The life of Lawrence Russell Schoenhals began in the small town of Brown City, Michigan, where he was born in his parent’s home March 24, 1912. He lived a full and productive life for 98 years, boarding the 9:15 A.M. Express to Heaven on August 8, 2010, at the Warm Beach Senior Community near Stanwood, Washington.

Soundly converted to Christ in a camp meeting service as a young teen, he pulled together an instrumental band and began providing music to area churches. After high school, he obtained a diploma from Fort Wayne Bible Institute and then entered Greenville College (IL) as both student and band director. There he met his first love, pianist and teacher Mildred Mae Head. They wed on Lawrence’s graduation day, June 10, 1935.

After earning a master’s degree in mathematics and music from the University of Michigan, Dr. Schoenhals and his bride committed themselves to Christian higher education and went to Central College in McPherson, Kansas, to lead the music program. There, Stephanie Anne was born April 10, 1937.

A year later they moved to Huntington College in Indiana to head the music department. George Roger was born March 8, 1939.

The next move took them to Seattle Pacific College in 1940 where they invested 28 years in teaching, administration, and various church-related and community activities.

At SPC Dr. Schoenhals served as music professor, director of the School of Music, registrar, dean of administration, administrative vice president, and acting president. He earned a doctoral degree from the University of Washington in higher education. During these years he also directed the music for the worldwide radio broadcast, The Light and Life Hour.

In 1969 Dr. Schoenhals became president of Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York, and was later inducted into the college’s Hall of Fame for his leadership and contributions to the school and the wider community of the Free Methodist denomination.

After RWC, in 1973, he landed at the Free Methodist Headquarters in Winona Lake, Indiana, where he rounded out his career as General Secretary of Higher Education and The Ministry from 1973 to 1980. During this time he served as lead editor for the denominational hymnbook, Hymns of Faith and Life and wrote a companion book with background information. In 1951 he edited the previous hymnbook of the Free Methodist Church, Hymns of Living Faith.

Following the death of Mildred in 1979, he married Ruth, widow of Bishop Myron F. Boyd, former speaker of the Light and Life Hour broadcast. The two couples had worked together for decades producing the program. In 2004 he moved to Warm Beach Senior Community, where he spent his last seven years.

In 1962 Greenville College bestowed on him an honorary doctoral degree in music. He chaired the music committee for Billy Graham during the 1952 Crusade in Seattle and was a regular at City Chapel, a prayer group of business and professional men in downtown Seattle. He was an ordained elder in the Wabash Conference of the Free Methodist Church. He was also a long-time Rotarian who relished his associations with community leaders. Club members enjoyed his joke-telling and song leading.   

His publications include three books of arrangements of hymns and gospel songs, as well as several recordings of the Light and Life Hour radio choir. His doctoral thesis, Higher Education in the Free Methodist Church, continues to be a valued resource for Christian college and university administrators guiding their institutions through these challenging days.

Dr. Schoenhals loved the out-of-doors and often took his family for camping trips in the Cascades and Olympic Mountains. He fished for trout in sparkling streams and for salmon in Puget Sound. He loved to travel, especially throughout Europe. He took his camera everywhere. He was a dedicated golfer and would play nearly 100 games a year during his retirement years in Winona Lake. Eventually the rigors of golfing gave way to pool and he became known as “The Pool Shark of Warm Beach Senior Community,” handily defeating most challengers.

Of all his many accomplishments and honors, the most poignant aspect of his life was his ability to draw sacred music from choral groups. Whether it was an a cappella choir at SPC or a large choir performing a great oratorio like The Messiah, or the radio choir that provided music week after week for a vast listening audience, his hands and expressions seemed anointed to produce beautiful Christian music.

Dr. Schoenhals was preceded in death by his first wife, Mildred (1979); and his second wife, Ruth (2005); two brothers, Clifford (1986) and Clayton (1907); and a sister, Helen (1998). He is survived by his daughter, Stephanie Radcliffe and husband Robert (Portland OR), along with their two children, Richard (Newport Beach CA); and Robyn Sharkey and husband Jay (Anaheim CA), as well as Richard’s children, Jonathan and Ashley, and Robyn’s children, Jared and Garrett. He is also survived by his son, Roger and wife Sandra (Leavenworth WA), along with their four children: Jonathan and wife Karin (Lynnwood WA), Sara Martinez and husband Joe (Quincy WA), Anna Kalepo and husband Tausili and their daughter Naomi (Seattle WA), and Julia (Bristol VT).

Dr. Schoenhals will continue to support the ministry of Christian higher education through his numerous scholarship and lectureship endowments at various Free Methodist schools. Memorial gifts may be made to any of three endowments: The Lawrence and Mildred Schoenhals Music Faculty Enrichment Endowment at Seattle Pacific University, 3307 Third Ave. West, Seattle WA 98119; The Lawrence and Ruth Schoenhals Fine Arts Lectureship Endowment at Greenville College, 315 E. College Ave. Greenville, IL 62246; or, The Lawrence and Ruth Schoenhals Fine Arts Lectureship Endowment at Roberts Wesleyan College, 2301 Westside Drive, Rochester, NY 14624.

A memorial service has been scheduled for 2 pm Saturday, August 28, at the Warm Beach Free Methodist Church, 20815 Marine Drive, Stanwood WA 98292-7889. Interment will occur at the Warsaw, Indiana Cemetery October 30 at 2 pm, preceded by a memorial gathering at the Winona Lake Free Methodist Church at noon.

For more information, contact G. Roger Schoenhals, PO Box 910, Leavenworth WA 98826 509-548-1129.