Carl Pershall

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

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

Carl came to the Tobacco Valley in 1958, where he was pastor of the First Baptist Church for many years until his retirement in 1982. Since that time, he 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 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 served as president of the northwest region of American Baptist Churches and as area minister for southern Idaho, Utah and Nevada. Carl also 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 was an expert horseman most of his life. An avid outdoorsman and hunter, he is remembered by many for hunting trips deep into the mountains by horseback.

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

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

Services were held Nov. 19, 2005, with interment at Tobacco Valley Cemetery.

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