Roger Stubbe, 84, passed away Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, at his daughter's home in St. Paul, MN. A funeral service took place at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, at Jurrens Funeral Home in George.
Roger Glen Stubbe was born in Luverne, MN, on Dec. 11, 1938. His family moved to a farm near George when he was three years old. His grade school education was obtained at a country school near their farm.
His family attended Hope Reformed Church near George, and at an early age, he came to know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Just after graduating from George High School, he went to a Reformed church summer youth camp where he met Joyce Rozendaal from Sully.
Roger always had an interest in electronics and radio. He listened to shortwave radio and obtained an amateur radio license when he was 16. After he finished high school, he went on to study electrical engineering at Iowa State College in Ames. By his second year, Joyce had entered Central College at Pella, and their relationship began to grow. They were married just before Roger finished his final year at Iowa State.
After graduation, they moved to Cedar Rapids where Roger had taken a job with Collins Radio Company, a manufacturer of military and industrial communications equipment. During his two years there, their first daughter, Sandra, was born.
From there they moved to Waseca, MN, where Roger took a job with the E. F. Johnson Company, another electronics firm. It was there that their second daughter, Laura, was born. Shortly after birth, she was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome. What seemed at first to be a curse turned out to be a blessing as it brought Roger and Joyce into a new and more meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.
Through the strong missions emphasis of Evangelical Free Church, which they attended in Waseca, God spoke to both Roger and Joyce independently about getting involved in missions. Because of Roger's interest in electronics and radio, they were led to contact a radio ministry where Roger could use his engineering knowledge. In January 1965, they left for Costa Rica where they studied the Spanish language for eight months. Then they went on to Ecuador to serve with Radio Station HCJB. There, he used his engineering training to support and grow the radio ministry in Ecuador. Later, he continued using his gifts and talents to do consulting work with Christian broadcasters around the world. Sully First Reformed Church supported the Stubbes’ mission work for many years.
After serving in Ecuador for 30 years, they moved to Colorado Springs, CO, where they continued to serve with the same mission (World Radio Missionary Fellowship, now known as Reach Beyond) for another 18½ years.
During the last 9½ years of Roger's life, the couple lived in Pella where their daughter, Laura, had lived at Christian Opportunity Center for many years. They recently moved to St. Paul, MN, to be near their daughter and son-in-law, Sandra and Dan Varberg, where Roger passed away just three days after the move.
Roger loved his radios and was extensively involved in local and national amateur radio clubs. He loved reading, keeping up on current events, and crossword puzzles. He will be missed greatly by his immediate and extended family as well as his church family.
Roger is survived by his wife Joyce Stubbe; his daughter Sandra (Dan) Varberg; three grandsons and their wives Zach (Heidi), Micah (Hannah), and Caleb (Heidi) Varberg; and one great-grandson Arkyn Jonah Varberg; and sisters, Bonnie (Ronald) Smith and Elvira Smith.
He was preceded in death by his parents Enno and Ella Stubbe, his in-laws Adrian and Wilma Rozendaal, his brother Harlyn M Stubbe, his daughter Laura Denise Stubbe, and his brother-in-law Jerry Smith.
