Longtime St. Charles church pastor dies at 90
Friends and relatives of Rev. Arthur Holmer said the longtime St. Charles church pastor did whatever he could to help people - from working to improve race relations in the 1960s to visiting patients in hospital.
Holmer, 90, died Wednesday in Batavia.
"He was always friendly and would always talk to anyone he ran into," his son Richard Holmer said. "He was just outgoing and energetic."
Richard Holmer also said his father was not afraid of hard work.
"We lived next door to the church and he could not walk from the parsonage to the church without picking up scraps of garbage off the sidewalk along the way," Richard Holmer said.
Born in Revovo, Pa., in 1919, Holmer moved to St. Charles in 1962, where he served as senior pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church until his retirement in 1985. Holmer remained active in the community in his retirement, said Pastor Mark Larson, who is now the senior pastor at the St. Charles church.
"He was pastor emeritus, which is a signal of how highly regarded he was in our parish," Larson said. "He was an effective and highly regarded leader in the wider Lutheran Church. It is very much a loss for our community."
After retiring, Holmer served 10 years as visitation pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church in Batavia. He retired for the second time in 1999 at the age of 80.
"One of his strengths was visiting people, whether they were shut-ins or hospital visits," Richard Holmer said. "My parents were into caring for people."
After graduating from Augustana College in 1942, Holmer enlisted and served in the Army Medical Corps at the 114th General Hospital in England during World War II.
"He was very down-to-earth and that's what I think people like about him," Richard Holmer said. "He put himself through school working in a factory and enlisted in the Army. He was a hard worker, just like many of the kids who grew up in the Depression."
Holmer is survived by his three children Richard, Peter and Mary, as well as seven grandchildren.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 1145 N. Fifth Ave., St. Charles. Burial will be private in Union Cemetery. Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday at Yurs Funeral Home, 405 E. Main St., St. Charles.