The Rev. Adolf Pilger, 82, of 5054 Lake Mendota Dr., died Monday [April 18, 1955] at a Madison hospital.

He formerly was pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Ripon, and came to Madison in 1943 from Fond du Lac where he had been chaplain of the Lutheran Old Peoples’ home for three years.

After retiring he served as supply pastor at Lutheran churches in Theresa, Dodge County; Marxville, Dane County; Ixonia, Jefferson County; and Avoca, Iowa County.

In 1929, Pilger was a delegate to the International Lutheran Convention at Copenhagen, Denmark, and was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters at Capitol University, Columbus, O.

Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. Hildegarde P. Kipp, 5054 Lake Mendota Dr.; Mrs. Ruth Charlotte Andrews, Madison; and Mrs. Martha Omura, New York City; and a brother, Hans, in Germany.

Funeral services will be held in St. John’s American Lutheran Church in Madison. The Rev. August Quandt, Ashipun, will officiate, assisted by the Rev. H. C. Neeman, Hope, and the Rev. A. C. Schumacher of St. John’s Church.

Friends may call at the Schroeder Funeral Home. The family asked that flowers be omitted, and said that memorials might be made instead to the cancer fund.

— From The Wisconsin State Journal, April 19, 1955.

Additional notes

Adolf Pilger was listed as a student at Wartburg Seminary in the 1898 Dubuque, Iowa, City Directory.

The Rev. Adolf Friedrich Hermann Pilger married Johanna Elise Stolle on August 24, 1899, in Davenport, Iowa. Johanna Stolle Pilger was born July 20, 1869, in Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa; she died April 1, 1947, in Madison, Wisconsin.

According to the marriage document, Adolf was born in Bärwalde, Neumark (now Mieszkowice, Poland). Other documents give his birthplace as Mecklenburg.