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After faithful service spanning over 75 years combined and two continents, Majors Hector and Gerde Ramos recently retired.
Destined one day to meet and marry, Hector and Gerde grew up in different worlds. Gerde Wittrock Ramos is a third generation Salvationist. Her parents were officers in the Central Territory.
Before entering the Central Territory School for Officers’ Training, Gerde attended Asbury College. Commissioned with the Heroes of the Faith Session as a cadet lieutenant in 1964, she was sent to Argentina as a missionary in 1967, where she met Hector Ramos, a first generation Salvationist who trained at the South America East Training School and was commissioned with the Proclaimers of the Faith Session in 1965. The couple wed in Buenos Aires in 1970.
As single officers, each served in various appointments in Argentina and Gerde also served at the Central Territory School for Officers’ Training.
In Argentina they served together at appointments including the Rosario Corps, the Resistencia Corps and Children’s Home, and the Cordoba Corps with University Women’s Hostel. They served in the U.S. at the Hialeah, Florida Hispanic ministries and as Miami Area Command chaplains for the Army’s AIDS home, the men’s and women’s shelters and the state prison. In the Western Territory, they served as corps officers at the San Francisco Corps and the Gilroy Corps, their last appointment.
The Ramos’ have been blessed with three children: Hector David, Elisabet Ana and Alejandro Daniel, all born in Argentina.
Their retirement address is 25301 Compana Court, Punta Gorda, FL 33983.
