Dr. Douglas R. Groll is a professor emeritus at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
He retired in 2006 after 19 years of distinguished service as the first director of the Hispanic Institute of Theology (HIT), now the Center for Hispanic Studies. The institute was reorganized and moved to Concordia Seminary in 2006.
He received his Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary (1966) and his Doctor of Divinity from Concordia University in Irvine, Calif. (1999).
Before joining the Seminary, he served as a missionary in Caracas, Venezuela (1966), initially working with rural congregations in eastern Venezuela and helping to implement an extension education program for Venezuelan pastors (1966-78). He served as pastor of The Savior Lutheran Church in Caracas and administrator of the Venezuelan Lutheran Mission and Concordia School (1970-78), and on the board of directors of Augsburg Seminary in Mexico City, Mexico. Returning to the United States, he served as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cleveland, Ohio (1978-87), and director of Lutheran Urban Community Ministry.
He is the author of the book La Adoración Bíblica: Enfoques Hacia La Adoración Hispana (Biblical Worship) (Concordia Publishing House). He has written several journal articles and served as an essayist at the National Historic Assembly (1989).
He and his wife, Marlene, have two children and five grandchildren.