THE DIEMER COLLECTION

Max Diemer and his first wife, Darlene, arrived in New Guinea as missionaries with the Lutheran Church in April, 1948 with their young son, Joel. They were stationed in Raipinka, four miles west of Kainantu in the Upper Ramu River Valley. Max also established the mission station at Tarabo to the southwest of Kainantu. They left New Guinea in 1951 with two more children, Elizabeth and Daniel. Darlene had contracted Tropical Sprue and could find no treatment for it in New Guinea.
 
Following Darlene's death from cancer in 1956, Max returned to New Guinea in 1958 with the children who were put into a boarding school for missionaries' children in Wau. For most of his second tour in New Guinea, Max was assigned the job of missionary to the migrant workers in the towns and plantations along the coast. He married Dorothy Voigts in Madang in 1959. They lived in Lae from 1959 to 1966 where they had two children, Jonathan and Timothy. They were stationed just outside of Madang in 1967. They moved to Rabaul on New Britain in 1968 where they lived until they retired in 1985.
 
This is their collection of New Guinea artifacts with descriptions of how they were acquired.
 
Their full story is related in DIEMER—The Autobiography of Max Diemer,
My Roots, My Life, My Work by Max Diemer. To purchase copies of this book contact the publisher, Print Write Now, at 2959 Sudderth Dr., Ruidoso, NM 88345 (575) 257-3777 Hours M-F 9-5