The Rev. Dr. Jon T. Diefenthaler
President
Southeastern District, LCMS

Jon Thomas Diefenthaler was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Concordia College in Milwaukee, Concordia Senior College, Ft. Wayne, IN, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He first came to the Southeastern District as a vicar for Dr. Charles S. Mueller, Sr., at the Lutheran Church of St. Andrew, Silver Spring, MD. Upon his seminary graduation, he also received an M.A. degree from Washington University, St. Louis, and then went on to study American Religious History under Dr. Sidney Mead at the University of Iowa, where he received his Ph.D.

While in graduate school, Pastor Diefenthaler was called to serve the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Wellman, Iowa, and ordained at his home congregation in West Allis, Wisconsin. He then became an Assistant Professor of Church History for three years at Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield, IL (now Ft. Wayne). Since then, he has spent the past 28 years in parish ministry in the Southeastern District, first at Bethany-Trinity Lutheran Church in Waynesboro, VA, and then at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Laurel, MD.

On May 16, 2003, Pastor Diefenthaler was elected President of the Southeastern District of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod at the district’s regular convention in Durham, North Carolina. Prior to his election, he served the district for two full terms as First Vice President, as a member of the Board of Directors, and most recently as the chair of the district task force on “Recruiting and Training Workers for Ministry.”

Pastor Diefenthaler and Helene “Vivi” Provine were married in 2001. Vivi is from Frederick, MD, and serves under the auspices of the Howard Country Office on Aging as the director of an adult day-care center. Her daughter Kimberly lives with her husband Tom Lourenco in Olney, MD, and is the mother of her three grandchildren. Her son Robert currently resides in Paris. The late Linda Reineck Diefenthaler was Pastor Diefenthaler’s first wife and the mother of his four children—son Andrew who makes his home together with his wife Beth in Richmond, VA; daughter Katie who lives in Jacksonville, FL, together with her husband Eric Wiltse; and twin daughters Lisa, also of Jacksonville, who is engaged to be married to Tracy Woodson on September 27 of this year, and Heidi of Valparaiso, IN, who is married to Sam Bernardi and is the mother of his two grandchildren. Home for Vivi and Jon will continue to be Columbia, MD, and they intend to remain members of Our Savior Lutheran Church.