In Memory of Etsuo Ishida

Etsuo Ishida

Spouse: Mihoko Ishida
Children: Kana, Yuri
DOB: September 21, 1950
Blessing Date: October 14, 1982
Ascension: February 28, 2025
Seonghwa Ceremony: Friday, March 7, 2025 at 11:00AM EST at The Washington Times Arbor Ballroom, 3600 New York Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/618147675
Passcode: 2027
Wonjeon (burial): 2pm EST at Fort Lincoln Cemetery 3401 Bladensburg Rd, Brentwood, MD 20722

Etsuo Ishida was born on September 21, 1950, in Shizuoka, Japan as the second of three sons to Satoru and Omiko Ishida. From a young age into adulthood, he was an avid baseball player.

He studied optics, which is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light at Tokai University in Tokyo, Japan and graduated in 1972. After graduation, he worked at Toyo Shigyo printing company in Osaka, Japan where he later became a manager. While at Toyo Shigyo, he was witnessed to by his spiritual mother, Katsuko Toyota, in 1974. He started attending the Mindan church in Osaka and later became a full-time member of the Unification Church in Tokyo when he was 24 years old. There he was involved in the Shokyo Rengo group for seven years, a political organization that opposed communism and advocated for “liberation from communism.”

Etsuo and his wife, Mihoko, are one of the 6000 couples who attended the Holy Marriage Blessing on October 14, 1982 in Seoul, Korea. At the age of 36 he was called by Masayoshi Kajikuri to go to the United States and work at The Washington Times. He came to the United States in 1986 and worked at the World & I Magazine which later became Times Color Graphics until 2006. He then worked at True World Foods as a delivery driver and then at Kirov Ballet school as a facilities staff member.

Ishida family

He remained an active and devoted member of the church and traveled around the world, including to Israel with Pastor Michael Dada of Deeper Life Bible Church, traveled to Cheongpyeong multiple times, and to the Bahamas for an ACLC conference. Etsuo was a long-time evangelist, Japanese community leader, and ACLC outreach activist.

Throughout his working life, he also raised and sold bonsai in various markets, including in Washington, DC at the National Cherry Blossom Festival and Eastern Market in DC. His hobbies included tennis, fishing, and tending to his various fruit trees.

Etsuo and Mihoko are an honored CheonBo Couple (2020).

Etsuo Ishida passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Kensington, MD on Friday morning, February 28, 2025 at the age of 74. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Mihoko, their two daughters, Kana and Yuri, first grandson Teddy, and second grandson due to be born in July 2025.