William Krenning
February 2, 1931 - September 14, 2009
Obituary
The eldest of five children, William Krenning was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 20, 1931, the on of William and Lydia Krenning. During his elementary school years, he attended the Christian Day School at St. Jacobi Lutheran Church. In preparation for a pastoral vocation, he boarded high school and junior college at St. Paul’s College, Concordia, Missouri, graduating in 1951. Through out his high school and college years, he honed his hoop skills as a letterman starter for both the high school and college basketball teams. To help pay for his schooling, Bill worked summers on farms in Illinois and in canning factories, in a drugstore, as a clerk in an A & P grocer, in a bank, a car salesman for a Ford dealership and as a vacuum cleaner salesman. In 1956, he graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, having vicared for a year at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Decatur, Illinois.
His first charge was in Pasadena, Texas, as missionary-at-large. Soon, Good Shepard Lutheran Church was organized. Pastor Krenning served there until 1961, when he became pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Marquette Heights, Illinois, just outside of Peoria. In 1965, he assumed the pastorate of Grace Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1967, He was called by the Missouri District as missionary for the Kansas City north area. Subsequently, a new congregation, King of Kings Lutheran Church, was formed. He served as pastor there until accepting the call to Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Seattle in the spring of 1974. In 1989, he began his service for St. Matthews Lutheran in Washougal, Washington, until his retirement in 1997. In retirement, Bill served seven years as visitation pastor and led various bible studies and classes for St. Lukes until his health diminished.
Through out these years, he served in various leadership capacities–not only for the regional circuits and districts of his pastorates, but also, as a crisis chaplain with the fire department, the King county police and the Washington State Patrol. Moreover, he was always a learner, continuing his education through a number of different ministry programs, building his extensive personal library of books and thousands of hours listening to tapes.
While attending seminary, he met Lois Louise Leininger, a native of Kensal, North Dakota, who was teaching elementary school at St. Matthew Lutheran School in St. Louis. They were married on June 14, 1953. Lois taught school at various locations for a total of ten years and was the main bread winner during the last years at the seminary. Their marriage has been blessed with three children: Becky married to Sam Sayers, adopted as an infant in 1959 while Bill and Lois were living in Texas; David married to Jennifer, grandson, Michael, 15 & granddaughter, Jessica, 8, born in 1961 in Peoria, Illinois; and Jonathan, 1965, in Pittsburgh married to Stephanie, grandson, Luke, 12 & granddaughter, Faith, at the age of 11 preceded grandfather into heaven in 2005.
Bill’s interests were broad and varied over the course of his life. Among them would be Monday golf with his fellow preachers, fishing, camping, hiking, gardening, walking/jogging, traveling and photography where he took thousands of pictures and slides.
Dad, we are going to miss your twinkly eyes and those special “footdings”. Jonathan says You opened up doors for me to the Lord that I will always be grateful to you for. Dad, especially for introducing me to the Holy Spirit. Stephanie says I loved our conversations and freedom to talk about anything. Thanks for loving me into the family so well! Jonathan says Thankyou for being an example of an unending hunger for learning.
We love you Dad! God bless you Mom!
We are so sorry to learn of Pastor’s passing. We know that he led a full life of doing for others all to let them know of eternal happiness, which he can now know. Lois, I will still remember how you bailed me out at Messial Lutheran School when I needed a 3rd grade teacher. May you, your children and grandchildren remember all the good times of Pastor’s life and the future he left them in Christ.