Rev. Ralph E. Unger was called home to be with his Lord and Savior in the early morning of Friday, June 13, 2014. Ralph was a much beloved pastor, friend and counselor during his ministerial career. He began his ministry serving congregations in Iowa and Northern Michigan. He then moved to the Detroit area with his family where he served St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Detroit for 14 years, and then St. Paul Lutheran Church in Farmington Hills for 16 years before retiring in 1995. Upon his retirement, he continued to serve congregations in the Detroit area, first as an interim pastor and then as a pastoral assistant. He attended seminary at Concordia in St. Louis, MO, and met his wife, Barbara as they worked together on the 1953 summer staff at Camp Arcadia, a Lutheran retreat center in northern Michigan. He subsequently served the Arcadia family as Dean, Manager, and Spiritual Director, and the Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod as Circuit and District Counselor in Michigan. He was blessed by God to be a leader, and he committed his life to serving God and His family. To his friends, Ralph was an avid outdoorsman. In the spring, he loved fishing on the Two-Hearted River, and in the fall was the joy of deer hunting at the Kalitta farm with his good buddies from St. Michael's Belknap and St. Timothy in Detroit. He enjoyed playing golf and tennis with his children and friends, hosted a racquetball tournament for several years running for his sons and sons-in-law, was a good bowler and a lover of jokes and puns. He showed patience and great humor teaching all of his kids, and then his grandkids, how to fish, golf, and play cribbage. He had a beautiful singing voice and a remarkable ear for music. He learned to play the accordion when he was young and confounded his kids and grandkids with his ability to play things by ear on the piano and, in later years, to play first double bass and then bass guitar in a blue grass band, The Lonesome Mountain Boys. As a man, Ralph was both reverent and irreverent, humble and proud (to proclaim the Gospel), irascible and kind, impatient and patient, flawed and forgiven. His greatest gift was his ability to treat each individual as a forgiven child of God, worthy of love. He is mourned by his wife of almost 58 years, Barbara (nee: Bruening), his children, Robert (MaryAnn), John, Susan Wyeth (Jay), Victoria Gallagher (Patrick) and Sarah Boyle (David), his 21 grandchildren, Kate, Karyn, Jason, David, Kaylin, Leah, Jacob, Ty, Noah, Melainey, and Emma Unger; Justin and Liesel Unger; Ryan, Jason, Austin and Brandon Wyeth; Daniel and Molly Gallagher; Matthew and Mikayla Boyle, his 6 great grandchildren, Connor and Sabrina Byron; Jackson and Bennett Dosch; Maclin and Avery Unger, his sister Lois, and his many dear friends and congregants, all of whom are comforted knowing that he is face to face with his Savior Jesus, joyfully and eternally. His visitation will be held on Sunday, June 15, 2014, 3:00-9:00pm at D.S. Temrowski & Sons Funeral Home, 30009 Hoover Road, Warren, MI. His Funeral services will be on Monday, June 16, 11:00am at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 30003 Ryan Road, Warren, MI. The family requests that memorials be designated to Concordia Lutheran Seminary, St. Louis, MO, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Warren MI, or Camp Arcadia, Arcadia, MI.Please share memories at his guest book.
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