It is not often that I write the story of a person who is still alive and well, still wandering the face of the earth. However, that is the case today. I also get to write the story of a good friend. Today’s highlighted character is Lynn Degenhardt. I have mentioned Lynn on several occasions on this blog for his major contribution to our research library, the German Family Tree. Lynn is not the type of person who would toot his own horn, so I am going to toot it for him.

There is a reason that I am writing about Lynn today. Our museum discovered not long ago that Lynn is going to be receiving an award from the Concordia Historical Institute on November 6th. He will receive that award at a banquet held on the grounds of Concordia Seminary. He is receiving this award for “SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS IN ADVANCING THE HISTORY OF LUTHERANISM IN NORTH AMERICA“. The actual wording that accompanies that award is as follows:

Commendation: To Lynn Degenhardt for his extraordinary contributions to preserving German-American heritage through his work on the German Family Tree project, a massive compilation of Perry County and Cape Girardeau County Lutheran Church records, Perry County federal census records, and Perry County marriage records. He has ensured that these records are not only preserved, but also accessible to the public, bringing history to life and fostering deeper connections to ancestral roots. His work has created a lasting legacy and will continue to serve future generations.

I will speak more about the German Family Tree later, but, for now, let me tell you a bit about the life of Lynn Degenhardt. Lynn was born on August 16, 1946, the son of Reinhold “Dixie” and Thekla (Koch) Degenhardt. Below are photos of Lynn’s parents.

Lynn was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. We can take a look at his baptism record from that congregation’s books here. I have included the record for Earl Weber, who is found right above Lynn’s record. More about Earl will come later.

Lynn is found in the 1950 census at the age of 3. At the top of this entry are Lynn’s grandparents, August and Mathilda (Poppitz) Degenhardt. Here is the wedding photo of Lynn’s grandparents.

Lynn’s two older brothers, Larry and Dewey, are also included in the Degenhardt household in this census. This family lived on a farm in the Seelitz community. Two more children, a son named Dean and a daughter named Connie, were born after 1950.

Lynn was confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church in 1960. We can view his confirmation record below. Once again, we find Earl Weber’s record right above Lynn’s.

Lynn would attend Trinity Lutheran School before heading off to attend Perryville High School. I found this photo of Lynn in his freshman yearbook.

When Lynn graduated from Perryville High School in 1964, he was named the valedictorian of his class. The photo below is included in the 1964 yearbook of that school, showing Lynn giving his valedictorian speech. I wish we had a video of that speech.

Lynn would next attend the University of Missouri-Rolla, where he would get a degree in electrical engineering. He would spend most of his career at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, not far from Knoxville. For a while, he also worked on the SkyLab Project in Huntsville, Alabama. Then, after retiring, Lynn moved back to Altenburg. He regularly works at maintaining his family farm in Seelitz and now lives in the town of Altenburg.

Lynn also has a great interest in the history of East Perry County. He began volunteering at the Lutheran Heritage Center & Museum, and it was then that he dreamed up the concept behind the German Family Tree. His idea was to compile a document that would basically become an index for the many resources we have in our museum. His index would become a starting point for people who are researching their family histories. His alphabetical listing of surnames enables people to find their ancestors and then locate the corresponding documents that are found on our museum shelves. It includes baptism records from the local Lutheran churches which we have digitized, church marriage records, confirmation records, and death records. In addition, Lynn has included census records, civil marriage records, and a variety of other resources that we have.

Lynn has been compiling this document for many years now, and he will tell you it is an ongoing project. One of his latest additions to the GFT was including the church records from Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. There is a digital and a printed version of the GFT. The printed version is found in the binders shown in the photo below. Right now, this collection of 8 binders includes over 5000 pages of information.

I know that I could not write the blog posts that I do without the German Family Tree. Because Lynn has a standard procedure for listing dates in the GFT, I am able to do a search for a particular date, and it leads me to possible characters that I might focus on. I am so thankful for Lynn’s monumental work.

For several years now, Lynn has also served on our museum’s board in the position of Vice President. He has taken upon himself the task of making sure our building is adequately maintained. In addition, it is the Degenhardt family that has made the generous donation which has led to the construction of our new south gallery. Here is a photo of Lynn and two of his brothers, Larry and Dean.

I am going to include a gallery of other photos including Lynn with a variety of his friends and colleagues taken over the years.

I want to say something else about Lynn and his friend, Earl Weber. Not only did Earl and Lynn get baptized at about the same time, but they also attended Trinity Lutheran School and Perryville High school as classmates. Each of them would later spend most of their careers in the state of Tennessee, only to move back to their old stomping grounds of East Perry County after retirement. Both Earl and Lynn have been part of my Tuesday morning Bible Class for almost 15 years. Just this morning, I had this photo taken of the two of him after class.

I want to give credit to Ken Steinhoff for providing the photos of Dixie Degenhardt and the photo I am about to display. Also, several of the photos of Lynn included in this post were provided by our former museum director, Carla Jordan. Thanks to both of you for helping me with this post. The picture below is one of my favorites. It shows Lynn and his now-departed companion, Tugboat, the dog, while standing on the family property in Seelitz.

Lynn is one of those soft-spoken kind of guys who does a lot of his work in the background. It is a rare occasion when you see Lynn “out front”. You do not know how hard it was for me to find photos of Lynn. He has never been about getting attention focused on himself, but a whole lot of tasks have been accomplished at our museum and our church because of his actions and contributions. My wife and I plan to attend his awards dinner on November 6th, and we as proud as can be of Lynn. He is so well-deserving of this award.