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Our Story
Judy Ellen Hart was born on April 20, 1945 in Bluefield, WV. She
had two older sisters (Mary and Betty—both are deceased) and a
younger brother, Buddy. The family moved to Ft. Myers, FL when
Judy was 12; Judy returned to WV to attend Greenbrier College for
Women in 1961. In 1963, Judy married her high school sweetheart,
Dick Wiggins. In 1970, they adopted their son, Richard William Wig-
gins, Jr. and in 1972, a daughter Angela Rebecca arrived. Judy and
Dick were very involved with their church, Grace Lutheran, in St.
Petersburg and with the church school where the children attended.
Judy’s long career as a ‘professional volunteer’ really began then.
She was Girl Scout Troop leader, Cub Scout board member,
President of the Parent Teacher League, President of the Riviera
Bay Homeowners Association, serving on many boards and
committees in St. Petersburg. In December of 1984, Dick was
diagnosed with esophagus cancer and after aggressive treatments
and surgeries, died in 1985. When Judy began to recover from her
grief, she again started volunteering, a lot of which was with the
youth of her church.
Richard Gene Lohmeyer grew up on a dairy farm in north central
Kansas, near the town of Linn. He received his early education at
Zion Lutheran School and Linn Rural High School. He was an
active member of the Livewires 4-H club where his projects included
showing dairy cattle, Land Judging and public speaking. He was a
member of the 4-H team that won the 1962 National Land Judging
contest in Oklahoma City.
Much of his early life centered around the activities at Zion Lutheran
Church and School. He served in the U.S. Army and attended
Kansas State University. After farming with his father for 20 years,
he decided to follow God’s call into the pastoral ministry. He would
tell you that he put off that call which came while he was still in
elementary school. “God had to hit me between the ears to get my
attention, before I answered His call”, he would say. That “wake up
call” was a failed marriage which left him and his son, John, on their
own.
Leaving his hometown, he attended Concordia University in north
Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he studied Hebrew and Greek and
majored in history From there he attended Concordia Seminary, St.
Louis, MO where he received his Master of Divinity. It was while
attending the seminary and doing a summer internship at Grace
Lutheran Church and School in St. Petersburg, FL, that he met his
wife, Judy. Upon his graduation from the seminary he was
ordained into the office of Holy Ministry in the Lutheran Church