Ralph Kurt William Wiedenhoeft, age 83 of Beaver Dam, passed away on Saturday, October 31, 2015 at Hillside Manor in Beaver Dam after a brief illness and hospice care.

He was born 16 March 1932 in Milwaukee as the first of three children to German immigrants Victoria Helene (Oestreich) and Kurt William Wiedenhoeft, a masonry contractor in Milwaukee with whom he apprenticed. He grew up on 42 ^nd St., and met Arleen Calbaum while they were both attending what is now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Due to a little too much fondness for poker, he left college and headed for a job as a mason at Taliesin, which he promptly abandoned when it was clear architect Frank Lloyd Wright was serious that absolutely no one in his employ have a relationship that would disturb their commitment to him.

Uncle Sam was more accommodating: drafting Ralph in the Army. He and Arleen were married in 1953, and honeymooned after Arleen graduated from the UW-Madison, camping around ancient building ruins in the southwest. Ralph launched his own contracting company in Milwaukee, moved the family to a farm in Mequon, and began studying philosophy with UW professor and mentor, Dr. Cornelius Golightly.

Ralph loved music, studying opera and lieder, even taking the opportunity to audition for a regional Metropolitan Opera search for talent. He felt the call from God to serve as a pastor through singing, and spent a year as lay preacher in his local congregation. Coincident with the bankruptcy of his contracting business he moved the family to Minneapolis to study for the ministry in 1963. He felt deeply connected to the present, past and future of the community of God particularly through the singing of the ancient settings of the liturgy – from the red Lutheran hymnal, of course. He later sang in musicals in the Beaver Dam Community Theater. He required his children to study music and to sing in choirs from the time they were cute little cherubs. He and Arleen enjoyed singing together in the car on long journeys, whether or not their children joined in.

He concurrently studied at the University of Minnesota and Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota while working full time as a union bricklayer to support his growing family.  His undergraduate degree in Philosophy with a minor in German was followed shortly thereafter by his Master of Divinity.  During this time he still managed to find time to build a solid play fort for his children meticulously following building construction codes.  After his 1967 ordination in the Apostolic Succession, he served as pastor of Deerfield Lutheran Church and St. Paul's Liberty Lutheran Church where he expended himself tirelessly to serve the members of those two congregations.

He moved to Beaver Dam in 1971, accepting the challenge of Wayland Academy chaplaincy.

His passion for encouraging and challenging the minds of young people was exhibited in Sunday School classes at Messiah Lutheran Church in St. Paul, his confirmation classes in Deerfield along with Lenten anti-war lunches for high school students, and finally Wayland Academy, where he related "the abstract to the concrete" in philosophy and bricklaying classes.

He loved learning, always curious about how and why things worked as they did, always ready to have (and dominate) a discussion about ancient pyramid building, bird feather coloration, Biblical passages, how people first got to the American continents, and the back stories for the characters in "Our Town." He was quick to criticize, especially misuse of grammar and off-key singing, unless his grandchildren or friends were involved; however, he kept his own faults and sins carefully guarded and had a difficult time admitting he was in the wrong, neither did he talk about the secrets and confidences of others. He hated exercise for its own sake, and typically had a cup of coffee in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and the phone cradled under his chin. Almost anything could remind him of a poem or ditty he would then recite. He could be fun and certainly displayed mental agility.

Ralph served as pastor of St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Cambria for over seventeen years after his tenure at Wayland Academy.  He often served other area churches as interim pastor or filled in for vacationing clergy.

He was a strong patron of Beaver Dam community arts, especially Beaver Dam Area Community Theatre in which he acted or directed productions over several decades, served on the board of the Beaver Dam Community Orchestra but couldn't become president because he didn't do email.

Ralph was a creative mason of stone and brick with notable chimney, structural and ornamental walls, and fireplace works both public and private throughout south central Wisconsin, and as far afield as Maine and Utah.  He was strict and precise, and focused on the functionality of his craft.  He confided that for most of his masonry life he would rather have laid stone than eat, but had, for some span before he scrubbed off his trowel for the last time, "just wanted lunch."

His expertise in fireplaces allowed him to expand his business by establishing The Fireplace Works in Beaver Dam selling fireplace systems, inserts, wood-burning stoves and related items.

He was an avid cribbage player until his fingers just wouldn't move the pegs anymore. He thought no one need watch any TV other than PBS (with a special exception for the Green Bay Packers) until his residence in Hillside Manor gave him too many channels.

He greatly enjoyed travel, and was given convenient excuses for doing so by visits to his offspring in Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, Florida, Maine, Washington, Virginia, England, Iowa, Missouri, and even back to Milwaukee.  He frequently managed to make business trips out of his visits: as proclaimed on his business card, "Have Trowel, Will Travel."  His art historian brother took him to Italy and choir trips took him to the UK. He enjoyed phoning his children and friends to recount the jaunts he and Arleen made, concerts they'd attended, plays they had seen, and the meals they'd shared afterword: sandwiches had always been "big enough to share, and then we each had a bowl of soup."

Ralph was a great procrastinator and never got around to writing the obituary he had expressed a desire to write for himself.  We are sure it would have contained limericks. We do have this: "I hope you remember this one thing about me: that I wasn't always as grumpy as I usually was."

Ralph was preceded in death by his parents, brother Ronald, son Joseph, and grandson Ryan as well as numerous colleagues, mentors, friends and other relatives.

He is survived by wife Arleen (Calbaum); children Ruth (John) Walker of Columbia, Missouri; William (Kathi) of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin; Glenn (Mary) of Ames, Iowa; Paul (Kathleen) of Norfolk, Virginia; Christopher (Ruth) of Knoxville, Tennessee; Kurt (Stephanie) of Milwaukee and Rachel (John) Frizzell of Chippewa Falls; twenty grandchildren and a growing number of great-grandchildren; sister Gloria (Gerhard) Strauss of St. Louis, Missouri; as well as cousins, nephews, nieces, and cherished friends.