Marion D. (Marion Daniel) Shutter

Born in Ohio in 1853, Marion Daniel Shutter became a prominent Universalist minister and public intellectual in Minneapolis. Sources from the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Carl Sandburg Historic Site note that he spent his ministerial career at the Church of the Redeemer in Minneapolis and was known as an energetic preacher, lecturer, and author.

Shutter wrote several books, including Applied Evolution, Child of Nature, and Wit and Humor of the Bible: A Literary Study. He also played an important role in church leadership, serving as the first president of the Universalist General Convention in the early 1910s.

Beyond the pulpit, he was involved in civic and reform work. A Minnesota history exhibit credits Marion and his wife Mary with helping found Unity House, described as the first settlement house in Minnesota, reflecting the same social concern that runs through much of his writing.