The Buehrle Society 

Diakon established the Buehrle Society in 2019 to recognize donors who make contributions to Diakon or its programs for five or more consecutive years. Gifts of any amount, if donated five or more consecutive years, qualify the donor for membership in the society.

The Buehrle Society is named for the Rev. Dr. Paul L. Buehrle, former president of The Lutheran Home at Topton, Pennsylvania, who served for 20 years in that role and who directed the organization through extensive growth, acquisition and expansion.

Current members of the society are listed here.

The Rev. Paul L. Buehrle, D.D.

The Rev. Dr. Paul Buehrle served as president of The Lutheran Home at Topton from 1975 to 1995. A native of Bucks County and graduate of Muhlenberg College and the former Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, he served as a parish pastor before being named executive director of the Wilmington Senior Center in Wilmington, Delaware, the role he held before his appointment at Topton. 

He was responsible for overseeing significant change at the institution—whose history is now continued by Diakon. Because of changes in state regulations, children and youths had to be relocated from the children’s home into community settings, a challenge he successfully completed at the same time he directed a significant expansion of services and accommodations for older persons in several locations, along with a range of community-based programs for children, youths and families. Among these services were foster care, adoption and counseling—programs that continue within Diakon today. 

The late Rev. Dr. Paul Buehrle, center, with the Rev. Daun E. McKee, Ph.D., left, retired president of Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries, and Mark T. Pile, MSHA, MSW, right, who retired as Diakon president/CEO the end of 2020.