Former Mount Prospect pastor left a lasting impression on his flock
Kris Zeile remembers her father, the Rev. Erhard Adolph (John) Zeile, as a shepherd of people.
"He loved visiting people in hospitals. It wasn't like he went in and threw holy water on everyone. He really sat down and talked to people. He really was interested in people and their families," the Barrington woman said of her father, the former pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Mount Prospect.
John Zeile died Sept. 19 at Hearthside in Sister Bay, Wisconsin. He was 92.
He left a lasting impression on the worshippers at St. Paul.
"People are still saying to me we had no idea how good we had it, because no one could deliver a sermon and educate us better than your dad," Kris Zeile said.
Church members Harold and Carol Busse, who owned Busse's Flowers and Gifts, remembered good times with Zeile and his family.
"We have had several different pastors here, and he was one that was always very special to us, both in helping us grow in our faith and bringing us closer to the Lord, and we will always remember him for that," Carol Busse said.
John Zeile was born in Saginaw, Michigan, the youngest of six children born to Andrew and Hilda Zeile. He attended Concordia Lutheran Seminary and served in several Michigan churches before moving to Mount Prospect.
His nephew, the Rev. Carl Voges, said the Mount Prospect church "was a real good fit for him. He and his family were able to plant roots deeply in the community. He loved being in the Chicago area."
After serving as an associate pastor, Zeile became official pastor in 1960, leading the congregation that had grown from 35 in 1913 to more than 2,200 by the 1960s. By that time, the church was constructing a new building at Busse Avenue and School Street.
Voges remembered his uncle as an independent thinker, who was always committed to serving the people of his parish.
"You always had the sense you could talk with him about anything," Voges said. "He just had that kind of an openness and or a compassion, and I think that was one of the reasons he was considered to be a very effective pastor."
Kris Zeile said her dad was a man of substance and "an incredible optimist." She said he also had an unbelievable sense of humor, as evidenced by the cartoons he drew. He played basketball as a youth, and was an avid reader, especially of history.
When he retired in the 1980s, Zeile and his wife, Jean, enjoyed their final decades in Door County, Wisconsin, where he served as an interim/guest pastor and teacher in several congregations and enjoyed the beauty of the Lake Michigan shore and his beloved collies. Jean, who died in 2012, was married to John for 64 years.
Zeile is survived by his sons Andrew of Wauconda, Mark of West Bend, Wisconsin and his daughter, Kris Zeile, of Barrington. His passing was preceded by his wife Jean, and his eldest daughter, Martha, in 2009. He is also survived by three grand daughters and two great-grand daughters and his brother, Louis Zeile, of Saginaw, Michigan.
A memorial service will be Saturday, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m. at Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin. Voges will co-officiate the service.