LaVerne Gene Schirch

LaVerne "Verne" Gene Schirch died on October 1, 2025 at the age of 89. He was born on August 9, 1936, in Bloomington, Illinois to Ernest Raymond Schirch and Opal Bluette (Stahly) Schirch. Reldon Dean (1934-2022) was his only sibling.

Verne grew up in a loving, hardworking family on a 160-acre farm in Chenoa, Illinois and attended a one-room country school. He also cherished life values he credited to his paternal grandmother Mary Rich Schirch (1880-1978), who easily laughed at herself but was exceptionally accepting and kind with others. He treasured the memories she shared of growing up in France, and this planted the seeds of a life-long interest in the family's historical roots and the values one passes on to their offspring.

Verne attended Bluffton College (1954-58) where he planned to major in business but switched to chemistry after a summer job in an agricultural lab. At Bluffton College he met Carol Ann Shelly, the love of his life for the next 67 years. They married in June 1958, and Verne began his PhD studies in biochemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where their first child Douglas Michael was born in 1960, and they later moved to Berkeley, California for a postdoctoral position at the University of California where Michelle Dawn was born in 1963. That fall the family moved to Bluffton, Ohio where Verne accepted a faculty position in the Chemistry Department at Bluffton College. In 1967, third child Lisa Lynn was born to complete the family.

In 1964 Verne received his first federal research grant to continue his postdoctoral research project. He would receive continuous grants from the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation until his retirement in 2007, and he authored 140 scientific publications. The grants opened a new world to this farm boy who before college hadn't traveled further from home than Iowa. He began presenting his research at national and international meetings on enzymes in vitamin B6 and folic acid metabolism.

In 1973 he was among 24 U.S. scientists invited to participate in the first of six cultural exchanges with the Soviet Union as part of President Nixon's US-USSR détente. In an interview he had noted that the Russians were not always open with information on their scientific progress, a challenge that was again a barrier to science and to peace in the years leading up to his death. Carol accompanied him on many of his international trips that brought rich research experiences and new contacts and friends. It also allowed him to visit the ancestral Schürch family home in Sumiswald, Switzerland, a place he would return to many times.

Wanting their children to be influenced by experiences living abroad and in other cultures, in 1969 Verne and Carol moved to Rome, Italy with the three children for a year while Verne worked at the university. It was a leap of faith taken without knowing anyone who had done something similar. In 1974 Verne accepted a six-month sabbatical position at the University of Bristol, England, again bringing the whole family along. These extended exposures to other cultures profoundly influenced the family and the life trajectories of all three children, with the effects continuing to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

In 1978 Verne accepted a faculty position in the Department of Biochemistry at the Medical College of Virginia. He remained there for the next 26 years until retiring in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He and Carol continued to travel widely, reconnecting with international friends abroad and in their home. In all he visited more than 60 countries.

Verne was dedicated to helping others, mentoring college and graduate students, and serving on the Richmond Habitat for Humanity board for 15 years – one of his most rewarding experiences. Mennonite Church institutions shaped his life, including the Mennonite values his parents and grandparents taught him, the progressive Mennonite church where he grew up, Bluffton College, and being a lifelong supporter of Camp Friedenswald and Mennonite Central Committee. All of Verne's children are closely involved in the Mennonite church.

In retirement his primary research energies turned to family genealogies on both the Schirch and Shelly sides, tracing ancestral roots back 500 years to small hamlets in Switzerland and France. In 2018 he finished writing a 550-page family history book. Copies reside in the Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College and in the Bluffton University and Eastern Mennonite University libraries. His curiosity and research focused on how religious and moral values had been transferred and renewed between generations.

In 2021 Verne and Carol moved to Goshen, Indiana, near all three children.

Verne is survived by his wife Carol and three children: Douglas (Maria Sanchez), Michelle (Karl Shelly) and Lisa (William Goldberg). There are eight grandchildren: Jessica Martin (Peter); Juni Sauder (Zachary); Joshua Schirch; Jacob Shelly (Monica); Lucas Shelly (Lauryn); Benjamin Gerig Shelly (Maddie); Miranda Goldberg; and Levi Goldberg. There are currently seven great grandchildren with two more due soon.

Memorial contributions may be made to Mennonite Central Committee (https://mcc.org/checkout), Camp Friedenswald (https://friedenswald.org/donate) and Bluffton University (https://www.bluffton.edu/blufftonalumni/support/).

A Celebration of Life will be held in Goshen and via Zoom (contact billyg813@gmail.com) at a date to be announced later and posted at https://www.yoderculpfuneralhome.com/obits.