- Bay View - Milwaukee
A great place to worship and grow

    Marilyn and Ross Lanza are our star couple for October 2007. They have worked in so many capacities for our church it’s hard to know where to begin. An interesting beginning for their connection to St. Luke’s as a couple is that they were married Dec. 6, 1952 in the undercroft of St. Luke’s before the upper church was constructed. They had met at their work places, Jim King Chevrolet when it was housed on KK just south of the fire station, where Marilyn was the cashier and Ross was a mechanic. Three years later on Jan 3, 1955 Ross joined the fire department. He worked in actual fire fighting for 10 years after which time he went to the repair shop and eventually was promoted to battalion chief and then ended his career as assistant superintendent of the Bureau of Construction and Maintenance. He retired in 1989.
    Marilyn and Ross’s activities in church are legend. Ross had been active in the boy scouts from the time he was eleven years old: 1936. After his stint in the Air Corp during WWII, Fr. Harding asked him to be assistant camp director for the boy’s camp activities at Camp Webb. Soon he was camp director for the boy’s week. Pop had added a girl’s camp week and a family week. Ross then became scoutmaster and worked with the scouts for 47 years. In the last 10 years of that time he was advisor for the Explorer post at church. He remembers that Dick Klaesing was one of his scouts as well as Fr. Terry McCall, deceased, and Ken Jacobus, brother of Bishop Russell Jacobus. Russell was in scouting with Nestor Ostrowski while Ross was working with the Explorers.
    Ross was a member of Vestry for 25 years, always returning after the required year off between terms. He served as Jr. and Sr. Warden. He did innumerable maintenance jobs. Marilyn remembers the many times he was up on the roof of the church replacing shingles. That had to come an end! Even after his operations and illness we still see him working as an usher on Sunday mornings with his daughter Susan………always doing what he can.
    Marilyn has worked just as hard at women’s jobs in church. She was always available for kitchen duty, bazaar projects, etc. She is famous for her quilts which were auctioned off at bazaars. She has been a member of the altar guild for many years and remains in that post.
    Most obvious to all church members is that she is always with the choir leading it with great enthusiasm and skill. She remembers a few years when she stepped forward to help with the choir when it was at very low ebb. It grew in size, and was then directed by a vocal music teacher from Fritsche Jr. High for about 2 years until he became a Mormon and left the church. Joan Luetzow who had been directing the children’s choirs took up the slack until 1977 when Marilyn again became director for what has become 30 years of continuous direction right up to the present. She has always donated her time. Add it up and it is 33 years of directing. In those years the choir not only sang on Sundays but also went out to nursing homes to entertain. Marilyn has been so dedicated and loved by all. Submitted by Joan Luetow

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