Albert Schweitzer.

Albert Schweitzer began playing organ at age nine in his father’s church, guided by his grandfather, a church organist. Born on January 14, 1875 in Kaysersberg, Alsace, he grew up in a bilingual household speaking German and French. His father and both grandfathers were pastors, embedding him in a tradition of religious and musical devotion.

In 1905, Schweitzer published a biography of Johann Sebastian Bach in French, later rewriting it in German 1908, which became the definitive edition. That same year, he decided to study medicine at the University of Strasbourg, earning his MD in 1913. He then moved to Lambaréné, French Equatorial Africa now Gabon, where he established a hospital in a tent, treating sleeping sickness, leprosy, and performing surgery. By the 1950s, the hospital had expanded to 500 beds. Schweitzer also recorded Bach’s organ music in the 1940s and 1950s and wrote the philosophical work The Quest of the Historical Jesus 1906. During World War I, he and his wife were interned in France; there he drafted The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization 1923 and Civilization and Ethics 1923.

Schweitzer married Helene Bresslau in 1912, a nurse who assisted him in Africa. Their daughter Rhena was born in 1919 and later worked as a lab analyst at the hospital. His cousin, Anne-Marie Schweitzer, was the mother of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Schweitzer and Helene’s relationship began in 1898 as students, and she supported his career change to medicine despite opposition from his family.

Schweitzer’s hospital in Lambaréné became a model for accessible medical care, treating thousands. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, donating the prize money to build a leprosy clinic. He worked alongside Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell against nuclear weapons, co-founding the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy in 1957. Schweitzer is remembered as a Renaissance man — a doctor, musician, theologian, and humanitarian who embodied his philosophy of Reverence for Life.