Lutheran researcher honoured

Long-time Lutheran Archives volunteer researcher Dr Lois Zweck is among LCANZ members honoured in the Australia Day 2022 Honours list.

A volunteer transcriber, translator and research assistant at Lutheran Archives since 1992, Lois is a member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church Adelaide. She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service to community history.

Mr Robert (Bob) Krause also received an OAM for service to the community of Marburg between Brisbane and Toowoomba in southern Queensland.

A joint winner of the History Council of South Australia’s Life-Long History Achievement Award in 2017, Lois has been a Lutheran Archives advisory committee member since 1998 and a committee member of the Friends of Lutheran Archives (FoLA) since 1992. She served as chair of FoLA from 1995 to 2014 and was made a life member of the group in 2014. She is a founding committee member of the community history collaborative German Heritage Research Group,

Lois’s work at Lutheran Archives includes transcribing and translating the Kurrentschrift German handwritten script which is a feature of many records of early Lutheran history in Australia.

Lutheran Archives Director Rachel Kuchel said she was ‘thrilled’ that Lois – a ‘researcher extraordinaire’ – and her service and contribution to community and Lutheran church history had been recognised through the award.

‘Lois has an eye for detail, an incredible memory, and will follow all avenues to pursue a record and discover what it can tell us about our church’, Rachel said. ‘Her truly special talent, however, is to inspire other people to explore one’s congregation story or one’s personal connection to our collective church story. Lois has been an incredible support to me in my role as director and I am truly grateful for her and congratulate her on her undeniably well-deserved OAM!’

Lois, however, says she was ‘shocked’ to receive the award and almost deleted the initial email notifying her of the honour.

‘When I got the first email about it, my cursor was hovering over the delete rubbish bin, thinking it was a scam’, she said. ‘You don’t expect to get anything like that but then I thought that perhaps I’d better go googling to see whether it was legitimate.

‘I was shocked of course because you look at people who have spent lives in really significant causes who receive awards but then I guess you realise that this cause is a significant one. You have to realise that dedicating some of your time and some of your efforts to something like history is considered valuable by the wider community. Archives are often considered quite dull places full of boxes of pieces of paper – but they aren’t dull in the slightest.’

A member at St Matthews Lutheran Church Rosewood, Bob Krause has given many years of service to Lutheran schools, his home congregation and the Marburg Show Society, as well as to other community organisations.

A former LCA General Synod and Queensland District Synod delegate, Bob was a planning committee member for Faith Lutheran College Plainland and served on its College Council from 1999 to 2009. He was also a member of the board of Bethany Lutheran Primary School Raceview for more than a decade and has previously served as chair of his congregation.

A former treasurer of the Marburg Rural Fire Brigade, Bob served as Marburg Show Society President from 2006-2017, having been a member since 1964. He was made a life member of the society in 1994.

The congratulations of the church are offered to these recipients and any other members honoured with awards.