Michael Wenning


Dr. Michael Heeley Wenning was a South African-born American Presbyterian minister. He served as the senior pastor at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church from 1995 to 2001. He gained national prominence when conducting President Ronald Reagan's state funeral.

Early life

Wenning was born in Cape Town. He was educated at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas and New York University.

Career

From 1969 to 1977, he was pastor of a Presbyterian church in Durban, South Africa. In 1977 he returned to the United States where he worked for the next three decades as a pastor in various Presbyterian Church congregations. He served as the senior pastor at the Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania more than nine years, between January 1977 and August 1986.

Reagan funeral

He was notably the senior pastor at Bel Air Presbyterian Church from 1995 to 2001. There he developed a close relationship with church members Ronald and Nancy Reagan. He notably conducted President Reagan's interment service on June 7, 2004 following the latter's death and state funeral.

Death

Wenning died in 2011, just one week before his 76th birthday, at his home in Mission Viejo, California from kidney failure resulting from leukemia. He is survived by his wife Freda and his two daughters.