|
Chuck and Shirley Strommer
© Mt Olive Lutheran Church
(prepared by Annie Jarrell)
Chuck and Shirley are enjoying
retirement, which started in the year 2000, at their home in forest
grove. They have grown children and grandchildren.
Children:
1 Luanne and
Dave Brist (Claude
Brist’s son):
They live in
Forest Grove.
Children:
Erin
Brittany
2. Linda and Jeff Chapin.
They live in
Hillsboro
Children:
Derek
Michael
Daniel
3. Jeff and Michelle Strommer.
Jeff is based at the Air Force base
in Abilene, Texas. The active duty and is gone most of the time,
serving our country.
Children:
Hallie,
Lauren
Chuck was born
and raised in Seattle, Washington. Shirley was born and raised in Iowa
City, Iowa. When Shirley was thirteen her mother left her, her sister
and father. She took the little brothers and settled in the Seattle
area. When Shirley was eighteen and no longer under foster care,
mother wrote and asked the two daughters to visit her, which Shirley
did. Obviously fate was at work. She got a job and met Chuck. He
proposed to Shirley on their third date. They were married December
31, 1956, and have just celebrated their 48th anniversary.
Chuck says, “A
visit turned out to be a lifetime commitment.”
Strommers moved
to Eugene, Oregon to work, then to Cornelius, and finally settled in
Forest Grove in 1975.
Originally Chuck
worked in a department store managing the automotive department. Then
he worked at Western States Fire Apparatus in Cornelius for twenty
years. When two of the men branched off from Western, Chuck went with
them. The new company was H&W emergency vehicles in Hillsboro and
Chuck was the purchasing agent.
Shirley worked
for twenty years as a teacher, first for 4 years at Neil Armstrong
teaching reading to special education students. Then she tutored
Juniors and Seniors at the high school in Math, Social Studies, and
English.
Although
originally they were Lutheran, Chuck and Shirley were not a practicing
church family. When their son was ten years old he told them he wanted
to be baptized and confirmed. Claude and Betty Brist were close
friends and were active Mt. Olive members, so they ask them for
advice. As a result pastor Carow came to visit and help their son be
confirmed and baptized.
A day came when
one of Chuck and Shirley’s dear friends died. Returning from the
funeral Shirley acknowledged to Chuck her need to have God in her
life. Chuck agreed, and so they became members of Mt. Olive; a church
and our pastor Bohlken they dearly love.
Chuck’s hobbies
are golf, gardening, but especially their KOI pond. The pond has
become his vocation, his calling, requiring much of his time. Besides
the enormous task of landscaping and operating a complicated filter
program to accommodate his huge Koi fish, he has to guard against
critters who would do his fish harm. To date he has trapped two
skunks, and two coon, which he takes to the country and lets loose.
There is also a Blue Heron and he is stalking.
Shirley love’s
crafts, especially with silk flowers and her yard work. Sewing for
others and keeping an immaculate house keep her busy too.
|
