Born October 26, 1889.Pastor Ruege's mother, Emma, was English and his father, Herman Ruege (pronounced Ree'gee), was German. They married in Germany before they emigrated to America. They eventually settled down in Allegan, Michigan, where Justus' mother died. He was only three or four at the time, the youngest of three children.
His father relocated to Watertown, Wisconsin, where he married Albertina. Justus was enrolled in St. John's Lutheran School. His granddaughter, Elizabeth, would later serve as a teacher at that school.
Pastor Justus Ruege boasted that he never graduated from anywhere. After his third year at Northwestern College in Watertown, they felt he was ready for the Seminary. The decision to have Ruege skip his final year could also have been fueled by the synod's need for pastors. The circuit riders of Northern Wisconsin certainly were in need of reinforcements.
Pastor Ruege didn't really "graduate" from the Seminary in 1915 either. Before his final year, he received a "temporary" call to serve Crandon and the surrounding mission churches. The following year, St. Paul extended to Pastor Justus a permanent call. Apparently he knew his stuff well enough, because the Seminary waived his last years of study.
After four years of serving Crandon, Rev. Ruege received a call to minister to the congregation of Divine Charity in Milwaukee. Before leaving Crandon, Pastor Ruege had been in the process of courting Violette Sabrowsky. By this time she had enrolled in "Normal School" (a teacher training school) in New London. But, as she fondly recalled, Pastor Ruege persuaded her to marry him, by saying that he needed her more than the children did.
From Divine Charity, Rev. Ruege accepted the call to serve as the principal of Milwaukee Lutheran High School.
From there he received a call to serve Jordan Lutheran in West Allis, where he spent most of his ministry (23 years).
Because of health problems, he accepted a call to David City, Nebraska. But that was not the end of his trail. He came back to our area to serve Iron Mountain in Michigan and then he concluded his ministry by serving two small country parishes in rural Nielsville and Globe township (central Wisconsin, south of Wausau).
His gall bladder brought an end to his ministry prematurely. He would have kept ministering, but a gall bladder attack which required surgery slowed him down enough that he stepped back from the public ministry.
The Lord called this faithful servant home in May of 1973.
