Duane Allen Priebe, 90, of Dubuque, IA,  passed away on January 22, 2025 in the company of family and friends.

Visitation will be from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, January 31, 2025 at Wartburg Seminary, 333 Wartburg Pl, Dubuque, IA 52003.

An additional visitation will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday February 1, 2025 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in St. Donatus. A Funeral Service will start following the visitation at 10:30 a.m. at the Church with Pastor Will Layton officiating. He will be reunited with his beloved wife to rest eternally together at the Church cemetery. The Funeral Service will be livestreamed via the church’s FaceBook page. Leonard Funeral Home & Crematory, 2595 Rockdale Road, is assisting the family.

Duane was born on June 29th, 1934, in Rhinelander, WI, to Christlieb and Lila Priebe, Duane grew up in Rhinelander and St. Paul before his family finally settled in Seattle, WA. He attended the University of Washington where his passion for aviation motivated him to become a private pilot. His deep curiosity about the workings of the universe led him to earn his BS in physics and sparked a love for the natural world, hiking in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and working as a fire lookout for the forest service.

After a year working as an Aero Research Engineer for NASA, he felt called to serve in the church. A committed physicist, Duane chose to focus his study of the universe through theology, earning his B.D. in 1961 from Luther Seminary and his Doctor of Theology in 1965 from the School of Theology at Claremont.

After a brief stint as pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Garrison, North Dakota, and Director of the Great Plains Institute of Theology, Western North Dakota District, American Lutheran Church, he began what would become a 47-year term of service to Wartburg Seminary, and the global Christian community.

Duane Traveled to Germany where he studied under Wolfhart Pannenberg (later translating Pannenberg’s Jesus: God and Man), making Pannenberg’s work available to the English-speaking world. He ventured to Namibia, Asia, South America and his favorite, Papua New Guinea exploring the value of Christian theology in different cultural contexts. He developed a reputation among his colleagues as a Christ-centered mystic who taught by surgically querying his students. The light and love of God always shown through him, bringing grace to everyone he knew.

On August 7 th , 1960, Duane married his true love, Kathleen McKillop, who shared his adventures (sometimes more willingly than others) for 57 years. He was a caring father to Christopher and David, as well as their respective wives, Jerri and Amy. He was a loving grandfather to Andrew, Christopher (Meghan), Kytana (Katie), and Alyssa (Craig). He even met his great-grandchildren, Sophie and Avery.