Funeral services for 94-year-old Alfred Scholer St of Alexandria, Minnesota, will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, December 29, 2015, at Community Bible Church in Butterfield, Minnesota. The church is located at 100 Chapman Street.
Interment will be in Butterfield Mennonite Cemetery, located one mile north of Butterfield, Minnesota, on Watonwan County Road #5.
Visitation will be at the church the day of the funeral service from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Sturm Funeral Home-Mountain Lake Chapel is handling the funeral arrangements.
Alfred William (Wilhelm) Scholer passed away on Sunday, December 13, 2015, in Alexandria.
Alfred Scholer was born on March 26, 1921 in Luseland, Saskatchewan, Canada, the son of Traugott and Rosa (Hafelfinger) Scholer. He was baptized on May 29, 1921 and confirmed on April 5, 1936 at the German Evangelical Lutheran Parish of St. Johannes in Luseland. Alfred attended Hearts Hill School District #2423, located near the family homestead, completing his formal education on June 30, 1937. Alfred was active working with his siblings on the farm during those intervening years leading up to World War II.
On August 10, 1942, Alfred was inducted into the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), receiving his honorable release on 15 of October 1945. His active service time was spent in the RCAF construction battalion, charged with building aircraft runways on Langara Island, north of Skeena-Queen Charlotte, British Columbia, off the west coast of Canada.
After his release from the RCAF, Alfred worked for several years for River Sawmills LTD in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. During that time, he met Neta Friesen, who had moved from Mountain Lake, Minnesota with her parents to Vancouver. They shared time together enjoying the beauty of the area, attending church and other social events. On April 26, 1947, Alfred proposed to Neta and they were married on November 28, 1947 in the Bethel Mennonite Church in Mountain Lake.
Alfred and Neta began their married life together in Butterfield, Minnesota, where Alfred worked several jobs and raised his family. Alfred was an active member of the Butterfield Mennonite Church, where he was an usher. During his working years, Al installed furnaces with Neta’s cousin, Willard Friesen, drove school bus for the Butterfield-Odin Public School District and was a rural letter carrier in both Bricelyn, Minnesota and Butterfield.
In April of 1987, Alfred retired from the United States Postal Service and began spending more time on his wood-working projects, home improvements and dwelling expansion, gardening and travel. Alfred and Neta visited Hawaii with friends Albert and Olga Regehr, Arizona with Dave and Eleanor Beinhoff and made several trips to Canada and Switzerland for family reunion celebrations. Al was often seen driving his blue Buick through town and the countryside around Butterfield. Alfred loved the sunsets and the rural landscape of southwestern Minnesota, reminding him of the beauty of the open spaces of rural Saskatchewan around Luseland.
Alfred is survived by his children, Russell Scholer (Jan Kamrath), Mark Scholer (Connie Jo Sandmann), Catherine (Dean) Scholer-Kliewer, Wayne (Kathryn) Scholer and Lynn (Donna) Scholer; seven grandchildren, Micah Scholer, Jamison Scholer, Alan Scholer, Myles Scholer, Max Scholer, Mariah Scholer and Anthony Scholer; his sister, Esther Kocher of Morlenbach, Germany and many nieces, nephews, and friends.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Neta; parents Traugott and Rosa Scholer; sisters, Rosa Gloecker and Hedwig Ternan; brothers, Bernhardt, Traugott, Hans and Gotthold Scholer; three brothers-in-law; one sister-in-law and one grandchild, Jacob Scholer.
In lieu flowers memorials are preferred to: Hospice of Douglas County, 809 Elm Street, Suite 1200, Alexandria, MN 56308-1772, and/or Knute Nelson Foundation, 420 12th Avenue East, Alexandria, MN 56308.
