Services for Carson Valley pastor today

The strains of one of Rev. Emil Leising's favorite song will rise at today's service for the longtime Carson Valley Lutheran minister.

Former Trinity Choir Director Eileen Bianchi will sing "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by J.S. Bach at today's 3 p.m. service for Leising, who died July 3 at Carson-Tahoe Hospital. The service is at Trinity Lutheran Church.

"I'm singing one of his favorite pieces," she said. "I sang it when he and Bernice were married for 50 years. I sang it at the anniversary of his ministry, and I'll sing it at the celebration of his life."

Minden District Judge Dave Gamble will deliver the eulogy.

Leising, 87, served Carson Valley's Lutheran community from 1955 to Jan. 31, 1981. When he arrived in Carson Valley with his wife and sons Nate and Tim, the valley was in the middle of a flood.

Leising grew up in Arapahoe, Neb., where he attended schoo. At age 15, he announced he wanted to go into the ministry. He attended St. Paul's Academy and College and Concordia Seminary for nine years before graduating in 1940.

While at the seminary, he spent summers working in the fields. In 1938, during a bad crop year in Nebraska, he hitchhiked 500 miles north to Minnesota. That was where he met his future wife at around Thanksgiving. The couple became engaged Easter Sunday 1940.

After Leising graduated from Concordia, he accepted a missionary post in Provo, Spanish Fork and Price, all in Utah, at a salary of $60 a month.

A year later, when he got a raise to $65, the Leisings married on June 22, 1941. The couple moved to California, where Leising served for 13 years, starting a congregation at Pleasant Hill.

Trinity Lutheran had just been completed when Leising arrived.

"After the first few Sundays, I was observing that we had two different congregations," he recalled in a 1994 interview. "I asked the janitor, who was a member of the church, why there were two groups of people.

"He said, 'Reverend, it's like this: In the old church, there wasn't enough room for everyone to go to church every Sunday. And so every other Sunday was considered regular attendance.'"

Leising accomplished the long-term task of bringing the congregations together.

During his 25 years at Trinity, Leising installed 42 other pastors and helped establish Carson City's Lutheran church.

After he retired, he served as an interim pastor in Elko, Yerington, Hawthorne and Tonopah, and installed a total of 34 new pastors.

Nate Leising said his father continued to serve as pastor in Portola, Calif., until February.

"He drove there every Sunday, rain or shine," Nate Leising said. "Physically, his legs were going out, but mentally and healthwise, he was sharp as a tack."

A fall July 1 broke Leising's femur, leading quickly to his death.

Surgery to repair the leg was successful, but the strain on his body was too much. Leising died of kidney failure.

Nate said his father was always available to help others and that he taught his children through the example of his life.

"We lived by his example," he said. "He did whatever he could do and dropped whatever he was doing to help."

Leising is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Nate and Christine; great-grandchildren Aaron, Justine and Jessica; and great-grandchild Payton.