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BIOGRAPHIES OF EMMONS COUNTY - S - |
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Frank P. Sahli, the oldest son of Joseph and Magdelena Sahli, was born in Kleinliebental, Odessa, Russia, on November 20, 1899. Frank was eight months old when he came to the United States with his parents and two sisters. The family homesteaded in Onaka, South Dakota, later moving to Hague, North Dakota, where Frank attended parochial grade and public high school. After one year at St. John’s Prep School at Collegeville, Minnesota, Frank moved to Perham, Minnesota. There he worked in one of the four banks in existence at the time until the so-called ‘bank holiday’ of the early thirties when all the banks closed. He later worked for a State agency which administered the various farm credit programs that existed in the depression years. In 1939, he became the first manager of the Perham Municipal Liquor stores, a position he held until he retired in 1962.
Frank married Clara (Hemmelgarn) in 1922, and they had four children; John (died at ten days of age), Robert, Mary (Woods), and James. In the summer of 1993, Frank and Clara moved to a nursing home in nearby Fergus Falls, where they were together until Clara’s death in May, 1995. At that time, they had been married almost 73 years.
Frank was an avid golfer, a charter member of the Perham Lakeside Golf Club, and continued to play until he was almost 93 years old. Musically he enjoys playing his accordion on occasion. He was also associated with the Perham Chamber of Commerce and the area’s tourist information center.
Contributed by John Sahli. For more information on the Sahli family Visit The Sahli Family Web Site. |
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7 May 1995 October 5, 1917 - October 7, 1992
Ray was born in Temvik, North Dakota where his father, Charles, worked for the railroads. The family lived for a while in Miles City, Montana, then in Tacoma, Washington and finally settled in Denver, Colorado where his father worked in a Burlington Railroad roundhouse. Ray's mother, Mabel, was asthmatic and developed a heart condition, and after the age of six Ray lived with his aunt. His father abandoned the family, and all efforts to locate him were to no avail.
Ray came to know the Lord at a Methodist revival meeting at age of ten and, living on a farm, began to preach to the cows. His dream was to one day become a surgeon, and after high school in Montana he entered a premed course at Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington. Financial difficulties forced him to drop out. After working in Montana, Chicago, Illinois, and Denver, he moved to Hawaii to work for Libby Pineapple when World War II broke out. He enlisted in the Navy there in 1943. During the Hawaii years Ray began to lead Bible studies for both civilian workers and navy personnel as well as preaching on a local radio program. It was during this season that Ray realized the Lord wanted him in full time vocational ministry.
Ray met his wife Elaine in Great Falls, Montana, and at the close of the war they were married in Honolulu on October 22, 1945. Upon their return to the mainland in 1946, Ray began a four-year course of study at Dallas Theological Seminary, graduating in l950. Ray and Elaine spent two summers during seminary with Dr. J. Vernon McGee at Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, California doing youth ministry. This was just before Dr. McGee began his long ministry at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles. The Stedmans went on to spend one additional summer in Pasadena at Emmanuel Baptist Church. In the fall of 1950, after traveling for several months with Dr. H.A. Ironside, Pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Ray accepted the call (conveyed to him by Robert W. Smith) to serve on the staff of Peninsula Bible Fellowship in Palo Alto, California. The Stedmans then moved from Great Falls, Montana to the Bay Area with their two young daughters, Sheila and Susan.
PBF had begun two years earlier as a small Bible study, prayer, and fellowship group led by a group of lay leaders from several local churches. By l950 it had grown to the point of needing pastoral staff care. Three letters arrived in the PBF mail box on the same day, written by Christian leaders in different parts of the country, with none of them having any knowledge of the other letters. All three encouraged the PBF Elders to consider a young man named Ray Stedman to fill their pastoral need. Based on the strength of those recommendations, a brief meeting with Bob Smith at DTS, and a meeting after graduation in Palo Alto with the directors of PBF resulted in Ray being offered the position without hearing him preach.
PBF was to become PBC, and Ray's leadership here was to last 40 years, culminating in his retirement as a Pastor and Elder on April 30, 1990. During those 40 years God blessed Ray and Elaine with two more daughters, Linda and Laurie, and eventually eleven grandchildren. Ray and Elaine have lived in Grants Pass, Oregon since his retirement, surrounded by their daughters, Sheila, Susan, Linda, Laurie, and their families, all of whom live in the Northwest. |
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