Retired Wisconsin pastor makes second career of filling in

The Rev. R.F. Westendorf has been a short-term vacancy pastor at St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on Spokane’s north side for only a brief time, but he’s made the most of it. He and his wife Katherine are from Wisconsin but have two daughters living in North Idaho.

“It’s just a joy to meet with them, go out to eat,” said Katherine Westendorf.

“It’s really been a treat,” pastor Westendorf said.

Though he’s nearly 85 years old, Westendorf leads the congregation with ease, his voice carrying through the sanctuary without needing a microphone. On a recent Sunday about 50 people gathered to hear him preach on materialism and greed.

Westendorf has been at St. Matthew’s since Ash Wednesday. The church hired a new pastor in December, but the new pastor isn’t able to take his position until April. The church tried doing without a vacancy pastor for a short time, but then asked for one in February, Westendorf said.

The couple were only too happy to leave their Wisconsin home for a few weeks in order to spend time just across the border from their daughters.

Westendorf served a church in the Milwaukee area for nearly 40 years, retiring in 2007 because he began having difficulty hearing. The couple moved to Dalton, Wisconsin, to live out their retirement years. But it didn’t really work out that way.

He quickly took on assignments, including three months in Grenada, eight years as a part-time assistant pastor in Montello, Wisconson, and then 10 months as a vacancy pastor in Dalton. He still has problems with his hearing, but he relies on hearing aids and his wife to help him make out what is being said.

Westendorf insists he never really planned to retire.

“I was supposed to die with my boots on like my father and grandfather,” he said.

Being a pastor is in Westendorf’s blood, or perhaps his DNA. His grandfather was one of the first Lutheran pastors in the Michigan synod in 1891. His grandfather had eight children, five of them boys. Four of the five, including Westendorf’s father, became pastors.

Those four pastors had five sons among them. All five, including Westendorf, became pastors. “It was kind of a family thing to do,” he said.

It wasn’t something that was pushed, but Westendorf grew up in a parsonage. “You saw the respect and appreciation pastors got,” he said.

He initially became a teacher and coach in Lutheran schools, then became a pastor.

But the line of pastors may end with him. He has one son and three daughters. None of them is a pastor, but two of his daughters have married pastors.

Westendorf said he and his wife plan to return home to Wisconsin when their time in Spokane is up in mid-April, even though they love the area.

“We love our little house there in Dalton, and the garden in the backyard,” he said.

When asked if he will stay retired this time, Westendorf shook his head.

“That’s what we thought last time,” he laughed. “It’s really good to be able to use my few remaining talents rather than sitting at home waiting to die.”