Florence Bauder

Florence Elizabeth Schmunk Bauder was born to Katherine (Katherina) & Henry (Heinrich) Schmunk, Feb 21, 1927, in Clackamas, OR, and went into eternity with Jesus, September 14, 2025, at the age of 98. She was one of the youngest of 12 children. Florence came to faith in Jesus Christ at an early age and spent her life serving her Lord. As a child, her mother would take all the young children to the berry fields to pick and earn money for school clothes. Florence was trained as a legal secretary at Commerce High School in Portland, OR, graduating in 1944. Her first job was with the law office of Robert Hollister. She accompanied her employer to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress. She married Rudolph (Rudy) Bauder after meeting at Camp ARAWANA in Oregon. They were married in 1949. In 1952 Florence & Rudy purchased 240 acres of timber land with a creek. Then in 1956 they added another piece of timber land to their holdings. Florence made Rudy very happy with the 5 children they produced; Rita, Deborah, Andrea, Rudy Jr., and Eric. She spent the early years raising her children in a loving, supporting, Christian home, seeking to lead her children to faith in Jesus Christ as Savior & Lord. During this time the family had a Christmas tree business selling trees and Florence’s Christmas theme arrangements. We remember that, it seemed like, every Saturday we would trek up to work at the “Tree Farm”. But, rain or shine, we were treated to $.10 ice cream cones on the way home. From the earliest, Florence and Rudy, took the Lord’s vision of a Christian Retreat Ministry on their timber land to operation. During the early construction Florence put all her energy into working at Tektronix, for 8 years, in Beaverton. This freed up Rudy to retire early and put all his energy into building the retreat center. Together they would work on the project through the weekends. One of Florence’s jobs on the worksite was controlling the crane by driving the Ferrari tractor back and forth. She worked for the developers of Washington Square Mall as the secretary to the project manager. Florence & Rudy took a trip to Israel. They also went to Honduras to visit and help with Deborah while in the Peace Core. Florence went on a mission trip to Russia to minister to an orphanage. Florence has done many, many things through her life. She has used her God-given talents well. At church, Rudy & Florence spent time helping a small church by attending, with Florence teaching Sunday School, directing the choir and playing the organ. When they chose to attend a church closer to where they lived Florence sang in the choir and was the church secretary. The vast creativity which the Lord blessed her with saw expression through composing music and poems. She played the piano by ear which made it easier for her. One song begins, “There’s going to come a day when Jesus calls my name, and every child of his will shout, ‘hallelujah’”. She loved her grandchildren and would write stories about her experiences with them. Now those stories are being told to her great-grandchildren. Florence took Bible stories and injected songs which she wrote about the stories. These she recorded for posterity. For the last 15 years Florence has worked on her autobiography, “A Woman has a Right to Dream”. The book is available for purchase on amazon.com. Florence has loved and enjoyed her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. She is at peace in the presence of Jesus, experiencing none of the pain and struggles of this world, just the glory of knowing as we are known by Jesus himself. Florence’s husband, Rudy, has already preceded her arrival in heaven. Surviving her are their five children; Rita Biggs (Ray), Deborah Bauder, Andrea Doell (Peter), Rudy Bauder, Jr. (Carolyn) and Eric Bauder. Florence loved very much her 8 grand children and 13 great-grand children.

Florence Bauder

February 21, 1927 - September 14, 2025