How did you find Community Lutheran Church?

When I retired in 1998 from teaching at Grace Lutheran Church (Escondido) and my wife retired in 1998 from teaching at Christ Lutheran church (La Masa), we each decided that we were not going to join the church of the other spouse. I figured if I am not going to go to Grace than I would go to Community.

Tell me about your career as a school teacher.

I was born in Saint Louis back in 1935. My dad was a Lutheran School teacher; my mom eventually became a Lutheran school teacher. I became a Lutheran School teacher and my wife became a Lutheran school teacher.

I graduated from Concordia College in River Forest, Illinois in 1957 and for the first 10 years I taught in the Chicago area, and then moved to California in 1968. I stayed in the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County area until 1986. At that time, my wife Marilyn who was an early childhood specialist became the Director of Early Childhood Education for the Synod in Saint Louis, so I took a position teaching freshman and sophomore theology classes at Lutheran High South in Saint Louis. We were there for 8 years and then decided that we wanted to be back in California where our kids and grandkids were living.

I became a principle after my first year of teaching. Out of the 41 years of teaching, 28 of those years were in administration. I was also a church organist and choir teacher for 18 years.

How did you and Marilyn meet?

She was also a student at Concordia. She worked behind the line in the kitchen and eventually my good friend talked me into asking her out. I asked her out my junior year. We would go to the movies, or go get ice cream, or hang out down at a common area on campus and it blossomed. Now there was a rule at Concordia that no one can become engaged until the last quarter of the school year, otherwise you’d get bounced out. So, we got engaged in our last quarter.

Tell me about your family

Marilyn and I had three sons together. Two of my sons live in the Thousand Oaks area and my third son, David, and his wife live here in Escondido. They are all fine Christian gentlemen. When I was principle at Oxnard back in 1982, my wife was teaching second grade at the time and there was a young girl by the name of Wendy Davis in her class. Wendy’s mom asked if we would take Wendy under our wing for five days and eventually we got her for seven days (and so forth). We applied for aid to help her along and eventually Wendy wanted to take our Beccue name. So we have three sons and a daughter. I also have five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.  The good Lord took Marilyn in ’02.

Then I found Nancy, she was in choir here with me in Escondido. We would go out to get coffee or a piece of pie after choir rehearsal. She lost her husband and I lost my wife so we sort of commiserated with one another and eventually it became love and we married in 2004.

Alzheimer’s hit her after she had three surgeries and had to go under anesthesia three times and it affected her mind. We wound up putting her into the health center here and the good Lord took her last year. 

What are you up to these days?

I lead Sunday morning bible study at Community and I attend Wednesday and Saturday morning bible study. At Redwood terrace, I make my car available whenever a resident needs transportation. I have also been involved the past two years with health and human services here in Escondido where I provide my washer and dryer to a single mom in need on Saturday mornings.

I play softball twice per week. During the season, I umpire high school girls fast pitch softball games. I also love to read, maybe 4 – 5 hours per day. I’ll go out with the guys on occasion as well.

Oh! And I love to go fishing with my kids in Alaska. We try to go every other summer to the Homer area. We fly into Anchorage and rent and RV and drive down to Homer. We’ve been there six years. We plan to go again next summer, good Lord willing, and we’ll have four generations there because my great grandson Justin will be six at that time.

Where else have you traveled?

Well here is a good story… For our 24^th [wedding] anniversary, our three boys came over and brought a huge box with them and they said, “Here is your anniversary present.” Well, they had already given us an anniversary present, but they said “No, no, this is for next year.” So we opened the box, and inside was another box. We opened that box, and inside was another box. I think you see where this is going. We finally get down to the last of the boxes, and there was an envelope. I’m going to start crying as I tell you this, but it says, “All expense paid trip to Israel to study for 3 weeks at the University Institute for Holy Land Studies.” Following the 3 weeks of study for Marilyn and me both, then there is two extra weeks for travel for Germany and Italy after that. It was amazing. These guys, who were not even 20 years old yet, could come up with thousands of dollars in cash to give us that gift. Studying there in Jerusalem was one of the most thrilling experiences I’ve ever had.

I’ve had so many great experiences in life. The Lord has been so good to me.

Tell me about your baseball glory days.

Back in 1953, I graduated high school, and the Chicago Tribune had an article announcing open try outs for the Saint Louis Cardinals. There were probably 200 or more kids that turned out that day. Luckily, one of my buddies and I got a nod from them to come back next Saturday. After that, twenty-two of us from the Chicago area got an invite to go down to Florida. They said, “When the AA boys are in town we’ll get you to scrimmage with them. When they are not in town, you’ll practice amongst yourselves.” So here I am at shortstop during practice, and the coach on the side lines says, “We’ve got to get more balls to you guys.” So he is hitting ground balls out to us in between pitches. Now common sense would say that the coach over there is not going to hit a ground ball at the same time at the pitcher is going to through a ball to the batter, but it happened. I heard, “Duck, Les!” and I wrenched to the side, but the ball glanced off of my head and put me in the infirmary for three days with a concussion. They sent me back to Chicago on a bus, and that ended my eighteen days of glory.

WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY TREE PROJECT? 

Community Lutheran Church is a growing congregation worshiping 550 people between two campuses each week. As we continue grow, it is important that our relationships with one another continue to grow as well.  Over the coming months, our church website and Facebook page will be introducing you to a member of Community that you may or may not know yet. You’ll have the opportunity to learn a little about each member and delight in the different personalities and lifestyles that come together each week to worship our Savior.

When you join us for worship on Sunday mornings or events throughout the week, we encourage you to reach out and connect with someone you don’t normally talk to. As Pastor Vogelsang so eloquently reminds us, we are all “dear Christian friends.” We just don’t know each other yet! I’d like to change that one photo at a time.

"So that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." - 1 Corinthians 12:25-27