954 with a Master's degree.
Called to serve the Elmwood Presbyterian Church in East Orange, NJ, he was ordained in that denomination. The congregation was located in a racially changing populated area and had received its first African-American member. By the end of three years, Conrad Massa had ordained that man as a ruling elder of the church upon his election by the congregation. The congregation had a membership with about 10% African American when Conrad Massa left to pursue further education.
The Fellowship he had received from Princeton Seminary had allowed him to continue studies as a part-time commuter. The Seminary was expanding its PhD program and offered him an instructor's position with full scholarship which made him the first graduate with a PhD in Theology and Communication. He became an Assistant Professor. However, the turmoils of the 1960s challenged him and he was called to be the Senior Pastor of the Old First Presbyterian Church in Newark, NJ, in 1961.
The first congregation of this historic church had founded the city of Newark in 1666 and named the new city Newark after the birthplace of its pastor, which was Newark-on-Trent in England. The present congregation traced its roots to 14 different ethnic and racial groups including Chinese. The downtown located church building had been erected in the late eighteenth century and was restored and rededicated at the 300th anniversary.
Shortly after this celebration Conrad Massa was called to be Senior Pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY. The city had suffered racial riots and was facing a long period of healing. The stresses were dramatic. The Church was located within walking distance of downtown and was involved deeply for years in the civils rights movement. Its congregation created the first federally approved housing development corporation for scattered site housing. The congregation of 1800 members formed a dozen "landlord" groups which would oversee the acclimation of former migrants and other families to city living and employment. When Conrad Massa left this pastorate after twelve years, the leading Gannet paper had his photo on its Sunday morning newspaper with the legend "He helped a city grow up." While in Rochester he appeared in a daily five minute TV segment entitled "Today with the Book." Also he had been invited by the new Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen to teach a course in preaching to students at St. Bernard's Seminary.
Conrad Massa was called back to Princeton Seminary in 1978 to be its Dean and a Professor. Over the next eighteen years he published articles and book reviews while serving on 25 search committees in the renewal and expansion of the faculty. He attended ecumenical seminars in Rome and Canterbury. In 1991 he was the keynote lecturer for one week at the Institute of Theology at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, which was attended by 800 Christian pastors from South Korea. On Sunday of that week he preached to over 5,000 people in the largest Presbyterian church in South Korea. He participated in a World Conference on Religion in Australia and visited and gave a lecture in South Africa. For ten years he served on the Board of Trustees of Lafayette College in Easton, PA where he delivered a Baccalaureate Address and was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities. In 1996 Conrad Massa officially retired from Princeton Seminary and became Dean of Academic Affairs Emeritus and Charlotte Newcombe Professor Emeritus.
In retirement to Ft Myers, FL, Conrad Massa has been a volunteer nature guide and supervised others in the AARP tax program for seniors. Moving to Ocala, FL in 2003 he became President of the Marion County Audubon Society and took part as an actor in a local theater group. He states that his motto for his life is a sentence from one of the Confessions of the Presbyterian Church, USA. It reads, "Life is a gift to be received with gratitude and a task to be pursued with courage." He lives with his wife Anna (Ann) whom he married in 1951. In 2018 they celebrated her 90th birthday and his 91st one day apart in October. They have two children: Barbara, retired in Ocala, FL, and Stephen Massa, MD, PhD in Burlingame, CA.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Conrad H. Massa, Ph.D., has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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