Oscar Schafale, the son of a blacksmith, was born September 11, 1897 in Cherry Valley, southwest of Marion. He moved with his parents, Mike Schafale and Mary Weilmuenster, to Marion when he was 6 years old. His father later started an International Harvester farm implement dealership in Marion.
He began working at the Schafale Brothers International Harvester farm implement dealership when he was 11 years old, working there until he was 42 years old.
Schafale attended Marion schools through the eighth grade. He took a short business course at Brown’s Business College in Marion, as well as attending bank courses at the University of Wisconsin for three summers.
At the age of 24, on July 12, 1921, he married Marie Mysch, whom he met when he joined what is now the Zion United Church of Christ, where her father served as pastor. They were married in Bensonville at an orphanage in which Marie’s father, Rev. C.A. Mysch was headmaster.
The church was a major recipient of Schafale’s goodwill, teaching Sunday school for 69 years, from the age of 16 until 1985, without a break. He was also the very first and sole usher at the church for many years, served as President of the church council for many years and sang in the choir and in a quartet.
Schafale was one of the original founders of the Bank of Marion in 1937, serving over the decades as Chairman of the Board, stockholder and President.
Immediately following the Depression, he also served as President, Chairman of the Board and Director of the Carterville State and Savings Bank.
He directed Southern Illinois, Inc. into the 1960’s and served on a state advisory committee for banking and the Illinois Board for State Parks.
In the 1960’s, Schafale served as President of the United Fund, and often served on its drive committee’s for fundraising.
He served on the Central Illinois Public Service Board from 1961 to 1974 and was a member of the Marion Library board from which he resigned in 1965.
In the early 1970’s, he was a commissioner for the Williamson County Building Commission and helped pick the new location of the Williamson County Court House and oversee its building progress.
Schafale served on the Cemetery board and also the High School Board for which he served 17 years.
Schafale’s daughter, Doris Sparks, remembers August Fowler, a past member of Marion’s school board, often telling her that Marion schools would not be what they are today without her father’s help during the bleak days of the Depression. “Dad was able to get Marion schools on their feet during those days,” said Sparks. “He always made an effort to have everything on a sound financial level,” she added.
Schafale was also one of the first members of the Marion Rotary Club, Joining in 1924, and served as the club’s President in 1933-34. He was named a life member of the Rotary Club in December of 1987 having been a member over 50 years.
Steve Schafer, current Rotary president, said, “He was really considered one of the most respected and well-liked members of the club. He was always very active, very dedicated to the club and its causes. He told us once that he looked at his membership in the Rotary Club as one of the most important things in his life, behind his family and church.”
In 1941, Oscar was President of the Marion Chamber of Commerce, in which he was a member for over three decades. In 1960, Schafale was named the Marion Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year. He served on numerous committee including the industrial committee, responsible for helping develop the city’s first industrial park in the 1970’s.
In 1944, a group of concerned citizens interested in the welfare of Marion youth formed the City Recreation Council which was a precursor to the Marion Recreation Department. Oscar was a member of this early group.
Sparks said her father was very interested in his plants and shrubbery at his home. In 1973, after the tower was built on the square, he personally supervised the planting of flowers in planters on the square and a couple of the parking lots downtown.
He was also widely travelled, visiting Russia, Central Europe, South America, Hawaii and Alaska, just to name a few places, often reviewing his travels in Rotary travelogues. Another memory of her father, Sparks said, is “He always pushed for us to shop Marion.”
She also mentioned the young boy on parole that her father took in in the late 1930’s “He vouched for him and we took him with us, where ever we kids went. We used to take him every Sunday to Sunday school and church. He left Marion as a teenager, and one day came into the Bank of Marion as a grown man and told Dad, “I’m the boy you looked after when I was on parole.”
In 1971, Oscar and his wife celebrated their 50th anniversary by hosting an open house at their home at 503 E. Boulevard Street.
Mr. Schafale retired in January of 1976 from the Bank of Marion leaving the presidency of the bank to Jesse L. Hill.
Long-time Marion resident and prominent civic leader Oscar Schafale died at his home at 12:45 p.m. Monday, February 29, 1988, at the age of 90. Schafale lived at 503 E. Boulevard Street.
Surviving him at death were his wife and three sons, David Schafale of Elk Grove. Calif., Lloyd Schafale of Evanston and the Rev. Herbert Schafale of Freelandville, Ind.; two daughters, Mrs. Harry (Doris) Sparks of Marion and Mrs. Richard (Ann) Trask of LaPorte, Texas; six grandsons, five granddaughters and 13 great-grandchildren; and one sister, Mrs. Ella Grisham of Rock Island.
He was also preceded in death by three brothers, one sister, one grandson and one grand-daughter.
Funeral services were held at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 5, at the Zion United Church of Christ with the Rev. Rudolph Gruenke officiating. Burial was in Rose Hill Cemetery in Marion.
Marie Schafale followed Oscar in 1992 and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery on November 28, 1992.
(Extracted from Southern Illinoisan articles from 1941 to 1988; Marion Daily Republican obit in March 1988; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 01/14/2014)