Inspired by Albert Schweitzer a Alsatian-German theologian, philosopher, organist, and mission doctor in equatorial Africa, who received the 1952 Nobel Prize for Peace for his efforts in behalf of “the Brotherhood of Nations”, The Albert School focuses not only on training but strives to support, teach and develop skills/talents in all students so that each may reach his/her potential.

Born on January 14, 1875 in a country village in Alsace (then part of Germany; later part of France), Albert Schweitzer was the son of a Lutheran pastor. Schweitzer's father taught him music, a trait he carried with him for the rest of his life.

Schweitzer had always felt a strong yearning towards direct service to humanity. In 1904, he came by chance upon an article in the Paris Missionary Society's publication indicating their urgent need for physicians in the French colony of Gabon. [The following are quotes from Schweitzer: A Biography (1971), written by George Marshall and David Poling (published by and available from The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship)]:

"Of all the hundreds of young men and women who read this piece, none could have been more affected than Albert Schweitzer. When he had finished the article, he put the magazine aside and quietly began his work. But his search was over. He saw his time and place; his future, his life, took clear shape... Schweitzer reached the point of view that atonement for the wrongs that the Christian -- the white man – had done to underdeveloped peoples -- the black man -- was in itself a justification for missions. The following Sunday the sermon he preached included these words: 'And now, when you speak about missions, let this be your message: We must make atonement for all the terrible crimes we read of in the newspapers. We must make atonement for the still worse ones, which we do not read about in the papers, crimes that are shrouded in the silence of the jungle night.'... Later he wrote, 'Our institutions are a failure because the spirit of barbarism is at work in them... Our society has also ceased to allow to all men, as such, a human value and a human dignity; many sections of the human race have become merely raw material and property in human form.'

Many of his studies focused on the life of Jesus and contemporary interpretations of the bible. In 1906 he published The Quest of the Historical Jesus and followed it with The Psychiatric Study of Jesus in 1911 as part of his medical dissertation. Although he had many great writings and works, Albert Schweitzer believed that his greatest accomplishment was his idea of the "reverence for life" which he focused on in his book The Philosophy of Civilization. This idea incorporated the love and respect all humans should have for all kinds of life and their spiritual connection to the universe. He believed that humankind should continue to work towards this balance and live for the benefit of all.  On October 13, 1905, Schweitzer informed his parents and certain close friends, that at the beginning of the winter term he would enroll as a medical student. His destination was to be Africa. His profession would not be music or philosophy or theology, but the practice of medicine... The reason he desired to study medicine he explained as the desire “to work with my hands... For years I have been giving myself out in words' but 'this new form of activity' would not be merely talking about 'the religion of love, but actually putting it into practice.” Shock, puzzlement, and alarm were the first responses to those letters.

Despite all the resistance he encountered, in January 1905, at the age of 30, Albert Schweitzer began his studies in medicine, receiving his degree with a specialization in tropical medicine and surgery at the age of 38. What he had not anticipated was that, even though Dr. Schweitzer had rearranged his life to meet the most urgent need expressed by The Paris Missionary Society, they rejected his request for sponsorship of a hospital in Africa on the basis of his theological views. Albert Schweitzer, minister and now physician, was rejected by the Society on the grounds that "it would only intensify their problem in Aprica by encouraging intellectuals and freethinkers who could only disrupt the mission enterprise and confuse the natives with their theological improvisations”.

Dr. Schweitzer and his wife began a program of fund-raising to raise the money necessary to build a hospital in Africa and maintain it for the first two years. If they could successfully raise the money, they could tell the Paris Missionary Society that their sponsorship would cost them nothing.  Once they had enough money to build the hospital, Dr Schweitzer presented his proposal again to The Paris Missionary Society. They accepted his offer with the understanding that neither he nor anyone involved in the hospital would be involved in any actions that would cause offense to the missionaries or their converts contrary to their beliefs.

With the help of the natives, Schweitzer built his hospital, which he equipped and maintained from his income, later supplementing with gifts from individuals and foundations in many countries. They began their health care delivery in a chicken coop and gradually added new buildings.  The purpose of his work stemmed partially out of a need to live Jesus's claim that we should all be "fishers of men" but also out of guilt.

He formulated what he lived in the words, "My life is my argument." In 1953, at the age of 78, Dr. Schweitzer was honored for his humanitarian work with the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 1952. Physician, lover of animals, minister, scholarly theologian, environmentalist, musician and musical scholar, anti-nuclear activist, philosopher, husband, father, friend --  all facets of Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

Albert Schweitzer continued to discuss religion and philosophy around the world and worked with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell in opposition of nuclear weapons. He died on September 4, 1965 in his hospital in Lambarene, Gabon. Schweitzer is buried nearby on the banks of the Ogowe River. Despite the occasional criticisms of Schweitzer's medical practice as being autocratic and primitive, and despite the opposition sometimes raised against his theological works, his influence continues to have a strong moral appeal, frequently serving as a source of encouragement for other medical missionaries.