Ernst W. KARSTEN

KARSTEN, HUENEKE, DEWITT, BEEM, HUMMEL, BRAATZ, GREENE, WELLS, WELTNER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/7/2008 at 12:33:08

October 09, 1991
The San Diego Union-Tribune, California

Retired Lt. Col. Ernst W. Karsten, who served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army and who was founding pastor of Penasquitos Lutheran Church in 1970, died Sunday in Pomerado Hospital in Poway. He was 86. Born in Renwick, Iowa, he graduated in 1925 from Wartburg College in Clinton, Iowa, and graduated four years later from Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. After completing work at the seminary, he and Elva M. Hueneke were married. The Rev. Karsten served parishes in Oak Forest and Midlothian in Illinois after ordination into the ministry of what then was the American Lutheran Church. He joined the U.S. Army in 1937 and served during World War II as regimental chaplain of the 232nd Infantry Regiment of the 66th Infantry Division.

German was spoken in his home when he was a child and his fluency in that language led to his assignment as chaplain to German prisoners of war in Stockton, Calif. After the war, he served as chaplain with the American Army of Occupation in Germany. He returned to the United States after resigning his commission. Rev. Karsten was pastor of the National Lutheran Council in Vallejo and
founded Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bakersfield. He later rejoined the Army and served as chaplain at a number of posts in the United States and overseas. He was featured in a cover story in the Lutheran Standard in 1952. The article told of his work among the Okinawan people. After leaving the Army in 1963, he was chaplain at the Lutheran Service Center in Seoul, Korea. Later, he was pastor of a mission in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. He was pastor at the Lutheran Sevice Center in San Diego from 1966 to 1969 and then founded Penasquitos Lutheran Church. He was active in community and military service organizations, including the Rancho Bernardo Kiwanis Club and the American Legion Post in La Mesa.

Rev. Karsten books included "God's Truth In the Hands of Sinners," which was published in 1979. That same year, Wartburg Seminary awarded him an honorary doctor of divinity degree.

In addition to his wife, survivors include eight children, Joan DeWitt of San Jose, John Karsten of San Marino, Carla Beem of Oshkosh, Wis., Wanda Hummel of Fargo, N.D., Kathryn Braatz of Brea, Randall Karsten of Colbert, Wash., Gail Greene of Carlsbad and Melise Wells of La Mesa; two sisters and a brother, Irma Weltner and Esther Karsten, both of Waverly, Iowa, and Irwin Karsten of Mesa, Ariz.; 19 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Penasquitos Lutheran Church. Poway-Bernardo Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. Burial will be in Riverside National Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be sent to Ernst and Elva Karsten Scholarship Fund, Wartburg Seminary, 333 Wartburg Place, Dubuque, Iowa, 52001.