John Zeitler

The astonishing and beloved John Zeitler, 86, passed on on May 6, 2026.  A gathering to honor and celebrate his life among us will be held on Saturday, June 27^th, 2026 at 10:00 am at Grace United Methodist Church, 3700 Cottage Grove Avenue, Des Moines.  A meal will follow (for John, a most hospitable one among us, the meal is the heart of the gathering).  To attend virtually guests may go to https://www.youtube.com/gracedesmoines. 

In early March, John began to dictate an obituary in his own words.  It began this way:

Warning: All men past a certain age should be checked regularly for prostate cancer.

I was born of Anna Marie Hile Zeitler and George Zeitler in East Brady, Pennsylvania on April 28, 1940.  I have six siblings, two of whom have died, Michael and Robert.  Surviving are Mary Anne Zeitler of Erie, Pennsylvania; Dennis Zeitler of Sewickley, Pennsylvania; Joe Zeitler and his wife, Sandy, of Oil City, Pennsylvania; and Andrew Zeitler and his wife, Mary, of Washington, Pennsylvania.  I am also survived by the love of my life, Carmen Lampe Zeitler.

I was a Roman Catholic priest for twenty-six years. I served as pastor in parishes in Sharon, Pennsylvania and Des Moines, Iowa; as a Glenmary Home Missioner in Butler County, Kentucky; as the Project Director of National Catholic Rural Life, as a member of the Leon Team Ministry (including parishes in Clarke, Decatur, Lucas, Ringgold, and Wayne Counties in southwest Iowa), and as a Maryknoll Foreign Missioner in Tanzania. 

While serving St. Joseph’s parish in Sharon (whose parishioners taught me how to be a pastor), on my weekly day off, I attended the University of Pittsburgh and earned a Masters of Social Work in community organizing.  Upon the completion of my commitment to Maryknoll, I returned to Des Moines, where compassionate and progressive Bishop Maurice Dingman had welcomed me as a young priest.  I resigned from the priesthood and began a ten-year career at Broadlawns Medical Center as a social worker with mental health services. 

On November 24, 1995, Carmen and I were married in the presence of a loving community of family and friends that has only deepened and widened throughout the over three decades we have been together.

I am profoundly grateful for all the goodness that has been shown to me, and I am profoundly sorry for any harm I may have caused.

Thus ends the reading of the obituary dictated by John.  But there is so much more, certainly more than any amount of words can begin to touch.  So, with some level of apology to John, here are a “few” more words. 

Among John’s considerable gifts were the gifts of noticing and showing up.  In addition to serving him and all with whom he worked throughout his winding and impactful careers, those gifts served so many other places and communities.  While at Broadlawns, and beyond retirement in 2006, John volunteered with the American Red Cross, providing mental health support in times of disasters, including September 11 in Washington D.C, Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and the U.S. Navy Ship Comfort off the coast of Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.  Also, while at Broadlawns, and beyond, he volunteered at the Polk County Jail offering classes on smoking cessation, journaling with The Diary of Anne Frank as a guide, and the reading and writing of poetry.

In retirement John stepped further into opportunities to be involved in the community and well beyond.  Shortly after his retirement in 2006, he and a friend traveled to China to teach English to middle school students for six weeks.  He became a docent at the Des Moines Art Center.  Through various agencies (and sometimes on his own) he counted it a great privilege to come alongside refugee families and communities from all over the world. (Having spent five years in Tanzania, and learning Swahili at 50, he had an extra measure of compassion and understanding for those trying to make their way in a different country and culture.)  John became a Master Conservationist in 2006 and volunteered as a steward at Brown’s Woods for the next 20 years. He enjoyed offering assistance to travelers at the Des Moines Airport information desk for fifteen years. (Sometimes bringing stranded travelers' home with him for the respite of a meal, a shower, a bed.)  He was a part of the Juvenile Justice Committee, advocating for juveniles being held in Iowa prisons, and Friends of Iowa Women’s Prisoners.  John appreciated being involved in the occasional building project with Habitat for Humanity, sorting books and setting up for the annual Planned Parenthood Booksale, seasonal transplanting at the Des Moines City Greenhouse and regular care for sections of Woodland Cemetery.

Just outside his own front door, John was an early steward of a Little Free Library (#1192—now there are over 200,000 in the world), building the first one from recycled materials (a particular gift of John’s—using recycled materials).  He made sure there were always books in the library, especially for neighborhood children and students passing by going back and forth to the neighborhood school.  Every April (National Poetry Month) he hung his homemade “Poetry” sigh on the LFL as a reminder to passersby to stop by for books of poetry.  Also, in the neighborhood—for years John took on regularly picking up trash up and down the streets, cleaning under the nearby freeway overpass, and cutting down brush from along public fences.

John took great delight in hosting, with Carmen, a monthly Poetry Gathering (including the hospitality of a meal) for nearly twenty years; and particular joy in hosting many international delegations and guests for dinner through the Iowa International Center.

He enjoyed doing the New York Times Sunday crossword, and all manner of daily word games, reading, biking, walking, hiking, gardening, baking, science, and in his own words—“a new challenge, travel to just about anywhere, problem solving, simplicity.”

For all the endeavors and connections generated by John’s gifts for noticing and showing up; his presence in our lives and in our life together was as much a soul presence as anything.  His quietly infinite spirit and his capacity for pondering (whether it be the origins of the Cosmos or a solution to the most pernicious social justice issues; a challenge facing a friend or how to make a household repair, or simply the beauty of the river, the trees, the prairie, the birdsong, home); his draw to silence and calm in the midst of whatever clamor arose; his endless pull toward community; his immensity of soul and humility of spirit that anchored us—in all those ways and in ways that we cannot yet give word to, or don’t even know, John was a soul presence among us.

One of the more tangible pieces of evidence of John’s way of being among us is the labyrinth at Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines.  A labyrinth is an ancient pathway that invites quiet and stillness within, letting go of distractions, moving forward with intention, and an awareness of our deep connectedness.  When working with the PATH program at Broadlawns to support those with chronic, serious mental health challenges, John thought that building a public labyrinth might be a good effort to bring together various people in the larger community for the benefit of the community.  He pondered, and invited others into the pondering, and eventually, into a process, and then into the reality of creating the labyrinth.  The labyrinth remains as one reminder of the soul presence that John was and is in our lives. 

John Zeitler, a soul presence, surely ever to be more astonishing and beloved as time and eternity goes on.

Memorial gifts may be made to Des Moines Refugee Support, P.O. Box 529, Des Moines, IA 50302.  https://dsmrefugees.org