Leonard Erling "Bud" Klippen

Memorial Service: Monday, June 30, 2025, 01:00 PM at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 1800 Glenwood Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55405
Interment of Cremated Remains: Residence

Leonard Erling (Bud) Klippen was born January 23, 1931 to Erling and Helen Klippen in Duluth, Minnesota. In 1937 when Bud was 6 years old, the family loaded up their Model T Ford and headed west to California. They settled in the San Francisco Bay Area where they rented a driftwood cabin on the shores of Stinson Beach for $10 a month.

Life on the beach was grand but came to an abrupt end when the matriarch of the family, Aunt Gerda, insisted it was time Bud and his sister Jackie were exposed to a good Christian education. The family soon relocated to Daly City south of San Francisco, and it was there that Bud's lifelong devotion to God the Father, and his connection to the American Lutheran Church took seed and began to grow.

Bud graduated from UC (Cal) Berkeley in 1952; received his Bachelor of Divinity at Luther Theological Seminary, St. Paul in 1956 and studied at the University of Chicago Divinity School from 1956-1957. In St. Paul Bud met and married Constance Marie King with whom he fathered four children: Nona, Shaun, Kari and Cassandra. In 1959 the couple purchased an island on Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota where they summered every year. Sixty years later the island still serves as a spiritual retreat for the entire family.

Leonard Klippen
Bud was ordained into the American Lutheran Church (now the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) in 1957 and served his first parish, Lakeview Lutheran Church on Chicago's north side from 1957-1965.

Reverend Klippen became intrigued by the civil rights movement at its inception when he became aware of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. In the ensuing months and years, he followed closely the progression of the civil rights movement, and particularly the calls to action by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. During those early years in Chicago, he became involved in the movement and when Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference team called for clergymen from Chicago and New York to travel to Albany, Georgia to march in the summer of 1962, he answered the call. In Bud's words: my mood at that time was that "I would have followed Dr. King over a cliff." He described the experience of that bus trip through the segregated south with black, white and brown clergy of all faiths, and the 6 days he spent fasting in a Georgia jail, life changing.

In 1965 Reverend Klippen left Chicago and moved his family to the Twin Cities, where he served as Assistant to the Bishop for the Southeastern Minnesota District of the ALC until 1969 when the family relocated again, this time to Toledo, Ohio. From 1969-1978 Reverend Klippen served as the Executive Director of the Toledo Area Council of Churches. In that capacity he visited and preached at churches of all faiths and denominations, living out his belief in the power of ecumenical collaboration in service to God's commandment that we love one another.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s Reverend Klippen continued his work in the civil rights and anti-war movements. He and Connie were greatly influenced by community activist Saul Alinsky's 1971 book, "Rules for Radicals" which purported to serve as a guide for community organizers working to unite low-income communities in the fight to obtain social, political and economic wealth and power by non-violent means. During that time, they were both involved in community organizing efforts led by the Jesuits and the Toledo Area Black Panther Chapter.

Leonard Klippen
After Connie's sudden death in 1977, Bud married Gertrude Heintz. Together they had one daughter, Amelia. From 1978 to 1980 Reverend Klippen served his second parish, Genesis Lutheran Church in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. In 1980 he was called as the founding Pastor to Lord of the Seas Lutheran Church in Big Pine Key, Florida. He served there with his third wife, Doris Hochstadt Klippen, until his retirement in 1996. While in the Keys, Bud and Doris worked together on social justice issues impacting residents of the Keys, particularly voter registration.

Reverend Klippen is survived by his children: Nona Klippen and her children Kaitlyn and Kelsey Hughes; Shaun Klippen and his children Jeremy, Connie, and Trevor Klippen and Hailey Christensen; Kari Klippen Sierra (Rodolfo) and their children Chelsey Trice Lipsey, Ryan, Rhytt and Terryn Sierra and Tierra Sierra Gosin; Cassie Tabery (Frank); Amelia Johnson (Ben) and their children Spencer and Evie; nieces Lori Johns, Tammy Feeney, and Debbie Martin; nephews Mark and Johnnie Roesell; grandchildren Orly, Talia and Yael Lenga, and Leo and Sydney, children of Bud's late wife Doris Klippen's daughter Carrie and son Todd; and many other loving extended family and friends.

Throughout their lives, Bud instilled in each of his children an abiding commitment to the principles of justice, equality and equal rights under the law, and to public service. His legacy lives on through them.

A Memorial Service will be held on June 30, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. at Redeemer Lutheran Church at 1800 Glenwood Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55405.

In lieu of flowers the family would appreciate donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center or the American Civil Liberties Union.