Wholistic Health Pioneer, Granger Westberg Dies

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Granger E. Westberg, a retired pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), died Feb. 16 in Downers Grove, Ill., at age 87.  He lived several years with leukemia and other ailments.
     Westberg is credited as a pioneer of religion, medicine and "wholistic health" -- the idea that health care needs to be concerned not only with the body and mind but also with the spirit.
     "Dad has always been ahead of his time," said his daughter, Jane Westberg, Boulder, Colo.  "Dad is best known for his book, 'Good Grief,' and for his pioneer role in conceptualizing and helping to launch the parish nurse movement."
     "Good Grief: A Constructive Approach to the Problem of Loss," first published in 1971 by Fortress Press, has sold more than 2 million copies.  The book is based on a chapter from Westberg's "Minister and Doctor Meet," which Harper published in 1961.  He and another daughter, Jill Westberg McNamara, authored books on "The Parish Nurse" for congregations.
     Born here in 1911, Granger Westberg graduated from Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., in 1935 and Augustana Theological Seminary, Rock Island, in 1939.  The seminary awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1956.
     Westberg served as pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Ill., and as chaplain for Augustana Hospital, Chicago, and the University of Chicago Medical School and Hospitals.
     "At that time there were only a few full-time chaplains," said Jane Westberg.  Most were pastors who had retired from the parish ministry.  Her father was "one of the first clinically-trained chaplains and was a founding member of the College of Chaplains," she said.
     From 1952 to 1964 Westberg served on both the medical and theological faculties of the University of Chicago.  During that time he also taught at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and McCormick (Presbyterian) Theological Seminary, Chicago.
     "Dad challenged the prevailing didactic model of theological education and proposed that theological education be a blend of theory and practice," said Jane Westberg.  "Starting in their first year of seminary, Dad said that students should have clinical community-based educational experiences in churches, hospitals and other settings."
     Granger Westberg was dean and professor of medicine and religion for the Institute of Religion at Texas Medical Center, Houston, and a consultant in continuing education for Hamma School of Theology, Springfield, Ohio.
     While on the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, from 1973 to his retirement in 1981, Westberg directed a wholistic health center.  "Prevention, whole-person care and the church as a healing community were concepts that were at its heart," said Jane Westberg.
     Granger Westberg is survived by his wife, Helen; four adult children Jane, John, Joan and Jill; and eight grandchildren.
     Funeral services will be held Feb. 20 at Grace Lutheran Church, La Grange, Ill., where Westberg was a member.