Harry Dixon Loes

Harry Dixon Loes (1892–1965) was an American gospel composer, lyricist, arranger, editor, evangelistic musician, and teacher. Born Harold Loes in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he later adopted the middle name Dixon in honor of A. C. Dixon, a pastor associated with Moody Church in Chicago. He studied at Moody Bible Institute and pursued additional musical training in Chicago. Before joining Moody’s faculty, he served in church-music positions and spent more than a decade in evangelistic work.

In 1939 Loes joined the music faculty of Moody Bible Institute and remained closely identified with Christian music education for the rest of his career. Hymnary credits him with a very large output of gospel texts and tunes, and he also edited songbooks for children and youth, including Sing, Boys and Girls, Let Youth Sing, and Singable Songs for Children. Representative works associated with him include “All Things in Jesus,” “Blessed Redeemer,” “Love Found a Way,” and “Shine for Jesus Where You Are.”

Loes’s connection with “This Little Light of Mine” is frequently misunderstood. Strong recent hymnological research does not support the popular claim that he wrote the original song around 1920. What is documented is his 1943 arrangement in Singspiration Three, where he introduced several additional stanzas that later became familiar in children’s and evangelical singing. His broader legacy belongs to twentieth-century gospel-song publishing, congregational music, and Christian music education rather than to original authorship of the older African American song.