09/04/2026
From the desk of Pastor Becker,
Dear friends and members of Big Canoe and Highland Lutheran Churches,
Some of you “old-timers” might recognize the family name of Foege. Rev. William A. Foege (1905-2000) was at one time the pastor of St. Peter Lutheran Church, Eldorado, Iowa, a few miles south of Decorah. Born in George, Iowa, he attended Wartburg College and Wartburg Seminary. In 1928 he married Anne Erika Ermisch (1906-87). In addition to serving in Iowa, Rev. Foege ministered to congregations in Washington state and Oregon. He is buried in Oregon City, just outside of Portland. My old stomping grounds… (One of his brothers, Henry J. Foege [1902-73], also served as a Lutheran pastor. He did missionary work in New Guinea before returning to the U.S. to serve several congregations in the Midwest.)
Pastor William A. Foege and his wife had six children, two boys and four girls. One of their sons, Richard “Dick” Foege (1937-2015), also became a Lutheran pastor. He, too, served out west, in Washington state, and then further west, in Japan, before returning to the great northwestern U.S.
Two of the other Foege children became medical doctors. Dr. Grace “Gracie” Elinor (Foege) Holmes (1932-2023) was one of only two women in her graduating class at the University of Washington Medical School (1957). She and her husband Frederick served as Lutheran medical missionaries in Malaysia and Tanzania before returning to Kansas, where she taught medicine and did clinical research at the University of Kansas Medical Center (mainly focusing on pediatrics).
The most famous of the six children was Dr. William “Bill” H. Foege, who died earlier this year. Born in Decorah in 1936, he grew up in Eldorado and later attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington (where his other siblings had also studied and graduated).
Bill deserves to be well known, especially among Lutheran Christians. He was an epidemiologist (someone who studies diseases and infectious disease control), who, like his uncle Henry and his sister Grace, also served as a Lutheran medical missionary, particularly in Nigeria, in the mid-1960s. (In addition to his uncle’s influence, writings by the Lutheran theologian and medical missionary Albert Schweitzer were an early influence on Bill’s commitment to care for the health needs of the world’s poor.)
Bill is rightly remembered as “the Babe Ruth of public health” (Tom Frieden, former CDC director). Bill himself served as the director of that same institution, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but he is most famous for overseeing the eradication of smallpox, a disease that killed more than 300 million people in the twentieth century alone. Through a containment strategy that he developed while working in Africa and India in the 1960s, he targeted each new outbreak of the disease and vaccinated only those who had ties to those infected. By May 1980, the World Health Organization declared that smallpox was eradicated from the face of the earth. (In the 1980s he played a central role in helping to increase immunization rates in the world’s developing countries.) In 2012 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
You can read about Bill’s other achievements, awards, and leadership roles if you do an internet search on his name. Here is what Rev. Peter Marty wrote earlier this year about this remarkable Lutheran Christian: “Foege understood as well as anyone the responsibility of being a good and generous citizen of the world. But what really excited him was an idea from the polio vaccine developer, Jonas Salk: ‘Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.’ William H. Foege proved that it’s possible to be an extraordinary ancestor. Rest in peace.”
See you in church!
