Obituary of Donald Arthur Koch

Christ Jesus has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10).  On 13 April 2023 God blessed His servant Don with a holy death and took him home to rest in the arms of Jesus to await the resurrection of the dead. 

Donald Arthur Koch was born on 28 February 1934, near the Manitoba village of Shellmouth.  No matter where he went in later years, life on the farm would remain in his thoughts and dear to him. 

In 1951 he took the bold step of leaving home for the very first time to begin studies at Concordia College Edmonton.  To his parents, Andrew and Maria, and (younger) brother, Norman, it might as well have been on the other side of the world, especially when he could not come home that first Christmas.  Upon arrival he was told he would have to spend two years in grade 12 to complete all the credits he needed, yet in 1955 he graduated from Concordia College with the highest academic standing of his class.  That same year, he entered Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. 

His parents, he once explained, lived in “abject poverty”.  Even so, they would find ways to put aside and send him small amounts of money.  And although sometimes he had to answer to the school for working too many hours, it was the only way he could afford to stay in school.   

Theological training complete, on 24 July 1960 he was ordained, in the same country church (Zion Hoffenthal), by the same minister (A. H. Fuhr), as he had been confirmed and baptized years earlier.  Within days of ordination, he became pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Melville.  It was a time and place where English was secondary to German in the Church and the clergy was revered (“Herr pastor”).  In those years a beautiful house of worship would be erected.  Change, adversity, and God’s blessing would come together in such a way, the 16 years at Zion would leave lasting bonds for him with that church and its members.   

On 27 January 1964 Don received the gift of a beloved companion in his spouse, (Isobel) Marguerite Redenbach, a lovely young organist in Melville from a family of 18 children.  God would bless them, not only with 59 years of married life together, but with the gift of children:  David, Kim, and Tracy. 

Not every moment was spent at work, and my dad became active in curling.  As skip, with members of Zion and others, he would play in and around Melville.  A touching testimonial to those days, a close friend forever after would address him as “Champ”.   

So too, fishing became a favourite activity.  Whether nearby on a Saturday or to distant locations, my dad would take me, even from a tender age, with friends from Zion and others, to fish with our little boat.  Sometimes it was just the two of us!   

In 1976 he accepted his second assignment, pastor of St. Peter’s in Port Colborne, Ontario, a city on the edge of Lake Erie and only minutes from Niagara Falls.  Being late for an appointment because of a train passing through was now replaced by being late because of a Great Lakes or ocean-going ship passing through.   

In 1978 he returned to the church of his vicarage (1958-59) to accept his third assignment, that of principal pastor at Grace in Regina, the largest congregation in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in Canada at the time.  It was a time and place where more than one wedding could take place on the same Saturday, a number of children could be gathered around the Baptismal font at the same time, and accommodating all the worshippers on Christmas Eve could mean setting out stacking chairs in the nave aisles and narthex.   

It was about this time he began travelling abroad.  In the years from 1981 through 2004 he hosted 14 tours, mainly to places of historical (Christian) significance in Europe and Asia.  He was especially fond of the Holy Land, where he went five times.  He said taking people there was part of his ministry. 

He mentored student pastors on vicarage, eight in all.  On 6 May 2000 he was recognized by Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary (St. Catharines) as a “Friend of the Seminary”.   

He initiated a broken-relationships support group (“Rebuilding”) and served as its leader for 20 years.  Friendships he made through this ministry have not dimmed despite the almost 20 years since its last meeting (2006).   

After 23 years of service, in 2001 he left Grace.  An opportunity arose to journey to the Ukraine, where for two months he ministered through an interpreter.  He returned home and served as vacancy pastor for 13 months at Mount Olive, Regina, and then for 17 years at Living Christ, Lipton, until the congregation became too small to continue and closed.   

Ministering to the ill and the homebound was the part of ministry he loved the most.  At the time of his own recent hospitalization, he was making monthly visits to the homebound members of Living Christ to bring the gift of Holy Communion.  He was sending weekly sermons by mail and email to these members and others, a habit born in the early days of the pandemic.  Recently he had begun taking part in German services at Mount Olive, the only language he spoke until his first day of school at age seven and in small way a return to the days of preaching in German. 

People were important to my dad; he wanted to be present whenever he could help, and we lost count of how many official acts (baptisms, confirmations, marriages, burials) he performed.  It was not uncommon for people to come up to him, in a store or on the street, because he officiated at some event for them long ago.  Sometimes he was recognized merely by the sound of his voice.   

“It is a privilege to be a pastor!”, he would say, and he feared the day he might not be able to continue as one.  He loved being with people, and he loved to impart and teach the Word of God.  He was known for his sense of humour, which some felt made him a more approachable pastor, and for his strength of character, which helped him persevere at times of adversity.  Right to the end, his mind remained sharp and his thoughts on his pastoral responsibilities to others. 

And he remained my mother’s primary caregiver, even as declines in her health and his, made this increasingly difficult.   

All the above, his 89 years, he loved to relive.  “I remember it like yesterday!”, he would say.  If only he were here to tell me just one more time!   

My dad will be missed dearly by (in his immediate family):  Marguerite, who incorporated into his ministry the gift of music through her love for it; David; Kim (David) Coleman and their children, Nathan (Brittanie), Haley, Michael (Madeline), Sydney, and Mason; Tracy (Keith) Christman and their children, Lucas and McCall; and Lillie, a rescue dog whose unique personality captured his heart. 

We are indebted to the Regina General Hospital’s Cardiac Care (3A) and Neurosciences Inpatient (5A) units and the Pasqua Hospital’s Palliative Care Unit, for the loving care given my dad in his last days with us.   

Please join us on 5 May 2023 at 2 p.m. at Mount Olive Lutheran Church (2015 4th Avenue North) in Regina for a funeral service and, since my dad considered fellowship necessary at times like these, lunch afterwards.  Interment will take place privately at a later date. 

In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift to Mount Olive’s memorial fund or Lutheran Church—Canada’s Ukraine Aid Fund.  Let your gift help bring someone to faith in Christ Jesus!