MINNEAPOLIS, MN (May 1, 2012) – A memorial service is pending for retired Evangelical Covenant Church missionary Ken Lundell, 89, who died Friday. A military service and burial will be at Fort Snelling on Wednesday. Tentative plans are for a memorial service in June.
Lundell was born in Lake Bronson, Minnesota, on July 11, 1922. He married Joyce Anderson on October 28, 1943. She survives.
Lundell graduated from North Park College in 1950 and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 1955. He graduated from St. Paul Bible College in 1953 and North Park Theological Seminary in 1957.
The Lundells began their missionary service in Japan in 1958 and served until 1961. He served as interim pastor at the Evangelical Covenant Church in Kennedy, Minnesota, from 1963-1965. He then took a job as administrative assistant for the Department of World Mission in 1965 and became its assistant secretary (a role similar to that of director today) in 1972 and worked primarily with short-term missionaries. He retired in 1987.
Lundell had a passion to serve in Japan because he had seen great need in that country while serving there with the U.S. Army following World War II. David Husby, current director of Covenant World Relief, and his wife, Ronna, credit Lundell for inspiring them to serve as missionaries in Japan.
In addition to his wife, Lundell is survived by daughters Rosemary Lundell and Juliann Tarsney, and sons Jonathan and Don Lundell.
