Upon his graduation in 1860, he was ordained as a
Lutheran pastor, and served
pastorates in
New York,
Indiana, and his home state of
Ohio; his last pastorate was at Saint Matthews English Lutheran Church in
Brooklyn, New York, where he stayed seven years. In 1872, Funk resigned from the ministry and made an extensive tour through
Europe, northern
Africa, and
Asia Minor. He founded the
Voice in 1880, an organ of the
Prohibition Party, and he was the Prohibition candidate for
mayor of New York. In 1875 he founded the publishing firm of I.K. Funk & Company, with the help of a Wittenberg classmate,
Adam Willis Wagnalls, a lawyer and accountant. That year he founded and published the
Metropolitan Pulpit (later its name was changed to
Homiletic Review). Perhaps Funk's most important achievement was his
Standard Dictionary of the English Language, the first volume of which was published in 1893. He worked with a team of more than 740 people. His aim was to provide essential information thoroughly and simply at the same time. In order to achieve this he placed current meanings first, archaic meanings second, and
etymologies last. The dictionary was said to have cost
Funk & Wagnalls over $960,000. From 1901 until 1906,
Funk & Wagnalls compiled the
Jewish Encyclopædia. After Funk died in 1912, the publishing house eventually became a subsidiary of
Thomas Y. Crowell Co. Psychic research In his later years, Funk spent time on psychic research. Funk was a believer in
spiritualism and in his book, ''The Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena'', published in 1904, he defended a number of
mediums and
spirit photography. Magician
Joseph Rinn has noted that Funk was easily duped by fraudulent mediums, such as the
Bangs Sisters. Funk had bought several of their 'spirit' pictures, unaware they were produced fraudulently. He also defended
Anna Eva Fay and May S. Pepper, two mediums that were also exposed. ==Personal life==