Rev. Eugene A. Koene 1945-2026

Eugene was born June 5, 1945, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the elder of two sons of Eugene M. and Evelyn Dyke Koene.

He spent his early years on his parents’ farm in Lima Township. He was baptized and confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church, Wilson Township. His elementary education was at Ourtown School, Lima Township, Sheboygan County Teachers College (elementary division), Sheboygan Falls, and he graduated from Sheboygan Falls High School in 1963. Having decided to prepare for the ministry of the Lutheran Church, he attended Concordia Junior College, Milwaukee (A.A. 1965), Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Indiana (B.A. 1967), and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri (M.Div. 1971).

He served a year of parish internship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Tremont, Bronx, New York (1969-1970).

Eugene was ordained in the holy ministry on July 18, 1971, at Trinity Lutheran Church, Wilson, Wilson Township. His first parish assignment was serving the Holy Comforter Lutheran Church, an inner-city mission in St. Louis, Missouri (1971-1979). He was co-founder and first president of Southside Ministries, an ecumenical cooperative, which operated a Peoples Food Store in the local public housing project, an after-school program for neighborhood children and sponsored shared worship events with the member churches on Palm Sunday, Pentecost and Martin Luther King Day.

Eugene was married to Stella Louise Brown, a Lutheran deaconess and native of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Nov. 27, 1976. To this union, two sons were born, Michael Peter Koene (1978) and Stephen Philip Koene (1983).

The family moved to Toledo, Ohio, in 1979, where Eugene served as pastor of St. Philip Lutheran Church until 1984. The next move was to Brooklyn, New York, where he served as pastor at the Lutheran Church of the Risen Christ (1984-2000). Stella, his beloved wife and mother of his children, succumbed to cancer and died in 1989.

While serving Risen Christ Church, Pastor Koene also served interim pastorates at two other Brooklyn churches — St. Paul’s, Bushwick (1986-1989) and Our Savior, Bushwick-Covert Street (1989-1992). During this time he also served for seven years as circuit counselor for Lutheran congregations in Brooklyn and Staten Island, New York.

Pastor Koene took time off from parish ministry in 2000. Making a transition from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Pastor Koene served as House Chaplain at Seafarers and International House, New York City (2002-2006). In 2006, he accepted a call to St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Bronx, New York, serving there until the closing of that congregation in 2012. He thereupon took a call to Hope Lutheran Parish, Trumbull County, Ohio, in a team ministry with two colleagues serving four congregations. When this partnership was amicably dissolved in 2015, Pastor Koene was called to continue two of the congregations, Messiah Lutheran Church, Newton Falls, Ohio, and St. Mark Lutheran Church, Warren, Ohio, until 2018. He thereupon accepted the call to Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Warren, Ohio, which was also one of the original congregations of Hope Lutheran Parish.

Pastor Koene was preceded in death by his wife, Stella, and his parents.

He is survived by two sons, Michael P. Koene and Stephen P. Koene; his granddaughter, Shakirah M. Koene; his grandson, Elijah A. Koene, all of Brooklyn, New York; his brother, Ralph Koene (Jennie), of Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin; sisters-in-law, Tullia K. Hamilton (Irvin) and Shelia Brown; brother-in-law, Kenneth Brown, all of St. Louis, Missouri; brother-in-law, Romalice Brown (Mary), of New Orleans, Louisiana; numerous nephews, nieces, grand-nephews and grand-nieces; and many friends.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, April 24, 2026, at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 140 Cherry Ave. N.W., Warren, OH 44485, where a service will begin at noon, with Bishop Laura Barbins officiating.

Burial will be in Newton Township Cemetery in Newton Falls.

Please visit www.borowskimemorialhome.com to send condolences to the church.

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