New Brighton minister retires after 55 years of church service BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER After five tries at retirement, the Rev. Veryle Henriksen, visitation pastor at Christ the King Lutheran Church in New Brighton for the last three years, is marking the end of 55 years of church service. “Remember what Gen. Douglas MacArthur said: ‘Old soldiers never die; they just fade away,’” Henriksen said. “It’s time for me to fade away. I’m knocking on the door of 85.” He leaves a long and storied legacy behind. After attending a one-room schoolhouse and high school in Clear Lake, Iowa, Henriksen got a degree in history and religion at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. He served in the Navy during the Korean War. “I joined the Naval Reserve in 1950, and went on active duty in 1953 as a line officer,” Henriksen said. “I got in on the prisoner exchange in Korea. I was present when the first prisoners came back from North Korea. They were so thin they could have stood sideways in the rain and not gotten wet.” His plan to return to the family farm in Iowa was jettisoned when an accident with a manure loader broke his jaw in two places and ended his plans to be a farmer. “I was going to stay on the farm, but God told me I was supposed to be a minister,” Henriksen said. He heeded that call. After attending Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Henriksen was ordained in 1959. He served as a chaplain in the Navy, on both active and inactive service, from 1959-1980, based out of Florida and then Maryland. He then served in the Marine Corps in North Carolina, followed by two years of service as the naval base chaplain in Iceland, and three
The Rev. Veryle Henriksen of New Brighton is retiring this month after 55 years of church service. (Submitted photo) years spent in Rhode Island. He and his wife, Peggy, whom he married in 1950, returned to Minnesota, where they raised a family of three daughters and a son. The Henriksens spent seven years serving at a church in Hoffman, Minn., followed by ministry at the State Hospital in Fergus Falls. Henriksen then served as the visitation pastor at Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Mounds View and First Lutheran Church in Columbia Heights, before coming to Christ the King Church in New Brighton three years ago. His duties as visitation pastor for the New Brighton church include bringing communion to shut-ins at home and also visiting patients in local hospitals and nursing homes. “I just have wonderful people to visit,” Henriksen said. “They are just great.” Henriksen also leads services at area health care centers, including Trevilla and the Benedictine Health Care Center
in New Brighton. Chaplain Fran O’Connor, who serves at the Benedictine Health Care Center, said Henriksen has come to that facility to visit members of congregations he served in Columbia Heights and New Brighton. He also led worship there once a month. “He is known for his humor and his stories; he’s able to poke fun at himself,” O’Connor said. “He relates well to the residents, many of whom are in his peer group. He’s comfortable talking to anyone. He is a very free spirit. I have a hunch he may still come back to visit here.” Henriksen’s father was a patient at Benedictine Health Care Center for two years in the 1990s, according to O’Connor. “So he knows this experience from the perspective of a family member, too,” she said. The Rev. Hannah Johnson, pastor for children, youth and family ministry at Christ the King Church, said she and Henriksen share the same birthday and like to joke that they are “twins separated by age.” “He’s absolutely incredible,” Johnson said. “He’s been a great mentor, friend and pastoral colleague to me.” A 22-year resident of New Brighton, Henriksen has been playing duplicate bridge each Wednesday and Thursday for many years, and plans to continue doing that in retirement. “I’ve really had fun with that,” he said. He also does all the grocery shopping and even prepares some of the meals at home, he said. During their 63-year marriage, he and his wife have traveled to all seven continents, he said. They have four children in the Twin Cities area, plus 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. The birth of triplet boys to his daughter 22 years ago meant, Henriksen said,
that “life has never been the same since.” But what he calls his “claim to fame” occurred during a July 4 parade in Clear Lake, Iowa, about 30 years ago, when five presidential candidates were part of the festivities. U.S. Sen. John Glenn, a former astronaut and retired U.S. Marine Corps pilot, was one of them, Henriksen said. “He was about 50 yards away from me on the back of a convertible when the parade stopped. It was all quiet and I shouted out, “USS Noa.’ I gave him the high sign, and he waved at me. My family and John Glenn knew what I was doing, but the Secret Service didn’t.” (The USS Noa was the Navy destroyer that hauled Glenn out of the Atlantic Ocean after his Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft splashed down followingthree orbits of the Earth on Feb. 20, 1962) According to the Rev. Deborah Birkeland, Christ the King’s pastor for outreach, who wrote a tribute to Henriksen in the church’s newsletter last month, “Pastor Veryle always has a fun story, quip or joke to lighten any heart, but his humor is made rich by the amazing depth of his understanding of God’s love and grace. As our visitation pastor, Veryle has brought compassion, love, humor and care to many people.” As for his visitation duties, Henriksen told Birkeland, “I love to visit the people, for they are God’s people: a product of God’s creation; recipients of Christ’s love; and set free by his forgiveness.” In the newsletter, Henriksen is quoted as saying, “I think Lutherans are a little too good at condemning ourselves. When I lead a communion service, I always stress that we are forgiven all of our sins, not part of our sin, and forgiveness is for everybody.” Although he is retiring, Henriksen says he’s in “no hurry to leave this Earth.” Until he’s called, he said, “I’m having a ball.”