High Officials Attend Memorial For Thresher Christian LOI 1963-6

• LOI 1963-6: "High Officials Attend Memorial For Thresher Christian" by Lloyd W. Wineberg

"The tragic loss of the atomic submarine USS Thresher with 129 persons aboard on April 10 brought in its wake an audience of about one thousand to hear the Gospel preached at memorial services April 21 for one of the victims of the disaster, Donald W. Kuester. In the audience at the Memorial Chapel of Maryland University (where Donald Kuester had done post-graduate work) were the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, U.S. senators and representatives, admirals and other high ranking government and military officials. John Smart spoke on I Peter 1:3-4, and was assisted in the service by David Kirk and Phil Clarkson.

Donald Kuester was aboard the submarine, on its fatal 8,400 foot plunge, as senior engineer and chief of the acoustics and electronics division, Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, Maryland. At the memorial services Captain Odening, Commander of the U. S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory, read the official statement of the Navy; and Dr. Hartman, Technical Director of the Laboratory, presented the civilian, engineering, and personal aspect of Mr. Kuester's twenty years of service. Mr. Kuester’s work had been designed to save lives; he had received citations and awards for meritorious service, and his accomplishments had resulted in patents favorable to the Federal Government. The impression of his good testimony was further evidenced by the many messages sent of sympathy and appreciation.

For twenty years Mr. Kuester was in happy fellowship with Christians meeting in the Chillum Heights Gospel Chapel, Washington, D. C. Here he served effectively as Sunday school superintendent, and contributed much good counsel on the plans for the new chapel presently under construction in nearby Maryland. The Gospel Chapel in Atlantic, Iowa, where Mr. Kuester had grown up, was overcrowded for a second memorial service held there May 5. Cal Lindeman and Phil Clarkson directed this service.

Mr. Kuester’s consistent, godly life and outstanding accomplishments present the challenge of Hebrews 18:7, "whose faith follow,” with the practical assurance of I Timothy 4:8 that “godliness is profitable unto all things.”

Also See

• Letters of Interest#Archives
• LOI 1960's

Sources

• Letters of Interest (LOI) 1963-6