The Rev. Ulrich W. Mauser, a former dean of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary whose experiences as a youth in wartime Germany made him an advocate for peace, died Saturday of complications following heart surgery. He was 81 and lived in Penn Township.

"He was a lovely man. Wise, brilliant, with a scholarly mind. He was gentle of spirit, yet firm in belief," said the Rev. Andrew Purves, professor of pastoral theology at Pittsburgh Theological.

He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and was 6 years old when Adolf Hitler came to power. His parents' anti-Nazi instincts were compounded by a family tragedy when the Hitler Youth took his older brother, Rudolph, on a mountaineering trip for which the boys were untrained and ill-equipped, and Rudolph died in a fall. Later, when Hermann Goering was vacationing near them, their father confronted the senior Nazi about the lack of concern for the lives of boys in the compulsory youth organization.

In 1944, the family home was destroyed by British bombers.

A heart ailment kept the future theologian out of the German army, said his son, Ulrich Mauser Jr., of Penn Township.

"The impact of the war shaped my father's faith," he said.

He earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the University of Tubingen in Germany. In between, he studied at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he met and married Margaret Malcolm.

They returned to Germany where he was pastor in a town filled with refugees of many nationalities who were fleeing the Soviets. Together the young couple held worship services at a camp where refugee families were crammed into squalid barracks. The Mausers brought food and other necessities to try to help them, Mr. Mauser said.

In 1959, he took a post as campus minister at Oregon State University. Five years later he was hired to teach biblical theology at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Then, although his doctorate was on Martin Luther, in 1977 he became a New Testament professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

His goal was to "instill in my students the desire to become lifelong students of any part of the Scriptures and of Scripture in its entirety," he once told a seminary publication.

"I feel strongly that the health and vigor of the life of the church will be significantly assisted by serious, constant and dedicated attention to the message of the Bible with the help of all the critical tools of scholarship, while maintaining a very high view of the authority of Scripture."

Dr. Purves considered him "a father in my academic career."

"I remember days when he was dean and I was a young assistant professor who was sort of lost half the time," he said. "I would wander into his office and he always had an hour for me, just to chat and encourage me. I owe him a debt that is not repayable -- but he wouldn't want it to be repaid. I think it was his joy to be a mentor and a guide."

He was chosen as dean in 1981, when there were deep divisions among the faculty.

"He was the person that we all admired and trusted," said Charles Partee, professor of church history and a longtime colleague at the seminary.

After the seminary made retirement at 65 mandatory, Dr. Mauser chose to continue teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary. During his 1990-96 tenure there he wrote what may be his best known book, "The Gospel of Peace."

"His major point is that there are all kinds of studies of war, but he is trying to exegete the many biblical views of peace," said Dr. Partee, whose own about-to-be published book on John Calvin is dedicated to Dr. Mauser.

He was also the author or editor of several other books in English and in German. For many years he edited the journal Horizons in Biblical Theology: An International Dialogue.

In 1996, he and his wife returned to Penn Township to be near their grandchildren. But he continued writing and had recently been at work on a book about the holiness of God.

"He had a real sense of the Lord God Almighty. His understanding of God was not of a small god. Within that framework, peacemaking and the shalom of God were very important to him," Dr. Partee said.

In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by three more sons, Martin of Shaler; George of Upland, Calif.; and Thomas of Chesapeake, Va.; and five grandchildren.

Visitation is today from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the John M. Dobrinick Funeral Home, Trafford. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Level Green Presbyterian Church, Penn Township. A private interment will take place in Union Cemetery, Irwin.

Donations may be made to Level Green Presbyterian Church, 105 Olive Drive, Trafford, PA 15085.

First Published: July 8, 2008, 3:30 p.m.