Eric Hartzell

In 1958, Eric Hartzell attended the grade school at East Fork Mission on the Fort Apache Reservation.

After graduation from Dr. Martin Luther College (now MLC) in New Ulm, Minnesota he was assigned as a tutor in Watertown, Wisconsin at the Synod's prep school there. He began his pre-pastoral studies while he was a tutor, and during this time, he spent a year in Japan teaching the missionaries' children.

After completing his schooling at the Seminary and serving as a missionary in the bush country of Mwembezhi, Zambia, Africa for six years, Pastor Hartzell returned to the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona as pastor of East Fork Mission and Canyon Day Lutheran Church for 14 years. From East Fork Mission he took a call to a mission congregation in Georgetown, Texas where he worked for twenty years.

In 2016 in semi-retirement, he accepted the call to St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Globe, Arizona. At the time of this writing, he has been in Globe for eight years. God has blessed the work there with many Apache folks who faithfully attend, several of them former classmates from Pastor Hartzell’s East Fork Mission days.

God is good! A circle has been completed: It was from St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Globe in 1958 that his father took the call to East Fork Mission.