Bio: Zank, Marvin W., Pastor (1928)
Poster: R. Lipprandt
Email: bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Dermody, Lang, Meyer, Zank

----Source: The Centennial Booklet of Immanuel Ev. Lutheran Church, 1876 - 1976, page 35

Zank, Marvin W. (December 28, 1928)

Pastor Marvin W. Zank, the son of Pastor and Mrs. Walter E. Zank, was born at Route #2, Waterloo, Wisconsin on December 8, 1928.

He attended and completed grade school at St. John‘s Lutheran School, Route #2, Waterloo; high school and college at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin.

Upon graduation from Northwestern College, he entered the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Thiensville, Wisconsin and graduated in 1953.

His first call was to Grace Lutheran Church in Fort Madison, Iowa, where he was ordained by his father, Pastor Walter E. Zank in July of 1953.

Pastor and Mrs. Zank, the former Miss Joanne Dermody, were married in Milwaukee on July 4, 1953. This union has been blessed with a family of seven children: Steven, Katherine, Karen, Elizabeth, Jane, Richard and Lisa.

He served Grace Lutheran congregation as pastor for a period of two years, when he received a call from the Good Shepherd congregation, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, in 1955, which he served until 1963.

In the fall of 1963, our congregation directed a call to Pastor Zank and he was installed at Immanuel’s in October of 1963.

During his pastorate in Medford, Immanuel’s congregation can point to many blessings. For some years, our congregation had realized the need of a larger church building with other necessary facilities. These needs were cautiously, yet effectively pursued with the result of necessary additions for worship, Christian education and other related facilities.

In the annual meeting in January 1965, Immanuel’s congregation moved to build a new church building along with other necessary facilities to serve both the congregations well as the school, which was already existing in the location where the new church was to be located.

An architect was engaged in late summer of 1965. Plans and specifications were prepared, discussed and modified over the winter an spring of 1966. Construction contracts were awarded on September 26, 1966 and groundbreaking services were held following services n Sunday, October 2, 1966 when Pastor Zank turned the first shovel of ground, followed by Marvin Lang, President of the congregation and George F. Meyer as chairman of the New Church Building Committee.