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FORMER PASTOR - DEVOTED YEARS TO MISSIONARY WORK THE REV. LEONARD J. SCHULZ
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), March 2, 2005
The Rev. Leonard J. Schulz was so influenced by a neighbor who had been a missionary in New Guinea that he eventually spent 15 years ministering to the people of India.
Mr. Schulz, former pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Avalon, died last Wednesday of complications from a stroke. He was 84.
He had lived in Ross but had spent the past five years at Passavant Retirement and Health Center in Zelienople.
Mr. Schulz and his wife arrived in India in 1947, one year after they were married and four months before the country gained its independence from Great Britain.
They worked for the American Lutheran Mission and were stationed in southern India, where Mr. Schulz was assistant manager of a mission high school. They lived in bungalows with no electricity and suffered through several years of drought
"We were out in the country and it was pretty primitive," said his wife, Margaret "Peggy" Schulz.
After a furlough, Mr. Schulz returned to India with his wife for a five-year term as manager of a hospital for people with leprosy.
Those suffering from the contagious and disfiguring disease were driven from their homes and ostracized by the community, his wife recalled.
"It was our favorite term because we could be so helpful to people who were so unloved," she said. "Because they found love and shelter, they were more ready to listen to the Christian message of the love of God."
From 1959 to 1962, Mr. Schulz returned to the United States and served as pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Chicora.
He and his wife then returned to India for a final five-year missionary stint. During this time, Mr. Schulz was pastor of a church and supervised other pastors.
"We really liked the Indian people and we felt such kinship to them," his wife said.
The couple returned to the United States permanently in 1967, and Mr. Schulz became pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Avalon.
When the Rev. Donald McCoid was named bishop of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988, he selected Mr. Schulz to serve as chaplain to the synod assembly.
"He was always positive. He always had a warm embrace and a firm handshake," McCoid said.
Mr. Schulz remained pastor of Trinity until his retirement in 1986. He then worked as a substitute and interim pastor in Lutheran churches throughout the area.
"He spoke about retirement being very busy but very fulfilling. And we certainly kept him busy because he was so loved by congregations," McCoid said.
Mr. Schulz was raised in Niagara Falls, Niagara County, NY He graduated from Capital University in Ohio, and earned a master's degree in divinity from the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary at Capital. He also attended Hartford Seminary Foundation in Hartford, Conn., in preparation for becoming a missionary to India.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Schulz is survived by a daughter, Christine Schulz, of Grafton, W. Va.; a son, Martin Schulz, of El Paso, TX; three sisters, Gertrude Fetzer, of Palm Harbor, Fla., Florence Allen, of Buffalo, Erie County, NY, and Ruth Dugan, of Oswego, NY; and two grandchildren.
A funeral was held Saturday in St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ross. Interment was in the church cemetery.
Boylan Funeral Home in Zelienople handled the arrangements.
Memorial contributions may be made to Passavant Retirement Community Benevolent Care, 401 S. Main St., Zelienople, PA 16063.

Family/Spouse: SHEATSLEY, Margaret. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: FRITCH, Lucinda. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]