LUTHERAN FOUNDATION BEARS PASTOR'S NAME

The Walter J. Keisker Foundation was established at a banquet in Keisker's honor Wednesday night that also served as his surprise 97th birthday party.

Friends and colleagues of Keisker, who spent a lifetime serving the community and the Lutheran church, used words like "warm," "compassionate" and "visionary" to describe the man who helped start the local chapter of the Lutheran Family and Children's Services of Southeast Missouri (LFCS).

Keisker was the pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Jackson for 30 years, from the mid-1940s until the late-1960s. He then served as pastoral assistant until 1990 and now resides at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau.

Keisker was instrumental in the establishment of the local chapter of the LFCS in 1960. He served as pastoral counselor for LFCS from 1960 until 1973.

This organization has provided many social services to the area for more than 30 years, including adoption, counseling and crises intervention.

"It humbles me," said Keisker of the recognition. "I'm not deserving of that kind of acknowledgement. When you're given such an honor, you can't let it go to your head. It's all in the human equation."

Keisker said that means others did their share of work and he really wasn't anything special.

"There are others who are really worthy workhorses," he said. "I was just trying to give direction and guidance the best I could."

While Keisker doesn't feel he did anything special, there are many who disagree with him.

Dale Rauh, a LFCS board member and longtime friend to Kiesker, called Kiesker "outspoken, warm and talkative" and the obvious choice for the foundation name.

"He is a person who saw the need for the church to reach out in the community and fill certain social needs," Rauh said. "As a result, the agency was created."

Organizers hope the foundation bearing his name will help the LFCS continue providing services to the community with the hope it also will create new services.

"He had a real vision for the services that could be offered," said Tammy Gwaltney, administrative director of LFCS. "The foundation is to make sure those things continue and, hopefully, to help offer new services."

Organizers hope the foundation can raise $97,000 by the end of the fiscal year, but they didn't just pull that number out of a hat, that's how old Keisker turned yesterday.

"We thought that was very appropriate and another way to honor the pastor," said Gwaltney, one of the coordinators for the banquet, which was held at the Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau.

"He is a very compassionate individual," said Joel Sarrault, pastor of the Eisleben Lutheran Church in Scott City. "He is knowledgeable in so many areas."

Keisker got his honorary doctorate two years ago from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.

Gwaltney called him a "very caring individual," adding that he was involved in a lot of things, including the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, the Historical Association and other organizations.

"The lives he's touched aren't just in the church," she said. "He's a very special man."