Messiah Lutheran Church, Fairview Park, Ohio
President and CEO, Community West Foundation
My wife, Laura, and I are active at Messiah Lutheran and have many friends there. We lean toward a traditional service setting, and I especially enjoy the music program. We also have a mission called Laundry Love, which I’m able to support through the charitable foundation where I serve as president and CEO.
I briefly moved out of the Cleveland area around 2002, and my father, ELCA pastor John Uhle, retired while we were away. He joined Messiah, which was only a few miles from his church, Bethany English Lutheran, in order to give the new pastor space to get going. We followed him to Messiah upon our return in 2004.
I enjoy our church community very much. There is diversity of backgrounds and experiences, and we operate a pre-K–5 school, which is pretty unique for an ELCA church.
I have done many things at Messiah since 2004, including running a capital campaign to purchase a building and expand our footprint, serving as president of the church council, serving on the investment committee and managing the Pierstorf College Fund for seven years.
The Pierstorf brothers, Ervin and Clarence, were very successful pharmacists with many other business endeavors. They had no heirs when they died. Their gifts to an endowment eventually totaled over $25 million, benefiting the Pierstorf College Fund and Ohio Northern University pharmacy students. Each year, over $1 million in zero-interest loans are made to Lutheran students in Ohio by Messiah through the fund. It is truly one of a kind in the ELCA.
I began serving on the Community West Foundation board of directors in 2009. I have a personal policy to only serve on boards that start their meetings with a prayer. Our mission is based on Matthew 25, and we are faith-forward in our work. When I was asked to assume the president and CEO role in 2020, it allowed me to take a position that reflects my personal beliefs and benefits the least of our brothers and sisters right in the area where I live and grew up. Absolutely a dream job.
The foundation has three major areas of focus, and I am very active in all three, along with our nine other talented teammates. We support the very successful Fairview Hospital and Lutheran Hospital and were created out of their merger with the Cleveland Clinic health system in 1996. Our team runs many fundraisers annually, and I serve on the boards of both hospitals in my role. We make grants to “Matthew 25” agencies in our service area from our historical unrestricted endowment—in 2025, we helped 102 agencies with grants totaling a little over $4.5 million. And we help philanthropic individuals put their resources to work with donor-advised funds, charitable gift annuities and more.
It’s hard to describe being a funder focused on basic needs. We do not have to raise money to pay our bills, but millions of dollars come in annually to take advantage of our thorough vetting of agencies. Helping people be philanthropic is something very unique, and we don’t have to charge any fees to do this work.
I cannot think of any other kind of work I could do with my business and finance background that would be more reflective of my faith.
I was honored to serve on the Wittenberg University board for 12 years, ending around 2021. My father (Wittenberg ’59, Hamma Divinity ’61), my brother and I, and my two sons all benefited from a Wittenberg liberal arts education. Most smaller residential universities are going through difficult restructurings to reflect current times, but I am confident Wittenberg has a successful future ahead. The largest number of living alumni is here in the Cleveland area, so I see many graduates along the way.
I come from a generation that did not know the phrase “work-life balance”! I am trying to catch on to that concept by enjoying my wife of 41 years, my sons, my daughter-in-law and my two grandchildren. Everyone is about 10 minutes away from each other, and we are able to see each other often. I claim to play golf, but my friends appreciate that at least I play fast, if not well.
Grace is given, not earned, and even though my work is faith-inspired, it does not define my faith relationship. It is truly enlightening when we can accept that God died for us and we do not have to earn this gift.
I’m a Lutheran because God’s grace is given and we are able to meet all people wherever they are in life’s journey without judgement and rebuke. Seeing the dignity in all people is a hallmark of my work and personal life. I don’t believe ELCA Lutherans shun people or groups from their presence.
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