Howard Walter

Howard Arnold Walter (August 19, 1883 – November 1, 1918) was an American Congregationalist minister, author, and hymnwriter.

Howard Walter
Undated photo of Howard Walter
Born	Howard Arnold Walter (1883-08-19)August 19, 1883 New Britain, Connecticut, US
Died	November 1, 1918(1918-11-01) (aged 35) Lahore, British Raj
Burial place	Indian Christian Cemetery Lahore, British Raj
Alma mater	Princeton University (1905) Hartford Seminary
Occupation	Minister author hymnwriter
Notable work	"My Creed" ("I Would Be True")
Spouse(s)	Marguerite B. Darlington ​ ​ (m. 1910)​
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Born in New Britain, Connecticut on August 19, 1883,[1] Howard Arnold Walter was the son of Henry S. Walter, superintendent of the Stanley Rule & Level Company.[2] Walter graduated from Princeton University in 1905, and in 1906, he traveled to the Empire of Japan to teach English at Waseda University. There he wrote his mother a poem on his philosophy of life ("My Creed"), which became the hymn "I Would Be True" years after she sumbitted it to Harper's Magazine. When Walter returned to the US, he studied at Hartford Seminary, was ordained a Congregationalist minister, and was an assistant minister in Asylum Hill, Connecticut for three years.[1]

Walter married Marguerite B. Darlington[3] on November 21, 1910 in a Brooklyn, New York service officiated by James Henry Darlington.[2] On November 17, 1911, Marion D. Walter was born to the family in Hartford, Connecticut.[4] In 1913, the family traveled to Lahore in the British Raj to allow Walter teach and proselyte the Mohammedans there.[1] Two years later on April 7, 1914, Ruth A. Walter was born in Lahore.[4]

Walter died of the Spanish flu[1] in Lahore on November 1, 1918; he was buried there in the Indian Christian Cemetery, plot 211.[5] His book, The Religious Life of India: The Ahmadīya Movement, was published posthumously.[6] On May 29, 1938, Dorothy Walker Bush had "My Creed" inscribed in the confirmation Bible of her son and future US president, George H. W. Bush.[7]