The Rev. Dr. August Emil Wenzel, age 72, died following a lengthy struggle with cancer on May 5, 2008. Visitation will be held on Thursday, May 8, 2008 at Tres Hewell Mortuary from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then on Friday, May 9, 2008 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the family receiving friends on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. Funeral service will be held on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. at Faith Lutheran Church with Rev. William Lange and Rev. Tim Bauerkemper officiating. A reception will follow in the Life Enrichment Center. Private committal services will be held at a later date. Rev. Dr. Wenzel was born in Milam County Texas on January 26, 1936, the first child of Walter and Lenora Dornhoeffer Wenzel. He graduated from Rockdale High School in 1953 and continued his education at Texas Lutheran College in Seguin, earning his bachelor's degree in communications in 1957. He then went to seminary at Trinity Seminary/Capital University in Columbus Ohio interning at St. John's Lutheran Church in Beatrice, Nebraska before graduating Trinity Seminary/Capital University with a Master of Divinity Degree and being ordained as a Lutheran Pastor at his home church, Peace Lutheran Church in Rockdale, Texas in June 1961. That same month he was sent to Nashville, Tennessee to pastor a new mission church there, Christ Lutheran, where the first service was held on September 15, 1961. He remained in Nashville seven years, earning a Master's Degree in Pastoral Care and Preaching from Vanderbilt University while simultaneously growing his congregation. In 1968 he moved to Chicago, where he earned his Doctorate Degree in Historical Theology from Garrett Theological Seminary of Northwestern University in 1972. In June of 1972 he moved back to Seguin to become Campus Pastor and Assistant Professor of Theology at his alma mater, Texas Lutheran College. While there his responsibilities broadened to include the directorship of the Lutheran Institute for Religious Studies, a continuing education program for Pastors. In 1978 he was elected Bishop, of the Southern District of the American Lutheran Church (ALC), a region which encompassed Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and part of New Mexico, a position he held for 12 years, during which time he also served two terms as President of the National Council of Bishops of the ALC. In 1990, he was appointed as the director of the Lutheran Seminary in Austin, the Lutheran Seminary Program of the Southwest, which position he held until retiring in 2001. He is preceded in death by his father, Walter Wenzel, and by his first wife, Barbara Ann Fisher Wenzel. He is survived by his wife Gail; his sons David(wife Lori), Louis(wife Ronda), and Michael(wife Janis); grandchildren, Steven, Benjamin, Mason, Holly, Lydia, Grace, and Jackson; mother, Lenora Dornhoeffer Wenzel Jackson of Clifton; sister, Edna Faye Dietrich and Husband D.R.; numerous nephews and nieces. Serving as pallbearers will be Larry Rakes, Eric Carlson, Layne Hoppe, Brad Rakes, Harold Bogisch, Ron Schmidt, Giddings Dietrich and Keith Lee. Memorial contributions may be made to Lutheran World Relief, P. O. Box 17061, Baltimore,Maryland, 21298-9832, American Cancer Society, C/O Jeanette Siltmann, 1215 E. Court Street, Seguin, Texas, 78155 and Faith Lutheran Church, 1326 E. Cedar, Seguin, Texas, 78155.