Obituary of Carl William Beyerhelm

Carl William Beyerhelm, the son Carl and Esther Beyerhelm was born on Sunday, January 16, 1927 in Cadillac, Michigan, at 10:00 a.m. The doctor who was attending remarked, “Hmmm, just in time for church.” Perhaps the doctor was foretelling Carl’s future. Memorial services will be held at 10am Saturday, January 29, 2022, at Zion Lutheran Church in Iowa City. There will be a time of visitation following the services at the church. (Masks will be required and provided) In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to benefit many through the CommUnity Crisis Services and Food Bank of Iowa City (formerly Crisis Center) in Carl’s memory. Carl’s parents moved from Cadillac, Michigan to Greenville, and later Grand Rapids, following work opportunities for his father. Carl graduated from high school in Grand Rapids, followed by service in the U.S. Army, which included a tour of duty in Japan. There Carl taught a Bible class in a middle school and made friends with a Japanese family whose daughter translated into Japanese the lessons he taught. After his discharge from army duty, he had serious thoughts about going into the ministry; he always remembered the words of the pastor who taught him the catechism, saying “Carl you have a gift for theology”. To pursue this sense of having a work to do, he completed junior college in Grand Rapids, completing his BA at Augustana, Rock Island, Illinois, graduating magna cum laude with election to Phi Bata Kappa. He pursued his ministerial education at Augustana Seminary and was ordained on June 15, 1955 on call to the Augustana Lutheran Mission Tanganyika (now Tanzania). He and his wife Beatrice, whom he married in Rock Island in 1953 and their first born Carl David, 8 months old, were assigned to serve the Ushola Lutheran Church in Central Province. In their second term, Carl was called by the Central Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania to work with the young of the synod and then for his last two years of their second term, to teach at Makukmira Theological Seminary. While in Tanzania three more children were added to the family: Christopher Paul, Mary Ellen, and Ruth Wandoa. On returning to the US, Carl and his family served three town and country parishes in Iowa: Grace, Marathon; Zion, Gowrie, and Immanuel, Mediapolis. While at Gowrie, Bobbi Francisco was added to the family as a foster child and remains part of the family still. Upon retirement in 1989, Carl and Bea moved to Iowa City where Carl served part-time as a chaplain the VA Hospital, wrote a monthly column for the Press-Citizen’s Writers Group, volunteered for 25 plus years at the Crisis Center Food Bank and read with the children at Grantwood School. Carl died January 19, 2022, and his body was donated to the University of Iowa Hospital. He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife Beatrice; grandson, Christopher Carl Beyerhelm, and son-in-law, Daniel Murphy. He is survived by his children, Carl Beyerhelm (Wendy Nelson), Flagstaff, Arizona; Christopher (Barbara) Beyerhelm, Oakton, Virginia; Mary (Tim) Huey, Nora Springs, Iowa; Ruth Beyerhelm, Iowa City, Iowa; and Bobbi (Roger) Petersen, Adel, Iowa; 4 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.