Michael Klausmeier

Beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Michael Klausmeier, Colorado Springs, slipped peacefully into the arms of Jesus early on January 23, 2026. Mike was surrounded by family. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Marguerite Lash Klausmeier, and three children: twin sons Matthew and David (wife: Crystal Pettit Klausmeier), and daughter Katherine Klausmeier Abernathy (husband: Lukas). Michael and Marguerite have one terrific grandson, Laith, and their second one is due after Easter.

Mike grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was the son of Rudolf (Rudy) and Lillian Woodward Klausmeier who preceded him in death. His older sister, Patricia Klausmeier Sexton passed in 2005. Mike was loved by everyone who knew him, and he had a terrific sense of humor. He and his sister were extremely bright and both of them earned great grades at Broad Ripple High School, a college preparatory school on Indy's north side. However, when he was 16 years old, Mike's father passed away after a long battle with cancer. This tragedy impacted Mike deeply for the rest of his life. He felt totally responsible to care for his mother and sister, and since it was the middle of the Cuban missile crisis, this 16-year-old boy built a bomb shelter in their basement. He loved fixing cars and building things by hand. Mike got a job at a grocery store to help support the family financially. His sister went on to college, and Mike attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, with the intention of being a teacher. But Mike transferred to Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI), in order to help care for his mother. A high school buddy got him a job as a floor person at WFBM (now WRTV-Channel 6) which at that time, was the largest NBC affiliate in the nation for a market the size of Indy. While Mike started as a floor person, he quickly advanced up the production ladder and became producer of the station's highly acclaimed newscasts. Mike immediately fell in love with video broadcasting in the 1960's and the excitement of directing "live" local talk shows, newscasts, and even the live telecasts of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race throughout the month of May for several years. Truly, it was the golden era of TV. Mike was so busy at Ch. 6 that he had to drop out of IUPUI, but the hands-on education he got at Ch. 6 more than made up for college and gave him the passion for a life-long career in broadcasting. His work on a children's show, "Uncle Uri's Treasure" earned him a prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in storytelling across various media. These were exciting times in his career, and he loved to regale his family and friends with funny stories about these days for the rest of his life.

It was during this time that Mike met his future wife, Marguerite, who had gotten a part time job at Ch.6 in the summers. She was a broadcasting major at Purdue University, and found that with his maturity and their mutual interest in broadcasting, he far surpassed any of the college boys she met on campus. They were married in June of 1972. Her family had serious doubts about a "boy who drove a sports car and worked in broadcasting", and they were, fortunately proven wrong about Mike…even though he sold his sports car and bought a conservative Oldsmobile sedan! Upon her marriage to Mike, Margi learned that she could not work in anything but radio broadcasting or at the PBS station due to the Ch. 6's nepotism clause forbidding a spouse working at another commercial station. So, the young couple packed up and moved to Florida to find work in their respective fields. The Tampa Bay Fox affiliate quickly found Mike and hired him to build up their own news department.

Mike and Margi loved sailing in Tampa Bay, and made many friends. He produced "The Florida Outdoors" show as an independent producer. After a short time, Mike learned that he would soon be the father of twins. And while they loved Florida, the couple decided they needed to be in Indiana so their sons "could get to know their grandparents" (i.e., get help babysitting). When they moved back up to Indy, Mike worked at Kartes Video Productions, and taught himself how to do digital video editing on what, at the time, was the state-of-the-art Avid system. Many of their major clients included AT&T, Cummins Engine, RCI Resorts, and other major corporations. After a few years of working for others, he and Margi started their own in-home video production company, Klausmeier Video Productions. It was then that their third child, a daughter, was born. Mike loved his family and was an excellent dad and provider for the them. One could frequently find him on the floor playing with all 3 at once.

At first their company grew fast enough that they were able to move it out of their home (visualize toddlers climbing on the expensive equipment), as Mike traveled extensively for Eli Lily Pharmaceuticals shooting focus groups with doctors. After a few years, the video production market in Indy really started to soften, and that's when Mike and Margi, even though they had been Christians all their lives, turned to God for answers. Even though the business was failing, Mike insisted that once a quarter they would do a pro-bono video to help promote Christian ministries. He said, "We cannot let our kids lose their faith in God" (Habakkuk 3:17-19). Their finances were still in a desperate state when their former pastor gave them a book written by Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) on having faith for your finances. At that point, Mike contacted YWAM's campus in Kona, Hawaii where he thought Loren might be living. He offered his video production skills to YWAM and was immediately contacted by their staff asking that he and the family come over and do the basic core course for people in their 40's and 50's called the Crossroads Discipleship Training School (CDTS). It's 3 months of classroom training and a 2-month outreach to a foreign nation. So the family scraped together the few funds they had left and went to Kona. That experience was life-changing for all of them!

During that time, one of the CDTS speakers talked to Mike about a video prayer series they were trying to produce at the base in Colorado Springs called, "The Waiting World". Their volunteer producer had just left. The idea was to highlight unreached people groups and various religions in order to get churches praying for the more than 3 billion souls who have never even heard the Name of Jesus. After convincing his wife that it would be an adventure where you work for God (without pay) and live on the generous donations of others (btw, that took some convincing!), the family left Indiana and moved to Colorado Springs. As Mike testified for the rest of his life, "God was with us every step of the way and met all our needs!" All 3 children graduated college at the top of their classes, and are successful business professionals today. All 3 love Jesus.

The couple traveled to various countries and produced a series of more than 40 videos which can be found at thewaitingworld.net. In recent years, Mike (even in his late 70's!) was still teaching himself how to create AI videos when God suddenly called him Home.

Aside from video production, global missions to reach the lost overseas was Mike's passion. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made for either of these Christian ministries that Mike loved supporting: an organization in India who helps the poor and persecuted, or a boy's orphanage in Pakistan. Please designate which ministry you are supporting, and send them to Springs Journey Church, 1250 Vondelpark Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80907. Or, you can support either of the two churches that meant so much to Mike: Springs Journey Church, their current church, OR their Indiana church that sent them into missions in 1998, Carmel Friends, 651 W. Main Street, Carmel, IN, 46032.

Michael's memorial service will be on Saturday, February 14th at 1:00pm at Springs Journey Church, 1250 Vondelpark Drive, Colorado Springs, CO. A second memorial will be held in early summer at Carmel Friends Church, Carmel, Indiana.

And now, as Mike would say, "Let's take the nations for Jesus!"