Retired Covenant pastor Alfred “Larry” Fullerton passed away on September 29, 2026, in Monticello, Minnesota. He was eighty-nine.
Alfred Laurence Fullerton was born to parents Bert and Hazel Fullerton on September 26, 1937, on the family farm south of Swan River, Manitoba, Canada. He grew up near Durban, Manitoba, in a Christian home without an organized church until his teens; his parents read aloud on winter evenings and listened to radio preachers, and Larry made a decision for Christ at age five. When a Covenant pastor began a Sunday evening service in Durban in 1947, it was his first contact with a church and denomination, and he later joined the Covenant congregation there as a charter member.
Larry graduated from Kenville High School in 1956. He then attended Covenant Bible College from 1956 to 1958 and later took seminary courses at North Park Theological Seminary during the summers of 1976 and 1977.
Larry married Helen Aganetha Giesbrecht on December 3, 1960. They had three children named Gregory, Colene, and Lorell.
Larry served the Evangelical Covenant Church for forty-three years. He began preaching as a lay minister and then under a ministerial license; after Bible college he agreed, at the urging of the conference president, to serve a small church without a pastor “for only a short time,” and that short time became more than four decades of ministry.
Larry was ordained in 1978 at the Covenant Annual Meeting in Chicago. Over his career he and Helen served together in pastoral ministry at churches throughout Canada and the United States: Melfort and Kinistino, Saskatchewan; East-End Covenant Church in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; the Warburg circuit in Alberta; Bethany Evangelical Covenant Church in Norquay and Hyas Covenant Church in Hyas, Saskatchewan; the Evangelical Covenant Church of International Falls, Minnesota; Erickson/Creston, British Columbia; Bethel Mission Covenant Church in Wallace, Michigan; and the Evangelical Covenant Church of Portage, Indiana. He also served as secretary of the Board of School
Directors of Covenant Bible College (1970–73) and of the Canada Conference Board (about 1975–80). Larry retired on March 26, 2002, and afterward served four and a half years as interim pastor in Emo, Ontario. In most of his churches he was the solo pastor and became involved in every aspect of church life.
Larry is remembered for his love of music. He filled his house with piano music, often accompanied groups at camp or church, lent his tenor voice to choirs and quartets, and sang with Helen at events. He sang in a quartet at Covenant Bible College that visited conference churches and was active in community choirs and ecumenical ministerial associations. An avid reader whose bookshelves bowed with literary treasures (Helen always said he read constantly), he filled his sermons with quotes, quips, and anecdotes. He loved walking, biking, and cars, and prided himself on keeping automobiles running well. He drove the school bus for many years in Norquay, Saskatchewan, and later drove as a volunteer for Meals on Wheels and Faith in Action, helping the elderly. Poetry he learned as a youth flowed from his memory until his last weeks; despite a stroke in 2021, those who knew him still relished his poetry, large vocabulary, and keen but quiet sense of humor. Larry described himself as a conservative evangelical Christian whose call “was long and slow, but God has had his hand on my life.” He saw his role as being a strong communicator of the Word, a shepherd who would “visit, counsel, and be a friend,” and an enabler who encouraged others to lead.
Larry was preceded in death by his parents, Bert and Hazel Fullerton; his brothers, Keith and Dan Fullerton; and his wife of nearly sixty years, Helen, in 2020. He is survived by his son, Gregory (Sue) Fullerton of Hopkins, Minnesota; his daughters, Colene (John) Stenberg of Big Lake, Minnesota, and Lorell (Nick) Panske of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; ten grandchildren; and twenty-one great-grandchildren.
A celebration of life was held at Williams Dingmann Family Funeral Home in Big Lake, Minnesota, on October 10, 2026, at 10 a.m. Larry and Helen were laid to rest together at Durban Community Cemetery in Durban, Manitoba, on October 17, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. CDT, with a reception afterward at Valley Evangelical Covenant Church in Durban.
Peace be to his memory.
