Rev. Alfred Carl Paul Gerhardt, age 92, died January 28, 2010 atSunrise Cottages in Buffalo. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Tuesday, February 2nd at Calvary Baptist Church in Cambridge. A visitation will be held from 6:00 -8:00 P.M. on Monday, February 1st at Strike Funeral Home – Cambridge Chapel and also 1 hour prior to the service at the church on Tuesday. Interment will be in Cambridge Union Cemetery.
Rev. Alfred Carl Paul Al Gerhardt, Sr. went home to be with his Lord on Thursday, January 28, 2010 at Sunrise Cottages in Buffalo, Minnesota at the age of 92 years, 10 months and 14 days. He was born on March 14, 1917 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest son of Freidrich Richard Gerhardt and Catherine Boehm Gerhardt.
Alfred dropped out of high school in the middle of his sophomore year to go to work to help support his mother. He worked various jobs, that didn’t pay that much until World War II broke out, when he got a job as a machinist in the New York Ship Yard in Philadelphia, where he made parts for U.S. warships, including the USS South Dakota. He went for his physical for the draft during the war, but was exempted from the service because his job was considered a necessity for the war effort.
Alfred married Mary Elizabeth Jackson at her parent’s home in Delaware Township, now Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey on the evening of Friday, March 13, 1942. To this union were born three sons, Alfred Carl Paul, Jr., David Philip and his wife Peggy and John Thomas.
Following the war he lost his job in the New York Ship Yard and he went to work for himself as a professional window cleaner washing windows on the outside only of private homes as well as businesses. During this time he went to Bible School at the New Jersey Bible Training School in Camden, New Jersey in the evenings.
In July 1950 Alfred and Mary and their two eldest sons Alfred and David moved to Martin, South Dakota where they served as missionaries among the Lakota Sioux Indians on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation until December 2002, when they moved to an assisted living center in Cambridge, Minnesota. He was ordained as a Baptist minister on September 7, 1952, at the Haddon Heights Baptist Church in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. They had been commissioned as missionaries by the Haddon Heights Baptist Church in Haddon Heights, New Jersey and served under the Fellowship of Baptists for Home Missions during the early years of their missionary work. They also started a Baptist Church in Gordon, Nebraska in 1972.
In addition to his sons Alfred is survived by two grandsons and seven granddaughters, 14 great-great grandsons, nine great-great granddaughters, a brother-in-law S. Thomas and his wife Frieda Jackson of Pennsauken, New Jersey, a sister-in-law Anna and her husband Rev. Elzie Unroe of Hamilton, Ohio, a sister-in-law Lillian Jackson of Pennsauken, New Jersey, five nephews, three nieces and several grandnephews and grandnieces.
In addition to his parents, Alfred was preceded in death by his wife Mary, two brothers Frederick Herman Edward Gerhardt and Richard Carl Alfred Gerhardt and a great-grandson.
I grew up in Martin. My father, Neal Young, was manager of LaCreek Electric. I well remember Rev. Gerhardt who had the St. Bernards that plowed the snow! And I remember when we Presbyterians were without a pastor and he filled in for quite a while. He filled the Presbyterian Church every Sunday. I think more than a few were disappointed when a new pastor was obtained! He sang beautifully and enthusiastically. He believed in what he taught. Alfred, Jr. was about 2 years younger than I. I am glad for my contact with him.