Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer, OM (14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German and then French theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire. Schweitzer, a Lutheran, challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by historical-critical methodology current at his time in certain academic circles, as well as the traditional Christian view. He depicted Jesus as one who literally believed the end of the world was coming in his own lifetime and believed himself to be a world savior. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of "Reverence for Life", expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, now in Gabon, west central Africa. As a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and influenced the Organ reform movement (Orgelbewegung). Schweitzer's passionate quest was to discover a universal ethical philosophy, anchored in a universal reality, and make it directly available to all of humanity.

Albert Schweitzer in "Hindsight"
Albert Schweitzer was still a celebrity in 1953, the year science fiction writer Pete Lundquist realized that fellow author Mark Gordian had somehow plagerized a story from Lundquist that Lundquist hadn't even completed yet. When Lundquist shared this with editor Jim McGregor, both men contemplated the possibility that Gordian might be a telepath, although McGregor wondered why Gordian would read Lundquist's mind instead of Albert Schweitzer's, among other more influential people.