By: Rebecca Miller
Richard Sauerlender, newly elected Mayor of Metamora, who made an uncontested run for the office, loves his town and is very happy to have this opportunity. “We are a town with no hostility,” he said. “I don’t even know the political parties of anyone on council and they probably don’t know mine, as it is a non-issue in Metamora.”
“We don’t run by designation of party, just by name. I ran because I wanted to maintain continuity for the village.” When Ken Wysong, who was the last Mayor, decided not to run again in 2019, Sauerlender who was on Council stepped up.
Both men moved into the Mayor’s seat from being on Council, and in fact Sauerlender was actually appointed to fill the Council seat which was vacated by Wysong when he became Mayor.
Sauerlender’s council seat as well as another one vacated by someone moving away, have both been filled with appointees and they are all ready to work together.
Another reason that Sauerlender ran for Mayor is that he feels like all his years as a pastor have trained him well to work with people. Over the years he has pastored in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and near Toledo.
Presently, even though he retired in 2013, he is preaching at St. Stephen Lutheran in Hamler, part time. “I just preach there,” he explained, “and someone else takes care of all the other pastoral duties.”
Born in Urbana, Illinois in 1950 during the time that his dad was getting a masters degree there. He was a Jamaican citizen and became a US citizen after Richard was born. His parents, the late Owen and Betty Sauerlender, met in Ames, Iowa while his father was at Iowa State Colllege and his mother was a nurse in the area. They were married in 1947 and moved to Jamaica to live for three years. His brother was born one month after they got back to the U.S., in Ames.
After getting his PHD in Economics, he became a professor at Penn State, in State College, Pennsylvania and spent the rest of his life teaching there until he died at the age of 81. Because of his father’s position, Richard spent all of his growing up years in Pennsylvania and all of his childhood memories are there.
He graduated in 1968 from State College Area High School and, of course, attended Penn State for his BA degree in Individual and Family Studies, graduating in 1972. During his time in college, he got involved with Christian groups and activities and decided to go to to Seminary for his Master of Divinity at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts, graduating in 1975.
He wanted to be a pastor in a Lutheran setting. When he graduated from Seminary he had to do an internship in Washington D.C. and then went to Gettysburg Theological Seminary for a year and got his Masters of Theological Education.
His first church was outside of Spring Grove, PA, near York, Pa. from 1977 till 1980. Richard met his wife, Karin, in Washington D.C. where she was a page for the House of Representatives. She was 17 and he was 25. She was living on her own with her own apartment.
They got married in 1978 when she was 19 and he was 27. They have two adult children, Christine and John. In 1991 they moved to Sylvania, when he had gotten a position as pastor at Faith Luteran in Metamora.
In 1995 they bought the house next to the church and moved there. John was 1 when moved to Ohio and Christine was 6 or 7. In 2000 he got a new call to a church in Toledo, Lutheran Church of our Saviour, from which he retired in 2013.
Karin got her PHD from Penn State and is the current Fiscal Officer of Fayette. She also teaches part time at the University of Toledo. They moved to Ohio because she was hired to be a professor at UT. She also worked at the Village of Metamora office for over ten years.
Another aspect of their lives was owning a store for 12 years in Sylvania called Cross Stitch Heaven. Some of the items in Metamora on which he is looking forward to working are the streets and sewers. “They cost the most money and cause the most aggravation,” Sauerlender pointed out.
There are six on council plus the mayor and Metamora has a population of 650. Council meets twice a month, for committee meetings and regular council. “We have enough stuff to talk about,” he said. “It is a good, healthy community! A great place to live.”
“Evergreen School is a good school. It is a very residential town. It might be nice to see some more businesses come in, but we are happy with the ones they have. Parker Hannifin and Anderzack Pitzen Construction are the two big ones.” They also have a barber, a bank, a restaurant and a bar as well as other businesses and one church in town and one just outside of town.
It may be small but Richard Sauerlender is looking forward to the opportunity to get to know the people of Metamora and to get to represent them in the area.
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
