Adolf Quast

Again, we were just recovering from this loss and we lost our Senior Pastor Adolf Quast.

Dressed in a red robe and sporting a white beard, Quast bore a resemblance to a familiar character, a certain jolly ol' fellow who flies around the world giving toys and gifts to good boys and girls.

And the reaction from the children in church Sunday was just what Quast expected."They thought that it was Santa Claus coming," he said afterwards.
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The real St. Nicholas, Quast explains, was born into a wealthy Christian family in what is now Turkey in 272 A.D. At a young age, Nicholas' parents instilled in him the Christian faith.

Nicholas lost his parents when he was still a youngster, and he inherited great wealth.Being a strong Christian, Nicholas took to heart one of the most important tenets of Christianity: give, especially to those whose needs are the greatest.

Pastor Adolf Quast at First Lutheran Church in Onalaska dressed as St. Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop, to help illustrate his presentation on the roots of the Santa Claus character.
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But Nicholas would never claim to have performed miracles, Quast said.He would say that it was God who performed miracles, and it was He who allowed Nicholas to perform acts of kindness.
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Quast said he wanted to show the links between St. Nicholas and Santa Claus.
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"Our culture has kind of blended them together," Quast said.

Later on in the day Sunday, when some of the congregation went out caroling, Quast said his appearance as St. Nicholas sparked some interesting conversations within many of the families.He said several parents told him "We had a good talk with our kids" about who St. Nicholas and Santa Claus really are.

Adolf Quast and his family spent a good part of his childhood bouncing around Europe, as did many families who were caught in the chaos surrounding World War II.

Years later, after immigrating to the United States, Quast and his brothers thought joining the armed services might be the way to show their appreciation for their adopted homeland.

But the kindness of strangers in a small Wisconsin town spurred Adolf Quast down a different path, one that has now led him to First Lutheran Church in Onalaska, where he was recently installed as the new administrative pastor.

Quast's parents, Emil and Pauline, were Germans who grew up in Romania between the two World Wars.Emil was very good with plants and trees and Pauline was trained as a nurse.Neither had schooling past fifth grade.

To escape the Russian army, which was trying to keep Hitler's army from reaching the vast oil reserves of the Black Sea region, the Quasts moved westward, hoping to find safety in Germany.But instead, the Germans put them in a detention camp and later on a train headed for Poland, where Germans were being transplanted to run farms to feed Hitler's army.
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So it was on a farm in Poland that Adolf Quast was born in 1944.

Near the end of the war, the Quasts again headed west, hoping to run into the Allied army.They reached the western zone and safety.But when the Berlin Wall went up, Quast's grandmother and an uncle were caught on the eastern side.

They were never able to escape and spent the rest of their lives under Eastern Bloc rule.

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Quast said the family's first home was the second floor of a warehouse that was shared with two other families.

A few years later, while working on a farm in Deerfield, Wis., Quast's father lost a hand in a machinery accident.It was obvious that Quast's father was not going to be able to help out around the farm for some time.At the same time, Quast's mother was holding down a job at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison.

But in a display of compassion typical of small-town America and one that profoundly struck the Quast family, Deerfield residents, strangers to the Quasts all, showed up at the farm daily for several months to help with milking cows and harvesting crops.

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Quast went to high school in Middleton and in a rather striking coincidence, attended St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Middleton, where the pastor was Jim Ohlrogge, the brother of First Lutheran's former pastor Fred Ohlrogge.
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But it was that family tragedy and a community's outpouring of kindness that inspired Quast to go into religious service.

Quast originally wanted to enlist in the U.S. Air Force.His older brother was already in the Army and was killed in Vietnam in 1967.

While a student at the University of Wisconsin, Quast had his change of heart.After receiving a bachelor's degree in philosophy from UW, he went received his master's degree from Wartburg Theological Seminary of Dubuque and was ordained in 1971.

Quast started as an associate pastor in Sidney, Ohio, in 1971.He later served in Lexington, Ky. and Hamilton, Ohio, before taking his first senior pastor position at St. John's in Brookfield.

He later spent 14 years at Our Savior's in West Bend and comes to First Lutheran after five years at St. John's in Kasson, Minn.

When asked to describe his preaching style, Quast simply pointed out that First Lutheran held its first-ever jazz worship service last Sunday.He said his sermons are biblically centered and focused on relating faith to daily life and relationships.

Quast and his wife of 38 years, Eunice, have three grown children and two grandchildren.Over the years they also have been foster parents to eight children, from infants to teenagers.

In his spare time, Quast enjoys gardening and landscaping, pursuits he acquired from his father, who, after his farming days, became the head gardener at the governor's mansion on the outskirts of Madison.

Quast describes himself as a science fiction buff, enjoys woodworking and has helped design and build the last three houses his family lived in. He's in the process of planning the family's new home in Greens Coulee.

So it is that an immigrant from war-torn Europe, whose family came to Wisconsin with little more than what they could pack in a few suitcases, has risen to a position of respect.

"I've been given the opportunity to live out the American dream," Quast said, "and I'm grateful to God and the nation that has made that possible."

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Copyright 2003River Valley Newspaper Group

Adolf Quast, who was born on a farm in Poland, grew up in war-torn Europe after World War II and immigrated with his family to Dane County as a child, is installed as the new administrative pastor at First Lutheran Church in Onalaska.

Adolf Quast, Pastor