Submitted
Norbert Mokros
The Reverend Norbert W.W. Mokros died January 25, 2016, in St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota at the age of 77. A resident of Duluth for six decades, Reverend Mokros served as the founding director of the Twin Ports Ministry to Seafarers a position he held from 1969 until his retirement in 2001. Through hospitality his ministry acknowledged the dignity of others, as he offered assistance, care, and comfort to strangers from around the world whose work and journey brought them to the ports of Duluth and Superior at the head of the Great Lakes.
A naturalized U.S. citizen, Reverend Mokros was born in the Silesian village of Mangschutz, Germany, on December 8, 1938, home to his father, Robert Mokros, an orthopedic shoemaker. His mother, Marta Mokros, nee Gutsmann, came from the nearby village of Minken. Both families had lived in this region of Silesia for centuries according to church records. That would all change in the final months of the Second World War and in its consequential aftermath. Initially they fled the Russian armies advancing into Silesia, witness to the firebombing of Dresden along the way. Thereafter, through forced expulsion following the secession of Silesia to Poland they joined the flow of millions who sought resettlement in what would become West Germany. Their journey brought them to a refugee camp near the Kiel Canal in northern Germany for the next two years.
By the late 1940s the family had settled in Velbert, situated in the vicinity of the city of Essen in the Ruhr industrial district. It was in Velbert that his brother Hartmut was born in 1949, and it was in Velbert that Norbert attended and completed high school at the Realschule, as a student in class 6C. He remained in touch with his 6C classmates throughout the remainder of his life and over multiple years participated in their annual reunions in Velbert, the most recent in April 2015.
It was from Velbert that the family moved to Minnesota in 1956. In September of that year, he together with his parents and brother immigrated to the United States under the sponsor of the Nokomis Lutheran Church of Minneapolis. The family settled in Minneapolis with Norbert enrolling in Augsburg College shortly after their arrival. Following his 1961 Augsburg graduation he entered Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary to study for the ministry. Upon completion of his theological studies in 1964 Norbert was ordained a minister of the American Lutheran Church.
1964 proved a momentous year for Reverend Mokros professionally. His first ministerial calling following his ordination brought him to Duluth to serve as assistant pastor at Concordia Lutheran Church. By July of that year his practice and vision as a minister expanded significantly in response to a protracted labor strike by grain millers that left a flotilla of international ships without the cargo of wheat that had brought them more than 2,000 nautical miles inland by way of the St. Lawrence Seaway to the ports of Duluth and Superior Wisconsin, at the head of Lake Superior. The hundreds of international seamen aboard the ships had no opportunity to get off their vessels, contact their families, or have respite from long isolation on board their ship. With the support and assistance of his congregation and those of a dozen added denominations, Reverend Mokros began visiting ships and organizing a shuttle service from the ships to town. He organized the distribution of books and magazines, visited those who were hospitalized, and secured translators. Fluent in multiple languages, the seafarers had found a friend and advocate in Reverend Mokros. The strike ended but many supported the idea of creating a regular ministry to seafarers.
1964 was also a momentous year personally, culminating with his marriage that November to Karen Mokros, nee Larson, of Duluth. The mother of his daughter and son, Andrea, born 1969 and Peter, born 1977, the couple divorced in 1985.
By September 1966 Norbert stepped down from his pastoral post at Concordia Lutheran Church and embarked along with his wife Karen on a two year sabbatical in Europe to explore the direction of his pastoral calling toward the creation of a ministry to seafarers in Duluth. The trip included visits to seafarer centers throughout Europe that established a valuable network of professional ties for the years ahead as for example his service as executive secretary of the International Council of Seamen’s Agencies (ICOSA) during the 1970s. During his sabbatical he also served as a visiting minister for the congregation of a Lutheran church in the village of Dorste in the Osterode region of West Germany during the winter of 1967-68.
Reverend Mokros was aware that smaller, rural congregations in Northern Minnesota were also in need of ministerial visits. It is to the needs of these congregations that he directed his calling following his return to Duluth in June of 1968. He continued his pastoral visits to small, rural congregations throughout the course of his career, and gained their partnership in assisting with the establishment, growth, and continued vitality of the Seafarers Center in Duluth through offerings and fund raising.
In 1969, the Twin Ports Ministry to Seafarers was incorporated and opened officially in a 64X14-foot mobile trailer on Garfield Avenue near the docks. Ship visiting began in earnest with the combined support of eleven denominations who, in addition to their offerings and volunteer work, collected Betty Crocker coupons that led to the initial purchase of a nine passenger van. Six years later in 1975, the Seafarers Ministry moved to its current home, the rectory building of the former St. Clement’s Catholic Parish at 2024 West Third Street, Duluth. The Ministry continues to this day to provide sailors with shuttle rides to churches, shopping centers, medical clinics and other community services, and other amenities while ships are in port. The former rectory offers sailors a space for relaxation, a place they can play ping pong, pray in the chapel, and have a snack or watch television.
The legacy of Reverend Mokros lives on in the work of the Seafarers Ministry. It surely lives on in the hearts and minds of the thousands of others whose lives he touched through his ministry, his friendship, and his love. He is survived by his daughter Andrea Mokros and her husband Brian Dare of San Ramon California and their children, and grandchild Conor, by his son Peter Mokros and his wife Melissa Erskine of Roseville Minnesota, and their son Chester, born but two weeks before the passing of his grandfather, and by his brother Dr. Hartmut Mokros and his wife Dr. Hester Coan of Milltown New Jersey, and their children Arno and Emily. All agree that he departed this world far too soon. A memorial service is planned for Spring 2016. The date will be announced once set. Correspondence can be sent to norbertmokrosmemorial@gmail.com.