Virginia P. Gangsei

1920 - 2010

Virginia Gangsei, 89, died peacefully on Nov. 26, 2010 in San Diego following a prolonged illness.

She and her husband Rev. Lyle Gangsei lived in Thousand Oaks from 1963 1996, when Lyle passed away. Virginia returned to live at Leisure Village in Camarillo from 2006 2009. She was born Virginia Peterson on Dec. 22, 1920 in Madison, Minn., and was raised in the Midwest. She attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where she met Lyle. They married in 1944. Lyle was a Lutheran minister and the couple served churches in Madison, Wis., Rockford, Ill., Redondo Beach, Calif., and Perth Amboy, N.J., before moving to Thousand Oaks where Lyle became Dean of Students and Chaplain at California Lutheran College.

A lively and energetic woman with many passions, Virginia amply filled the roles of life partner to Lyle, mother of four boys and a girl, grandmother of six girls, high school English teacher and department chairperson, pastor's wife, antique dealer and community leader. She earned her masters degree in English at Valley State College (now Cal State Northridge) and taught English for 15 years at Newbury Park High School. She was a founding member of the Thousand Oaks branch of AAUW. Virginia loved poetry and writing and had a special gift for inspiring creative expression in her high school students.

With Lyle she traveled the world and made friends everywhere. She kept a beautiful home and was a talented gardener, floral arranger, seamstress and hostess. An active senior, Virginia taught English literature in Slovakia for a summer in her late 70s and volunteered for a month at a Brazilian orphanage after turning 80.

She moved back to Minnesota in 1998 where she met and married Loring Knecht, an emeritus professor of French who passed away in 2001. In declining health due to dementia, Virginia spent her last year in San Diego near her son David.

Virginia is survived by her five children, David, Paul, Peter, Karthia and Steve, and her six granddaughters, Erica, Kira, Kharis, Chelsey, Shayna and Emily. Funeral services were held at St. Andrews Lutheran Church in San Diego on Dec. 4, 2010.

The Gangsei family asks that contributions to Virginia Gangsei Memorial be made to the Manna Conejo Valley Food Bank, PO Box 1114, Thousand Oaks, CA 91358 (www.mannaconejo.org), which the Gangseis helped found in 1971, providing food to migrant farmworkers and others in need.