The Rev. COL SIR John Peter Schmeling PhD. was born 31 October 1938, the first of four children to Mr. and Mrs. John F. W. (Marie Violet Weinreis) Schmeling of Golva, North Dakota . He graduated from Golva High School in 1956 and from Dickinson State University in 1961 with a B.S. in English and History plus a German minor. He did German graduate work with Stanford University. In 1970 he earned a M.S. in European History at Indiana State University and in 1977 a Ph.D. in European History with Management Concentrations. He passed away on Friday, March 26, 2021.
Rev. Schmeling is retired from Vincennes University. He served as Full Professor of Religion and History, Director of the VU Prison Education Program, Chair of the Social Science Division, became a full Professor and Vice President and Dean of the Faculty (Provost). As Provost he supervised about 400 full-time faculty and nearly 1,000 adjunct faculty. He served 22 years in the full-time parish calls of the now Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the former American Lutheran Church. Knighted in 2002 through the English Royal House at Windsor he became affiliated with the Knights Templars in the United States. In 2010 he was appointed as a Knight Templar Ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna , Austria then to Geneva , Switzerland. In 1987 he received the Chief Award from Dickinson State University in Dickinson North Dakota. In 2010 he received the Living Loehe Award from Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa .
Up until his death he served as the interim pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Princeton, IN and Zion Lutheran Church in Mt. Carmel, IL.
He prefers to be called Pastor John in the parish that he serves. He is married to Susan Ellen Reinhart Schmeling. Surviving are his children, Linda McDonald and her husband John, Erich Schmeling, Kim Schumacher (born in Dubuque while he was at Wartburg Seminary) and her husband Keith, John Schmeling and his wife Karen, Heather Schmeling, and Kirsten Schmeling and her husband David. His brother Darrel Schmeling; sisters, Linda Huffman and Naomi Dolyniuk. Grandchildren Natalie Schumacher, Erica Spears, Sarah Rodorigo, Harrison Schmeling, Beckett Schmeling, Dexter Stead. Great-Grandchildren Scarlett Spears, Teagan Rodorigo, Alissa Rodorigo.
Visitation will be held at Goodwin-Sievers funeral home on Wednesday, March 31st 2021 from 10:00-11:00 (Vincennes time) and at Our Savior Lutheran Church 100 S. Richland Creek Drive, Princeton, Indiana from 12:00-1:00 (Princeton time) with funeral services beginning at 1:00. Memorial contributions can be made to ELCA World Hunger through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Goodwin-Sievers funeral is honored to serve the family of John Schmeling.
