Emerson H. "Em" Schill 1906 - 2000

SCHILL, SELLS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 11/3/2014 at 22:53:02

Sioux City Journal
21 December 2000

Emerson H. "Em" Schill, 94, of Eugene, Ore., formerly of Sioux City, died Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000, at a nursing home in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

Arrangements were under the direction of White and Day Funeral Home in Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Mr. Schill was born April 10, 1906, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the son of Mr. and Mrs. A.G. Schill.

After graduating from Fort Dodge High School in 1924, he attended Fort Dodge Junior College for one year before transferring to Grinnell College. He graduated from Grinnell in 1928.

He married Marion Sells June 18, 1930, in Fort Dodge. He passed the Iowa State Bar in 1936. Mr. Schill worked in the advertising department of the Sioux City Journal from 1928 until 1945. He was a lecturer at the University of South Dakota School of Business and assistant director of its department of business research from 1945 until 1947. He was sales manager for the Gerkin Co. in Sioux City from 1947 to 1959, owned Schill's Quality Building Products from 1959 to 1962 and was president of Nord Co. house builders from 1962-63. In 1963, he was named manager of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce Convention-Tourism Bureau and also served as executive secretary of the Highway 20 Association.

He was active in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts serving as a member of the executive council of the Boy Scouts' Sergeant Floyd Council. He received the Boy Scouts' Silver Beaver Award in 1962. He also was a member and past president of the Lions Club and a member of Tyrian Lodge 508, AF&AM.

Mr. Schill also had served as chairman of the Northwest Iowa Chambers of Commerce Tourism Committee and as secretary of the Sioux City Lewis and Clark Association and the Iowa Travel Development Council. He was a member and past president of the First United Methodist Church and later was a member of Wesley United Methodist Church.

Survivors include two sons, John of Eugene, Ore., and James of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.; eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.