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Zerger, Melvin D.

2/2/2007

MELVIN D. ZERGER

AUGUST 27, 1923 - FEBRUARY 2, 2007

Rev. Melvin D. Zerger, 83, passed away on Friday, February 2, 2007 at Hutchinson Hospital, Hutchinson, Kansas.

He was born on August 27, 1923, in Moundridge, Kansas, the son of Benjamin and Mary Krehbiel Zerger. He graduated from Moundridge, Kansas, High School in 1941. He received the call to the ministry in 1960 while living in Florida. The family moved to Trumbull, Nebraska, where he served the United Methodist Church. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hastings College in 1965 and graduated from St. Paul’s School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri, in 1968. He served several different churches in the Nebraska Conference of the United Methodist Church for over 20 years. He also served the United Methodist Church in Richmond, Kansas, before moving to the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church where he served churches in Zwolle and Thibodaux before retiring. He has been a resident of Wesley Towers, Hutchinson, Kansas, since 2006.

On April 8, 1947, he married Viola M. Flickner at Moundridge, Kansas. She survives along with three sons, Bryce Zerger, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Terry Zerger, Gunnison, Colorado and David Zerger and his wife Lucy, Kansas City, Missouri; seven grandchildren, Peter, Maggie, Andy, Robyn, Shelly, Jennifer and Heather; four great-grandchildren, Allison, Belah, Jonathan and Sophia; three brothers, Reuben Zerger and his wife Eleanor, Marion, Kansas, Benjamin Zerger and his wife Joyce, Hutchinson, Kansas and Theodore Zerger and his wife Vera, Salina, Kansas; four sisters, Ann Schrag and her husband Milo, Moundridge, Kansas, Kathleen Wedel and her husband Kermit, Minneapolis, Kansas Luella Loganbill and her husband Varden, Moundridge, Kansas and Carol Jenner, Las Cruces, New Mexico; a sister-in law, Marjean Stucky, Moundridge, Kansas; a sister-in-law Florene Goering and husband Jim of Hutchinson, Kansas, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. His parents, two brothers, Robert John and James Zerger and a sister Ellen Zerger preceded him in death.

Funeral services were held on Sunday, February 4, 2007, at 3:00 PM at Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home & Crematory Chapel, Hutchinson, Kansas, with Pastor Rick Thornton, a classmate from St. Paul’s School of Theology, officiating. Interment took place on Tuesday at 10:00 AM in Eden Mennonite Church Cemetery, Moundridge, Kansas.

Melvin was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and especially fishing throughout his life so the move to Zwolle, on the shores of Toledo Bend reservoir, was most welcome. Wherever they moved in Louisiana he and Viola enjoyed very gracious hospitality and upon retiring brought home with them countless stories of wonderful friends and neighbors, many who still correspond.

Bryce Zerger

Source: Louisiana Conference Journal, 2007; p. 270.

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Zerger, Melvin D.