Frank O. Schoettinger

            We are gathered this morning to bear witness to our faith in the resurrection, the resurrection of all who are buried in Jesus Christ the Lord and the resurrection of Frank O. Schoettinger.  Frank died early on Thursday morning after a series of extended illnesses.  He was 82.  Marilyn, David, Doug, Nancy and Janet and all in the Schoettinger family – we share your grief in Frank’s death, and your joyous and grateful remembrance of a life well-lived.

Frank Schoettinger was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attended the public schools, graduating from Withnow High School in 1939.  Like so many in those depression years, Frank’s father was unemployed.  So Frank worked in the machine shop for a year, before entering Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, on a Methodist Church scholarship.  Two years later, after the war broke out, Frank enlisted in the US Coast Guard.  He saw duty in Oregon as a Signalman First Class on a freighter and sea going tug.  He served in the Pacific theatre in New Guinea and the Philippines.  After he was discharged in 1946, Frank served in the Naval Reserves, and returned to Ohio Wesleyan, graduating in 1947.

At Ohio Wesleyan he met Marilyn Wakeman, daughter of the town druggist.  Frank had had a date with a sorority sister of hers, and the two became acquainted in the university library.  One day Marilyn told Frank, “Just once before I graduate I would like to visit the bar around the corner from my father’s drugstore.”  Frank said he would take her, and even take her to a movie first.  So they went to the movie, but Marilyn lost her nerve and wouldn’t enter the territory forbidden by her tee totaling parents.  Frank and Marilyn married in 1948, but Frank always insisted that first date came on “false pretenses.”  Frank also always insisted that marrying Marilyn was the best thing he ever did.  They shared 56 years together, and had four children.

After Frank and Marilyn were married, they moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he first entered the typewriter sales and service business.  They lived in Youngstown, Ohio, Charlotte, and Atlanta before settling here in Richmond in 1963.  In 1975, Frank and two partners formed the Business Equipment Center.  He operated the business until his retirement in 1991.

In his professional and civic life, Frank was a leader. He was a member and Paul Harris Fellow of the Richmond Rotary Club, and served as the President of the Richmond chapter of the Administrative Management Society, President of the Midlothian High School PTA.  He was a Little League Baseball team Manager, and Pack leader of his boy’s Cub Scout Pack. He was the first treasurer of the Woodmont Recreation Association.

Frank could be a real jokester.  From dropping a frog into a girl’s book bag when he was in college, to talking his way onto an aircraft carrier – with his family in tow – Frank lived life with spontaneous joy.  Frank enjoyed a good joke and it was not beneath him to tell – and frequently repeat - jokes so corny you hurt when you laughed.  He would tease, but never with a mean spirit. 

And speaking of spirit, what a battler.  Frank endured – and overcame – one illness and malady after another.  Just when the rest of us would say, Frank will never get over this; he would prove us wrong, again and again.

Frank was a man whose emotions ran close to the surface.  He would cry watching a movie, especially if the plot included a scruffy little dog like his beloved Sam.  In his later years, he would cry when his pastor prayed with him.  I don’t think Frank felt differently about things than the rest of us. He was just willing and able to express how he felt.

I think most of us are either children of the law, or children of grace. If that’s true, Frank was definitely a child of grace.  Not that rules didn’t matter. It’s just that grace matters more.

            As a child of grace, Frank was a delightful father and a devoted grandfather.  He took his kids to ballgames, and cheerfully sat with the team bus driver after they abandoned him.  He and Marilyn welcomed their children’s friends into their home and their hearts.  As a grandfather, he was full of fun and mischievous ideas.

Frank was raised a Methodist, but lived with the commitment to join the church nearest his home.  Fortunately for us, Bon Air Presbyterian filled that bill when the Schoettinger family moved here in 1963.  Frank served faithfully and widely in his church.  He was an ordained elder of the church, serving on the Session. He taught in the Church School and served as Church Treasurer.  With Marilyn, Frank was a mover and founding member of the Church Memorial Garden committee.  He was a leader in the Mature Moderns group for seniors.  Until his health prevented him, Frank was a regular at the church Wednesday night dinners, even serving on a team after a stroke impaired his use of one arm. Frank was a member of the pastor nominating committee which called this pastor to Bon Air Presbyterian in 1994. 

            As you would expect from a successful salesman, Frank was at home with people, and people felt at home with him.  He enjoyed golfing more for the fellowship than for the sport.  He was more at home with good friends, than with a good book.  He was happiest of all when Marilyn was with him.

Frank was preceded in death by his parents, Frank Oscar Schoettinger and Grace M. Schoettinger; and a brother, George.   He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Marilyn Wakeman Schoettinger; four children, David and his wife, Mary of Dover, Delaware, Douglas and his wife, Suzanne of Midland, Michigan, Nancy S. Ruff and her husband, Craig of Alpharetta, Ga., and Janet S. Beamer and her husband, Joe of Buffalo, New York; eight grandchildren, Amy S. Bruning and her husband, Matt; Daniel Schoettinger, Katie and Leigh Schoettinger, Haley and Christopher Ruff and Josef and Jordan Beamer; one brother, Robert L. Schoettinger and his wife, Virginia of Cincinnati, Ohio; a sister-in-law, Marian H. Schoettinger of Dayton, Ohio; and a niece and several nephews, and by a host of friends.  Having gathered for our mutual support and comfort, and to bear witness to our faith, let us worship God:  

R. Charles Grant

Pastor

Bon Air Presbyterian Church

Richmond, Virginia

grant@bonairpc.org