Over the past 15 years he has worked as a pastor in Bozeman, Belgrade, Red Lodge and Ronan, and twice in both Sidney and Livingston.
Gronneberg has “experience, common sense, confidence and ability to deal gently but decisively with conflict,” said the Rev. Jessica Crist, bishop of the Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
“I think this is it,” he said. “I never dare say it for sure, but I can’t imagine doing it anymore.”
Said Crist, “Oh, he’s told me that before.”
Born on a North Dakota farm in 1917, Gronneberg was a high school student when he decided that he would enter a seminary.
“That was the Depression though, and I had no idea how I would get through college,” he said.
He worked on his father’s farm. U.S. job opportunities expanded, Gronneberg patched together money with which to attended a seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and he graduated in 1945. He took a position as a Navy chaplain and used the G.I. Bill for graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, where he studied public speaking.
He also worked as a real estate agent for three years. “I didn’t sell a lot,” Gronneberg said. He and his wife, who died four years ago, had six children.
Gronneberg enjoys golf, calling it “a big deal for me,” but said the ministry is his true calling.
“I like to preach,” he said. “I enjoy visiting people. There are very few things I don’t like about it.”
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