VIERLING, Walter J.

Rev. Walter J. Vierling, 91, of Pearisburg, entered the Church Triumphant on Friday, July 14, 2006, in Salem, Va.

Rev. Vierling was born on Friday, June 6, 1915, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was a son of the late Jacob Vierling and Augusta Geschwinder Vierling. Rev. Vierling served as a chaplain in the United States Navy for 22 years and as pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in Urbana, Ohio, and Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pearisburg.

After his retirement, he served as a supply pastor in all the New River Valley’s Lutheran churches. He was a member of Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pearisburg. Rev. Vierling volunteered at the Giles Health and Family Center, an intergenerational child/adult daycare program, where he read aloud to children and adults. He also read to a class of second graders at Macy McClaugherty School once a week. He was a member of the Pearisburg Lions Club.

Rev. Vierling is survived by a daughter, Martha Corbin Vierling; two sons, W. Christian Vierling of Arlington, and Timothy Jacob Vierling and wife, Mary Jane of Pearisburg; five grandchildren, Elizabeth, Jacob, and Susan Vierling and Erica and Christopher Prenda; one great-grandchild, Raheem Prenda; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

The service celebrating his entry into the Church Triumphant will be held at the First United Methodist Church in Pearisburg on Wednesday, July 19, 2006, at 2 p.m. with Bishop James Mauney, Rev. Richard Bansemer, Bishop Emeritus, and Pastor Linda Mitchell presiding.

Burial will follow in the Birchlawn Cemetery in Pearisburg. The family will receive friends on Tuesday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Givens Funeral Home.