Rodger Raland Venzke passed away on 25 April 2025, just weeks after a recent move from St. Louis to Phoenix. He had been battling Parkinson’s Disease for several years.
Rodger was born on 24 February 1937 on a farm near Marshfield, Wisconsin. Early in his childhood, his parents sold their farm and moved the family to Shelton, Washington, where his father worked as a carpenter.
After a pre-ministerial program at Concordia HS and Junior College in Portland, Oregon, he entered Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1956. At the beginning of a one-year vicarage in 1959, he married Patricia Lierman, a former classmate at Concordia-Portland.
Ordained in 1961, he served briefly as pastor for two rural churches in northern Minnesota before accepting a call to active duty as a U.S. Army chaplain in 1963. His nearly 30 years in the Army included service as a battalion chaplain in Vietnam, hospital chaplain at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, and two tours in Europe. While a member of the faculty of the Army Chaplain School, Rodger authored the fifth volume of the Army chaplaincy’s history, “Confidence in Battle, Inspiration in Peace,” covering the period from the end of WWII through Vietnam. He later served as the Executive Officer for the Army’s Chief of Chaplains and as the Command Chaplain for the Military District of Washington. His many military decorations include the Legion of Merit. Following his retirement, he was awarded the silver St. Martin of Tours medal for “exceptional meritorious service” as a military chaplain.
In 1990, Rodger retired from the Army and accepted a call to establish a new church (King of Glory Lutheran) in Williamsburg VA. Six years later, he was selected to serve his church body’s Director of Ministry to the Armed Forces – a position he held until his full retirement in 2004.
Rodger was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia, and will be interred beside her in St. Louis. He is survived by his three children: Kimberly McMillan (Allen Ohlstein), Leavenworth KS; Lori (Bradley) Schleier, Phoenix AZ, and Matthew (Michelle) Venzke, Yorktown VA; He’s also survived by four grandchildren: Benjamin McMillan (Sean Fraga), Los Angeles CA; Samuel Schleier (Annie Mellot), Tustin CA; Luke Schleier, San Diego CA; and Alexandra McMillan (Ryan McGill), St Louis MO. Rodger also has two great grandchildren, Sam and Annie’s daughter’s, Marigold and Matilda.
A memorial service will be held at historic Trinity Lutheran Church – Soulard in St. Louis at 10am, Monday 2 June. A private interment ceremony for family and close friends will be held that afternoon at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.
In lieu of gifts or flowers, the family recommends memorial donations to Trinity (trinitystlouis.com) or the American Parkinson Disease Association.