Pastor Becker
9-2-26
Upcoming Events:
Sun, Sep 6 (9am [note new starting time!]): Bible class in the fellowship hall at Big Canoe
Sun, Sep 6 (10am): Worship w/Holy Communion at Big Canoe – 15th Sun. a. Pentecost (green)
Sun, Sep 6 (after worship): youth confirmation class (Big Canoe)
Mon, Sep 7 (Labor Day)
Tues, Sep 8 (2pm): Gather Bible Study (Highland)
Wed, Sep 9: youth confirmation class (Zoom video of Pr. Becker talking about the apostle Paul)
Sep 8-17: Pastor Becker will take his final vacation days for this year (traveling to Oregon)
Sep 11-13: Hesper/Mabel Steam Engine Days (Hesper Lutheran Food Tent)
Sun, Sep 13 (9am): Bible class in the fellowship hall at Highland – Pr. Gies
Sun, Sep 13 (10am): Worship w/Holy Communion at Highland – 16th Sun. a. Pentecost – Pr. Gies
Wed, Sep 16 (7pm): Burr Oak Lutheran WELCA Bazaar and Raffle (Burr Oak)
Sat, Sep 19 (10am): Men’s Breakfast at Highland
Sun, Sep 20 (9am): Bible class in the nave at Big Canoe
Sun, Sep 20 (9am): Kick-off of the Sunday School in the Sunday-School room at Big Canoe
Sun, Sep 20 (10am): Shared ministry joint worship service at Big Canoe – 17th Sun. a. Pentecost (green)
Sun, Sep 20 (11:15am): Shared ministry pot-luck meal in the fellowship hall at Big Canoe
Sun, Sep 27 (9am): Bible class in the fellowship hall at Highland
Sun, Sep 27 (10am): Service of the Word at Highland – 18th Sun. a. Pentecost (green)
Sun, Sep 27 (after worship): Official welcoming of new members to Highland
Sun, Sep 27 (after worship): Highland Bazaar
Fri, Oct 2 (9am-5pm): Hauge/St. John’s Garage Sale (at St. John’s)
Sat, Oct 3 (9am-noon): Hauge/St. John’s Garage Sale (at St. John’s)
Sat, Oct 3 (10am-10:30am): Blessing of the animals in the parking lot at Big Canoe – Feast of St. Francis
Sun, Oct 4 (9am): Bible class in the nave at Big Canoe
Sun, Oct 4 (9am): Sunday school in the fellowship hall at Big Canoe
Sun, Oct 4 (10am): Worship w/Holy Communion at Big Canoe – 19th Sun. a. Pentecost (green)
Sun, Oct 4 (after worship): Official welcoming of new members to Big Canoe
Oct 4-6: Pr. Becker attends the Fall Theological Conference (St. John’s, Cedar Falls)
Sat, Oct 10 (9am-noon): Big Canoe Bake & Quilt Sale w/Lefsa demonstration/sale (Big Canoe)
Sun, Oct 11 (9am): Bible class in the nave at Highland
Sun, Oct 11 (9am): Sunday School in the fellowship hall at Highland
Sun, Oct 11 (10am): Worship w/Holy Communion at Highland – 20th Sun. a. Pentecost (green)
Oct 13-14: Pastor Becker attends a pastoral retreat at Creighton University
Sun, Oct 18 (11am-3pm): Meatball Supper at Big Canoe
Sun, Oct 25 (noon-3pm): Lutefisk Supper at Glenwood Lutheran Church
Nov 1-4: Pastor Becker is serving as the presenter at a pastor’s conference in Orlando, FL
Sun, Nov 1 (9am): Bible class in the nave at Big Canoe – Pr. Brian Scott (Lutheran World Relief)
Sun, Nov 1 (10am): Worship w/Holy Communion (BC) – All Saints (white) – Pr. Brian Scott (LWF)
Sun, Nov 8 (9am): Bible class in the nave at Highland
Sun, Nov 8 (9am): Sunday school in the fellowship hall at Highland
Sun, Nov 8 (10am): Communion and Thankoffering Service at Highland – 24th Sun. a. Pentecost (green)
Sun, Nov 8 (after worship): Potluck meal and Highland WELCA meeting
Sun, Dec 6 (after worship): Joint council meeting at Big Canoe (budget planning)
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Matthew L. Becker, STS, B.A., M.Div., M.A., Ph.D.
Pastor, Big Canoe and Highland Lutheran Churches, Decorah, IA
1377 Big Canoe Road, Decorah, IA 52101
Treasurer, Lutheran Quarterly
Senior Research Professor of Theology
Valparaiso University
College of Arts & Sciences Room 314
1400 Chapel Drive
Valparaiso, IN 46383
Phone: 219-916-8535
E-mail: [email protected]
It is with great sadness that WHO learnt of the passing of Dr William Herbert Foege on 24 January 2026 at the age of 89 years.
