Rev. Cora Scheel
Pastor Cora Scheel, the Visitation Pastor for Grace, was surrounded by wheat fields when she was born on a North Dakota farm. When she was young, she went to the local elementary school and her family attended the local Evangelical church, but she moved to into town and boarded for high school.
Pastor Cora stayed in North Dakota to attend the Sisters of St. Joseph School of Nursing, but she wanted to see more of the country, so she moved first to South Dakota, then to Oregon, and then to Palo Alto to work at Palo Alto Hospital (now Stanford Hospital). When an opportunity opened at Syntex Research (now part of Roche) she moved on monitoring clinical studies for new drugs, including work on what is now Aleve. She stayed on the move by traveling for both work and pleasure, visiting most of the US and lots of the rest of the world, including Egypt and Jordan, Easter Island, India and Nepal, the Americas, East Africa, and Europe.
While living in Palo Alto, Pastor Cora attended Grace Lutheran, where she was famous for always sitting in the back pew. When Pastor Susan Kintner was at Grace, she motivated Pastor Cora to become more involved and to eventually consider the ministry, so Pastor Cora went to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley instead of to Antarctica, and moved from the back pew to the pulpit.
After ordination, Pastor Cora was called to St. John's Lutheran Church in Sunnyvale, then to two half-time positions: one for the MidPennisula Hospice (Now Pathways Home Health and Hospice) and one at Grace. She retired from both in 2003, but is now back at Grace to help with visiting hospitalized and home-bound members, as well as occasionally fill in on a Sunday when Pastor Matt is not available. She also fills in at other area churches as needed.
