Ruth D. Koelpin

October 4, 1925 – June 30, 2017

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Honor her for all that her hands have done,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. Proverbs 31:30,31

Ruth Dolores Berg, the second daughter of Gustave and Henrietta Berg, was born on October 4, 1925 in Racine, Wisconsin. Shortly, thereafter, she was born again as a child of God through the sacrament of baptism at Trinity Lutheran Church, Caledonia, Wisconsin. Ruth attended Trinity Lutheran elementary school and spent her childhood years growing up on a farm in the town of Caledonia. The faith planted in her heart though baptism was confessed in the Rite of Confirmation at Trinity on May 28, 1939.

On October 8, 1944, a year after graduating from Milwaukee Lutheran High School, Ruth married Pastor Winfred Koelpin and moved with him to Toledo, Ohio. The following year, the couple was transferred to a small church in Mosinee, Wisconsin and resided there for a little over a year. During the year in Mosinee they were blessed with their first son. In 1946, Ruth returned to Ohio when her husband accepted a call to serve at Arlington Avenue Lutheran Church, in Toledo. During their ten years in Ohio, the two were blessed with three more children. In 1956 Pastor Koelpin accepted a call to serve at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Ruth moved with her family to Livonia, Michigan. In 1985, they moved to Canton, Michigan where they spent their retirement years. Ruth remained living in her home until 2016. The last months of her life she lived in senior apartments.

Although she worked outside of her home briefly as a bank teller and for a longer time as the church secretary, Ruth’s primary roles in life were as wife and mother. God equipped her with many gifts to fill those rolls. Among the many spiritual gifts given her were the gifts of hospitality, service, encouragement, and wisdom. Above all, the Lord blessed her with a deep rooted faith and a servant’s heart that showed in her day to day life. The faithful way in which Ruth filled her roles not only brought abundant blessings to her husband and children, but also brought blessings and an example to her grandchildren, great grandchildren and many others. Truly, “Her children arise and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’” Proverbs 31:28-29

In her last months Ruth struggled with congestive heart failure. On June 30, 2017, the Lord in his mercy and grace took her home to the place he has prepared for her in heaven. She was preceded in death by her grandson Jeffrey Kiepke who went to heaven in 1996 and her husband Winfred who was called home in 2003. Those who mourn her passing include her elder sister Aletta, her brother Herb and his wife Grace, her son Daniel (Carol) of Waukesha, WI; her son Philip (Dianne) of Appleton, WI; her daughter Barbara Kiepke of Tucson, AZ; her daughter Katherine (Robert) Schuessler; 14 grandchildren and 41 great grandchildren. Her mortal remains will be laid to rest in Glen Eden Cemetery where they will await the resurrection to eternal life.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that memorial gifts be made to St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 17810 Farmington Rd., Livonia, MI 48152, and suggests the donor(s) designate to one of the following: to The Pastor Winfred and Ruth Koelpin Ministerial Worker-Training Scholarship Fund within the St. Paul's Foundation, or to the Committee for Multi-Language Publications of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.