# 1 - - Pilot-Tribune, February 25, 2003

THE REV. HAROLD E. SCHIABLE, 79

The Rev. Harold E. Schaible, 79, of Blair, died Sunday, Feb. 23, 2003, at Memorial Community Hospital in Blair from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003, at St. John’s UCC Church in Griswold, Iowa. Interment will be in St. John’s Cemetery in Griswold. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday at First United Methodist Church in Blair.

Visitation will be held from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Campbell-Aman Funeral Home in Blair. There will also be a viewing held one hour prior to services in Griswold on Wednesday.

The Rev. Harold E. Schaible was born May 6, 1923, in Altamont, N.Y. to Frederick and Blanche (Severson) Schaible.

A lifetime of service to others started with the Army in 1943, after he was drafted out of college. He was deployed to Africa, where he completed three months of training to become a combat medic, serving in that capacity until his discharge in October, 1945. He was awarded a Purple Heart with oakleaf clusters and the Combat Medic Badge for his service in World War II.

After the war, he attended Hope College in Holland, Mich., where he met Marian Palen. The couple were married Sept. 12, 1947, in Kingston, N.Y.

His seminary studies were started at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, and finished at Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut. A minister for 51 years, his message was about God’s love for us and within us. He served churches in New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. He served the Blair United Church of Christ in the mid-1960s and returned here for retirement. He was pastor emeritus of St. John’s UCC in Griswold, Iowa.

Along with his ministry, Rev. Schaible also served the communities in which he lived. He was chaplain for the Standford, N.Y., Fire Company; set up 911 and EMTA services in Pierce, Neb.; was active in church choirs and functions; was “grandfather” and librarian of the San Marcus Symphony in Arizona.

Love was the core of his life; love of God, family, country, friends, music and horses. He was a true example of someone who could give unconditional love and acceptance.

He is survived by his wife, Marian of Blair; two daughters and a son-in-law, Melissa and Roger Lasater of Tangent, Ore., and Stacie Schaible of Scottsdale, Ariz.; a son and daughter-in-law, Lance and JoAnn Schaible of Millard; five grandchildren; two brothers, Herbert Schaible of Altamont, N.Y. and Howard Schaible of Port Ludlow, Wash.

He was preceded in death by one son, Jody M. Schaible.

Memorials are suggested to the Leukemia-Lymphoma Foundation.

Campbell-Aman Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

# 2 - - Omaha World-Herald, February 27, 2003

REV. HAROLD SCHAIBLE LIVED TO HELP OTHERS, by Julia McCord, World-Herald Staff Writer

The Rev. Harold Schaible of Blair, a retired United Church of Christ pastor who went to seminary after serving as a combat medic on the front lines of some of World War II’s fiercest battles, has died.

Schaible, 79, died Sunday at Memorial Community Hospital in Blair of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, said his daughter, Stacie Schaible of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Schaible was born in May 1923 in Altamont, N.Y. His desire to help people made the ministry a natural fit, his daughter said. He was in college in 1943 when he received his draft notice from the Army.

Schaible shipped out to North Africa as a rifleman and was selected there for three months of training as a combat medic with the 36th Infantry Division from Texas.

Schaible saw duty at Salerno Bay, Anzio, the liberation of Rome and Florence. He hit the beach south of Marseilles during the invasion of France and was with the division as it fought its way to Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge. When the war ended, the division was four miles from Hitler’s Bavarian retreat, Schaible said in a 2002 interview with the Blair newspaper.

Schaible resumed his studies after his discharge in October 1945, graduated from Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Conn., and was ordained as a Dutch Reformed pastor, his daughter said. He later switched to the United Church of Christ.

Schaible served churches in New York, Connecticut, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. He was at Jewell, Griswold and Schleswig in Iowa and Pierce and Blair in Nebraska, his daughter said.

He was also a chaplain for a fire company in New York.

A funeral service for Schiable was Wednesday at St. John United Church of Christ in Griswold, Iowa. A memorial service was to be held Thursday afternoon at First United Methodist Church in Blair.

Besides his daughter, Schaible is survived by his wife, Marian, whom he married in 1947; daughter Melissa Lasater of Tangent, Ore.; son Lance of Millard; brothers Herbert of Altamont, N.Y. and Howard of Port Ludlow, Wash., and five grandchildren.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~

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