Suzuki, Lester E.

Biography / Administrative History

Lester Suzuki was born in Waipahu, HI in 1909. He moved to San Jose in his teens and later graduated from San Jose State University. In 1934 Suzuki met and married Seda Shizuko Ito. He went on to receive a Masters of Divinity in 1935 from Drew Seminary, New Jersey. Suzuki became one of the first Nisei Methodist ministers; his first pastorate was in Wapato, Washington.

During World War II Suzuki and his family were moved to a Japanese relocation center. One of his sermons may be found in "The Sunday Before: Sermons by Pacific Coast Pastors of the Japanese Race on the Sunday before Evacuation to Assembly Centers in the Late Spring of 1942." Suzuki was active in the Historical Society of the United Methodist church and wrote a biography on the Life of Bishop Merriman Colbert Harris.

In 1976 he received a Doctor of Ministry from San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, his thesis was inspired by his experiences in the relocation centers was called: Ministry in the Assembly and Relocation Centers of World War II. He died in Berkeley, CA in 1999 after an extended illness.