Dietrich Norman Schleef was born on October 24, 1941 in Watseka, Illinois, he was the second of five children. He died peacefully at home on Monday, April 29, 2024 with his wife and children beside him.

Dietrich Schleef was raised on the family farm. He actually  wanted to be a farmer until his father told him the farm wasn’t big enough for the two of them. So off to college he went! Dietrich earned a Bachelor’s degree in science from  Concordia Teachers College in River Front, Illinois. His first call was as a Commissioned Ministry of Religion at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Horicon, Wisconsin. He also spread the Gospel as a teacher in Milwaukee before coming to the Pacific Southwest District (PSD) of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) as a teacher and direc-tor of urban ministry at Grace Lutheran Church in Los Angeles in 1968.

Dietrich felt the Lord was calling him to be a minister. In 1971 he entered Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois and graduated. In 1975 he became a Pastor of Faith Lutheran Church of Morningside Park (Inglewood), where he served for 45 years. He loved Faith Lutheran Church. He served the PSD as a Circuit Counselor was a delegate to three Synod conventions. His community service included serving several terms of the Board of Directors at Lutheran High School, Chairman of the Board for the Los Angeles Nehemiah Pro-ject, Chairman of the Board for Pacific Lutheran Urban School, and various outreach programs.

Dietrich loved to travel, he traveled throughout Europe, Canada, the Bahamas, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Panama just to name a few. One of his plans for retirement was to tour the countryside in the RV and cruise the world. He loved the mountains, Big Bear in particular, but cruising was his favor-ite way to travel. He also enjoyed eating in fancy restaurants and sampling different foods, grilling, camping, and watching the History Channel, National Geographic, Family Feud and the Lakers.

He married Agnes Ferguson (deceased) and they raised several children together. Later he married to the love of his life, Lynda Davis on June 19, 2002. He wrote her a love letter every Valentines Day. Left to cherish his memory are his wife Lynda, children Kirk, Lauren, and Lesley, two grandchildren Ebony and Louis. His siblings Phyllis (Tip), Ruth (Paul), Don (Kathy), Mary and his godson Ted. He also had many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.

He fought the good fight, he ran the race until he was tired and he was called home.