Karl P.E. Christensen

VisitationSunday, June 7, 2009After 2:00 P.M.St. Paul's Lutheran Church, AtlanticFuneral ServiceSunday, June 7, 2009, 3:00 PMSt. Pauls Lutheran ChurchAtlantic, IowaPastors Dennis and Sally Meyer, Officiating

Honorary Bearers

Jeanette LillehojRosanne & Rod Fulton

Kjer & Loretta ChristensenDennis & Sally Meyer

Interment of Cremated Remains

Salem, New York

   Karl Peter Eskild, son of Nathaniel Peter Eskild and Karen Valborg (Spange) Christensen, was born January 31, 1942 at Teaneck, New Jersey. He moved with his parents to New York and attended school there graduating from High School of Music and Arts in 1959. Karl then completed his Bachelors degree at Wagner College on Staten Island in 1963, majoring in history.  After completing a year of graduate work at Columbia University in New York, he pursued a professional career in music and sang at St. Bartholomews Church in Manhattan, both before and after his military service.   Karl enlisted in the United States Army in 1965, serving in Germany during the Viet Nam War. After his honorable discharge in 1968, Karl continued his vocal career and started working at St. Johns University School of Law in Queens, NY. While at St. Johns, Karl earned his Masters degree in Library Science and continued working in the Law Library there until his retirement in 1996.

   After retiring, Karl moved to Salem, New York to be near his mother who died a couple of years later. While attending the Tyler Fall Conference in Tyler, MN, he met Eivand and Jeanette Lillehoj who encouraged him to move to the Danish Villages in Iowa, home of the Danish Immigrant Museum. He moved to Kimballton in 2002 and later purchased a home in Elk Horn.  Karls Danish ancestry and Danish history in general were very important to him. He re-learned the Danish language as an adult and became proficient so he could easily communicate with his Danish relatives. He was a member of the Danish Brotherhood and, more recently, St. Pauls Lutheran Church in Atlantic.

      Karl was diagnosed with cancer early in 2008, however was able to remain at home until about ten days before his death. He had become a resident of Salem Lutheran Home in Elk Horn where he died on Monday, April 27, 2009, at the age of 67 years, 2 months and 17 days.

      Preceding him in death are his parents and dear friend Eivind Lillehoj.

      He is survived by many cousins around the world and dear friends Jeanette Lillehoj; Rosanne and Rod Fulton and Kjer and Loretta Christensen all of Kimballton; John Jensen, currently in the Ukraine; and Pastors Dennis and Sally Meyer of Atlantic.

Memorials may be made to the Music Program at St. Pauls Lutheran Church in Atlantic or the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn.