Ralph Eugene Diffendorfer

Ralph Eugene Diffendorfer (August 15, 1879 – January 31, 1951) was an American clergyman.

Biography

He was born on August 15, 1879 at Hayesville, Ohio to Franklin Diffendorfer and Addie Leora Arnold. He was educated at Ohio Wesleyan University, Drew Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary. He was assistant secretary of the Epworth League from 1902 to 1904, and from 1904 to 1916 was secretary of the Missionary Education Movement in the United States and Canada. The following year (1916–1917) he was educational secretary of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension and the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was associate secretary of the Centenary Commission of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension in 1918, and in 1919–1920 served as director of the Home Missions Survey of the Inter-church world movement. In 1920 he was appointed secretary of the department of education of the Committee on Conservation and Advance of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago.

In 1907, he helped Charles C. Overton design and promote the Christian flag.

Christian flag

He died on January 31, 1951 in Madison, New Jersey.

Publications

• Child Life in Mission Lands (1904)
• Junior Studies in the Life of Christ (1904)
• A Modern Disciple of Jesus Christ—David Livingstone (1913)
• Thy Kingdom Come (1914)
• Missionary Education in Home and School (1917)
• The Church and the Community (1920)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. Missing or empty |title= (help)