Bio: Rakow, Roland ( Background 1983)

Contact: Kathleen E. Englebretson

Email: kathy@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Rakow, Bischoff

---Source: Marshfield News-Herald (11 March 1983)

Rakow, Rev. Roland A.

The Rev. Roland A. Rakow of Route 2, Colby, has been pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Route 2, Colby, and St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Route 1 Unity, since May 16. 1976, when he came to this area from St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Beecher, Illinois. Rakow was born October 24, 1927 in the Town of How, Suring. He graduated from St. John's Lutheran Elementary School in 1941, received his high school diploma while serving with the U.S. Occupational Forces in Germany in 1953, graduated in 1962 with a B.A. degree in education from Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois, and graduated in 1971 from Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, Illinois. On September 26, 1971 he was ordained in St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Beecher, Illinois. Rakow was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War and served with the U.S. Occupational Forces in Germany from 1952-53. From 1962-66 he taught at Trinity Lutheran Elementary School, Muskegon, Michigan, and from 1966-68 was principal/teacher at Christ Lutheran School, Star Route, Weyauwega. His pastorate at Beecher, Illinois, extended from 1971-76. He and Betty Jane Bischoff of Milwaukee were married May 29, 1954. The couple operated a dairy farm near Suring for five years until he entered River Forest Concordia Teachers College in 1959. He is pastoral adviser of the Zone Sunday School Teachers Association and president of the local AAL.

(attached to a printed sermon)