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Serving God for 60 years

ISHPEMING – When Rudolph Kemppainen, a farm boy from the little town of Salo in Hancock Township, was attending seminary, the same thought kept invading his brain.

“When I was in seminary, I wondered time and again ‘why am I here? Couldn’t I serve God in some other way? How will I overcome my fear of speaking in public?'”

Kemppainen did overcome that fear, evidenced by one particular moment in a storied career as a Lutheran pastor.

“One highlight of my ministry was to be invited to go to Finland,” he said. “I preached to a crowd of more than 40,000 people in Nurmo, Finland, in 1976. It was no different than preaching to anybody. I was confident.

“Some of the bishops and pastors there were amazed at my language abilities being a third-generation Finnish American. But there I was, preaching in Finnish to a Finnish audience.”

Kemppainen is being saluted for his 60 years in the ministry with a special gathering at 2 p.m. Sunday at Bethel Lutheran Church in Ishpeming.

Born on Dec. 3, 1931, as the sixth of eight children of William and Eliina (nee Puska) Kemppainen, Rudy grew up on a dairy and potato farm in Salo.

“I felt the calling (to the ministry) already when I was very young in Sunday School,” he said. “The pastor of the church I belonged to, Rev. Isaac, was very encouraging in terms of supporting my calling as a minister.”

Rudy attended a one-room school house through the eighth grade.

“I did attend high school thanks to my mother who made arrangements for me after the Salo School to room and board at my Aunt Flora’s in Hancock, so I could attend Hancock High School. If she hadn’t done that, I would have been left picking rocks at the farm.

“I’d probably still be picking rocks.”

His mother’s support played a big role in another piece of Kemppainen’s life journey.

“I learned the Finnish language at the great encouragement of my mother. That was beneficial to my future vocation,” he said. “I have spent 60 years as a bilingual minister, speaking in both the Finnish and English languages.”

Kemppainen graduated from Hancock High School in 1949; from Suomi College (what is now Finlandia University) in 1951; from Suomi Theological Seminary in 1955; and from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago in 1963 with a master of divinity.

He was ordained to the gospel ministry on June 19, 1955, and his first call was to two churches in downstate Kaleva and Lake City.

But something else important happened to him through Suomi College: He met his future wife when she was a student there while he was attending the seminary. Rudy Kemppainen and Darley Anderson, who hailed from Ironwood, were married June 12, 1954, in her hometown.

“Congregations that have called me received two servants of the church with that one call. Darley has always been such a helpful spouse. She has been everything you can imagine in the leadership of the church as well, choir director, historian, writer of pageants, organist, Sunday School teacher …”

The Kemppainens have four daughters – Anne, Faith, Gloria and Sarah – and a son, Philip. Now they also have six granddaughters and two great-grandsons.

After serving for three years in lower Michigan, the Kemppainens returned to the Upper Peninsula. Rudy served as pastor at First Lutheran Church in Wakefield from 1958-1966, then moved the family to DeKalb, Illinois, where he was pastor at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church until 1969.

That was the year the family moved to Negaunee so Rudy could become senior pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, a post he held until 1991.

“That’s another highlight, serving Immanuel for the longest tenure of service in that church’s history, 22 years,” Kemppainen said. “No one has surpassed it.”

While at Immanuel, Kemppainen preached at Finnish-language services regularly.

“In a sense, my retirement was the end of an era at Immanuel, the end of the immigrant generation there. The Finnish services ended there when I retired.”

Rudy and Darley moved to Ishpeming after his retirement. He continued to fill in at churches when their ministers were unavailable until three or four years ago.

And he did a monthly Finnish-language service at Bethel in Ishpeming until 2012.

“It was at Juhannus (the Finnish mid-summer) and it was Bethel’s 125th anniversary year when we had the last Finnish service,” Kemppainen said.

The Sunday gathering will include two former Bethel Lutheran ministers who are Rudy’s friends: The Revs. David Van Kley and Wally Leno.

“Some of our family will be there as well,” Darley said.

The public is invited to attend.

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