At the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination in January 1887 he was already quite ill and never fully recovered. He died on 7 May 1887 and was buried ten days later at Concordia Cemetery, where a mausoleum was later erected in his honor.
One of Dr. Walther's lasting legacies was to visit each Lutheran synod in America. He wanted to know which were confessional and which were not. The Wisconsin Synod, at the time a very liberal church body (you would not recognize their position then on church fellowship with their stand today), became a confessional Lutheran body under Walther's guidance. He also had a place in his heart for the Norwegian Lutheran Synod and worked closely with the 17 pastors creating the re-organized church in 1917 (today's ELS-see article previously posted).
Dr. Walther's efforts led to the formation of the Synodical Conference, which lasted almost 100 years (it was dissolved in 1963 when the Wisconsin Synod and the ELS broke away from Missouri over the issue of church fellowship). Walther's vision of missions led the Missouri Synod to be the first Lutheran Synod to go beyond its ethnic heritage and serve others with the Word and Sacraments. A by-product of this effort is the now-famous The Lutheran Hour.
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