Earl Bowman Marlatt

Earl Bowman Marlatt was born in Columbus, Indiana, on May 24, 1892, one of twin sons of a Methodist Episcopal minister. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from DePauw University in 1912, worked in teaching and journalism, and served during the First World War as a second lieutenant in field artillery. His later study included Harvard, Boston University, Oxford, and Berlin. He earned the S.T.B. from Boston University School of Theology in 1923 and joined its faculty that year.

Marlatt became dean of the School of Theology in 1938 and served until 1945, when he accepted an endowed chair at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology. After retiring from teaching in 1957, he worked as curator of the Treasure Room and Hymn Museum at New York's Interchurch Center. His career joined Methodist theology, religious education, poetry, and hymn editing; he was associated with The American Student Hymnal and the anthology Lyric Religion.

He wrote Are Ye Able in 1926 for a Boston University consecration service, giving it the original title Challenge. Its union of a Gospel question with an institutional call to Christian vocation reflects the educational world in which he served. Marlatt died in Winchester, Indiana, on June 13, 1976.