Otto Paul (O. P.) Kretzmann (May 7, 1901 – September 14, 1975) was an American Lutheran pastor, professor, author, and long-tenured president of Valparaiso University.
Otto Paul Kretzmann was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1901 and grew up in New York City in a Lutheran family.
He attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated in 1924 with a master's degree in sacred theology.
[1][3] From 1924 to 1934 Kretzmann was a faculty member at Concordia Theological Seminary, located at that time in Springfield, Illinois.
He became executive secretary of the Walther League—an international Lutheran youth organization named for theologian C. F. W. Walther—in 1934, and served until 1940.