Bob Engstrom had two passions in life, and both, in a fashion, involved fishing.
He loved pondering what lure to use to catch a walleye. And he also loved to focus, as a pastor, on inviting people to church and to the Christian faith.
The Edina High School graduate founded two mission churches in Texas, including one in a community of aeronautic workers in a Houston suburb in the mid-1960s. Later he served Lutheran churches in Minneapolis, Scandia and Cambridge. In 2001, he retired to Moose Lake, Minn., where he joined a prison ministry.
"He was a fisher of fish and a fisher of men," said the Rev. Dennis Johnson, a college classmate and longtime friend who later became vice president at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn.
The Rev. Robert A. Engstrom died of complications from liver cancer July 24 in a Duluth hospital. He was 72.
Louise Engstrom said her husband was a good listener who could empathize with broken families because of the family troubles one of their sons went through. She said her husband "had a presence of strength about him that even I could see. It was not just from him, but the God he believed in."
The 6-foot-2 Engstrom "was a gentle giant," said the Rev. Steve Robertson, who worked with him in the early 1980s at Cambridge Lutheran Church. "What was important to Bob was his one-to-one connection to people that only came when you loved a person for who they were, without judgment. That was what he was so beloved for. ... You hear about God's love -- he lived that through his daily encounters with everybody."
Johnson said his former classmate was a warm man with a quick wit who made people feel at home: "There was nothing pretentious about Bob Engstrom," he said.
Referring to his love of fishing, he said, "He had an amazing ability to meditate and focus on a lure when he was contemplating which one to pick. And when he concentrated on you, he was very focused on you."
Johnson said Engstrom was low-key with members or when meeting someone new: "Bob's approach was, 'I am a pastor. If there is any way I can serve you, please call me. I am here.'"
Barb Lang met the Engstroms in 2001 when they retired and joined her church, Hope Lutheran in Moose Lake. Engstrom and his wife also joined a church group to visit and conduct services for inmates at Moose Lake State Prison, said Lang, who was in a prayer group with Engstrom.
"He was a real rock of what it means to be a Christian," Lang said.
Besides his wife, Engstrom is survived by three sons, Robert and Peter, both of Moose Lake, and John, of West Bend, Wis., a daughter, Kathryn Engstrom-Welch, of Duisburg, Germany; a brother, John Engstrom of Moose Lake; a sister, Nancy Hinkley of Puyallup, Wash., and eight grandchildren. Services have been held.
