Lewis D Welling

Lewis Dean Welling, 91, passed to the Church Triumphant on December 25, 2015. He was born on January 20, 1924 on a farm near Hillsdale, Michigan. He attended a one-room school through the eighth grade and graduated from Pioneer (Ohio) High School in 1941. Turning 18 one month after Pearl Harbor he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant and pilot on June 27, 1944 but the war ended before he could be deployed to the Pacific Theater. Discharged and returning to Michigan, he married Annabelle Breininger in 1946. Married for 63 years until her death, they began marriage by moving to Phoenix, Arizona where Lew managed grocery stores in Phoenix and Tempe. In May 1949 he received the Sacrament of Baptism at Grace Lutheran Church in Phoenix along with his infant son. He also believed the doctrine of the True Presence and willingly took the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Lew remained an active member of Lutheran congregations all his life, serving as treasurer, council member, and as an usher, while lately sponsoring students at Arizona Lutheran Academy and donating generously to church schools. Recalled to active duty in 1951 for the Korean War after serving as a reservist in Arizona, he was stationed in Okinawa; Ft. Worth, Texas; Abilene, Texas; Salina, Kansas; Newburgh, New York; Thule, Greenland; Vietnam and finally in Sacramento, California where he retired in 1970 after a total of 27 years’ service. He recorded 6,000 hours of flight in the B-29, B-36, B-47, C-54, and EC-121. As a second career, he sold factory-built homes throughout northern California and Nevada before retiring in 1987 and moving to Mesa, Arizona in 1999. He was an active member of the American Legion and the Order of Daedalians. He is survived by his son Richard (Ginger) Welling of Mesa; 1st cousin Paul (Cly T) Welling of Stuart, Florida; “adopted” children Marianne Ratcliff (Kevin) Rainwater of Santa Paula, California and Ivan (Anne) Ratcliff of Portland, Oregon; nieces Rita (Thomas) Baird of Bryan, Ohio, Jean (Tim) Weaver of Napoleon, Ohio, and Bonnie Miller of Springfield, Illinois; and nephew Dennis (Penny) Miller of Pioneer, Ohio. He was preceded in death by his wife Annabelle, infant son David Lewis, his parents, a sister and a brother.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17