In Memoriam--David George Truemper

Today--October 30--I remember a good friend--David Truemper--whose untimely death occurred five years ago.

David and I met as freshmen in high school at Concordia College-Milwaukee in September 1953. For 51 years,our lives would intertwine and intersect. We considered each other's parents our own. For 30+ years, we had a"standing date" for the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University, which, for 20 of those years, Dave served as Director.

Dave was a theologian. He was a Doctor of the Church. Though his own church body rarely recognized the great gift God had given them in David, theologians world-wide recognized Dave's scholarship, particularly his insights into the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Today I give thanks to God for God's gift of David to the Church and for David's relentless pursuit of "telling the story" of the Gospel.

But, even more than that, I thank God for God's gift of David to me--as a dear friend, a colleague, a confidant.

"Rest eternal continue to grant to David, O Lord,

and let light perpetual shine upon him."