Leland Shetler

Leland M. Shetler, 96, passed away at a hospital in Mountain Home on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2013.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, at the American Legion Hall in Bruneau. Arrangements are under the direction of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel.

Leland was born Nov. 14, 1916, at Cheraw, Colo. His family moved to Hesston, Kan., where he attended Hesston Mennonite High School and then Hesston College.

He loved music and loved to sing. When he was a junior in high school he was accepted as a tenor in the Hesston College Men's Choir, singing and touring with them for four years.

During the Second World War he worked for Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego, Calif., manufacturing PBY seaplanes. He spoke often of his time in the aircraft plant and of the techniques he learned there. One of the things he spoke of was learning a special way to sharpen drill bits so a hole could be drilled accurately without the use of a center punch. There are still a couple of those specially sharpened bits in his tool box on the farm.

He married Lucille Hostetler on Feb. 8, 1944. In 1945, they moved from Nebraska to Filer, Idaho, where he worked as an auto mechanic.

Leland was known as an accomplished mechanic, working for various auto dealerships in the Magic Valley area. He was considered an expert in carburetors, receiving specialized training in Carter Carburetors. He was forced to leave the auto repair business because of ill health caused by the fumes from the engines. For several years he worked selling Forney Welders farm to farm.

In 1955, he moved his family to the Bruneau area where they settled on and built a farm on 250 acres of sagebrush located on the Snake River north of Bruneau. He lived on that farm until 2010 when he moved to Indian Cove to live with his daughter, Neva, and her husband, Sam Hamilton. His final weeks were spent between Ashley Manor and the hospital in Mountain Home.

His Christian faith was very important to him and he was involved in church all of his adult life. During his years in Filer he was active in the Filer Mennonite Church. After moving to the Bruneau area, he and his wife, Lucille, were active in the Indian Cove Mennonite Church and the Bruneau Sunday School. He was ordained to the ministry in the mid '60s and served as pastor at various times of the Indian Cove Mennonite Church, the Bruneau Community Church, and the Mountain Home Christian Center. At the time of his death he was a member of the Bruneau Community Church.

In the 1970s, Leland and Lucille spent two summers serving at the Christian Retreat Campground in Strawberry Lake, Minn., where he was janitor and general maintenance man and Lucille was the cook. They also spent two winters helping missionary friends in Mexico.

He is survived by: three sons, Ivan and wife Janis of Bruneau, Edward and wife Kathy of Middleton, Idaho, and Scott (Vernon) of Givens Hot Springs, Idaho; one daughter, Neva and husband Sam Hamilton of Indian Cove, Idaho; seven grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. He is also survived by five brothers, Floyd, Eldon and wife Helen, Walter, Paul and wife Paulie, and Harold and wife Joyce, and four sisters, Laverne Horst, Helen and her husband, Charles Reeder, Ruth Stuztman, Lois Decker and sister-in-law Margaret Shetler.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Lucille, his parents, three sons, Norman, Waldo and an infant son, Duane, and by one brother, Ralph.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Bruneau Community Church, P.O. Box 664, Bruneau, ID 83604, Bruneau QRU, P.O. Box 294, Bruneau, ID 83604, or the charity of your choice.