John C. Jeske

Jeske, Pastor John Carl Edward,
In February of 1924 God gave a son to John Gustave and Elizabeth Jeske of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The father taught his family the faith and love that are Christianity. The son never wanted to be anything but a Lutheran pastor like his father.

John C. Jeske would spend all but one year of his long ministry in a small Wisconsin triangle, between Milwaukee, Mequon and Watertown. God gave him a love for people, and it was people he served with his mind and his heart and his will and his hands.

In 1948 John served as a Tutor at Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN. In 1949 he was assigned from seminary to St. Marcus Evangelical Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. In 1952 Jeske was called to serve St. John’s, on 68th & Forest Home Avenue, at that time called Root Creek. Christmas of 1969 saw his family move to Mequon where he joined the faculty of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.

During his Seminary years, Professor Jeske served three congregations that were without a pastor: Brown Deer, Grafton, and northwest Milwaukee. Jeske also served as a traveling professor in Siberia and in Japan.

After his retirement from his beloved Seminary in 1995, he served on the pastoral staff of St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Watertown. Here he was thrilled to return to preaching, while also making many personal visits to elderly Christians in their last chapters of life.

John Jeske married Eleonore Pieper of Milwaukee in July of 1951. God gave them five children. Wife and children survive their husband and father. Eleonore “Nonny” of Lake Mills; Mark (Carol) of Milwaukee; Kris (John) Metzger of Wauwatosa; Tom (Liz) of Omaha, NE; Mary (Ross) Metzger of Lake Mills; Lisa (Mark) Ricke of Oconomowoc. There are nineteen grandchildren plus one who preceded her grandfather to the eternal Father’s house.

Through his childhood home and Milwaukee schools, God taught this child of his a love for reading, an eye for the printed word and an ear for languages. Those treasured gifts were part of every day of his twenty retirement years in Lake Mills. He also loved to work with wood, to take his children camping, to plant trees and tend gardens, to travel internationally with his beloved Nonny, and to enjoy all four seasons of Wisconsin.

A visitation will be held on Monday, December 29th, from 3-6PM at Luther Preparatory School’s Chapel, 1300 Western Ave, Watertown, WI, followed by the funeral service at 6PM.
Memorials may be given to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.

“I know that my Redeemer lives!”

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