Former LCA General Secretary dies

Former LCA General Secretary Pastor Kevin Schmidt has died, aged 85.

He was born Kevin John Schmidt at Lameroo, South Australia, on 9 September 1932, the son of Bernhard Felix Waldemar Schmidt and Anna Lydia nee Scholz. He was baptised and confirmed at St John’s Lutheran Church, Lameroo.

He received his primary school education at Smithville State School and secondary education at Lameroo Area School and Immanuel College.

He graduated from Immanuel Theological Seminary in 1954 and was ordained as a pastor of the Lutheran church at Tabor in Tanunda, South Australia, on 9 January 1955. According to a 12 February 1955 report in the Lutheran Herald, he was the first son of the congregation to have been ordained in its 104 years of existence. He served in parishes and preaching places in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Victoria during his ministry.

Pastor Schmidt served in a locum tenens capacity in 1955 in Canberra; Albury, New South Wales; Kalbar and Ipswich, Queensland; and Sydney. He was then called to South Australia’s South Coast parish, including Victor Harbor, where he served from early 1956 to mid-1960.

He married Barbara Liebich at St Petri, Nuriootpa, South Australia, on 8 January 1958.

Pastor Schmidt accepted a call to Nundah, Queensland, where he served from 1960 to 1967, after which he took on the role of Queensland Director of Church Development until September 1970. He next moved back to parish ministry, after a call to St Stephen’s Adelaide, where he served until becoming LCA General Secretary on 1 December 1984, a position he held until August 1991.

His final parish placement was at Ringwood, Victoria, where he was pastor until his retirement in December 1997.

He died on 24 July 2018 at Fullarton Lutheran Home, South Australia, and is survived by his wife Barbara, and their children Julie, Philip, David and Tim, and their families.