Rev. Carl F. Pershall, 89

The Rev. Carl F. Pershall, 89, a longtime Eureka pastor, died Tuesday evening, Nov. 15, 2005, at North Valley Hospital in Whitefish.

The Rev. Pershall came to the Tobacco Valley in 1958 where he had been pastor of the First Baptist Church for many years, until his retirement in 1982. Since that time, he had served as interim pastor at several places in the American Baptist Church, including a return interim engagement at his former church in Eureka.

Always active in community affairs, the Rev. Pershall was honored with the Citizen of the Year award by the Tobacco Valley Improvement Association. During an interview for a recent article about him in The Tobacco Valley News, he said, "Maybe my gift has been to treat people like people and not as prospects for the church," he had said.

He was born in Arco, Idaho, on Dec. 11, 1915, to Avery Pershall and Bertha Faye Hohn Pershall. He was raised and educated at Arco.

Carl married Mary Lafferty on Nov. 9, 1938, in Arco. He attended Northwest Nazarene College and later, Linfield College in McMinville, Ore., and the Berkeley Baptist School where he was among the first students in a program for ministerial training for small, rural churches.

He had served American Baptist churches at Riddle, Ore., and in the small Idaho communities of Mud Lake, Dubois and Roberts, before coming to Eureka. He also had served as president of the Northwest region of American Baptist Churches and as area minister for southern Idaho, Utah and Nevada. Carl also had served as director of the Montana Junior Citizens Camp, a local Boy Scout leader and on the board of Mountain View Manor.

Carl enjoyed ranching and had been an expert horseman for most of his life. An avid outdoorsman and hunter, he is remembered by many for hunting trips deep into the mountains by horseback.

He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Mary, at the family home in Eureka; his sons, Carl Dean Pershall and Glenn Pershall, both of Eureka, and Allen Pershall of Kalispell; nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a son, Kenneth Pershall, in 1986.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Baptist Church with interment services afterward at Tobacco Valley Cemetery. Visitation will be from 1 to 7 p.m. today at the church.

Arrangements are under the care of Nelson and Vial Funeral Home in Eureka.

Memorials may be made to the First Ba ptist Church or to a charity of the donor's choice.