A Stout Heart
by Terry Bohle Montague
Editors’ Note: Meridian ran Whistling in the Dark about Brother Norm Seibold, a bold elder who gathered the missionaries out of Nazi Germany and other areas of Europe at the onslaught of Hitler’s campaigns. We thought you would be interested to know that Brother Seibold passed away this past week. Terry Montague graciously wrote A Stout Heart for Meridian’s readers.
And with stout hearts look ye forth til tomorrow.
God will protect you; then do what is right!
Hymn 237
“I felt it was such a privilege to have met him. Knowing what he’d done, this man who stood up to do what is right,” said Paul Kelly, author of Courage in a Season of War, upon hearing of the death of Norman Seibold on Friday, November 28th. “He was one of those tough Idaho farm boys. Tough spiritually, mentally, and physically. He must have been a powerhouse.”
Norm was born October 18, 1915 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Fredrick and Frieda Wettstein Seibold. The family moved to eastern Idaho where Norm went to schools in Newdale and Sugar City. He attended Ricks College for two years and completed his business degree at the University of Utah. His college education was funded by a full football scholarship and he was named all-conference guard for the two years he was at Utah.
Norm delighted in telling people he played in the first football game he ever saw.
In 1936, Norm was called to a mission in Germany. He was a first-hand witness to the rise in power of the Nazi Party and told of seeing displays of police and military force, including those on “Crystal Night”. His mission was evacuated twice, once in 1938 to Holland when Nazi Germany attacked Czechoslovakia and, the second time, on the eve of the attack on Poland at the end of August, 1939.
During the second evacuation, a number of West German missionaries became stranded along the Dutch border, penniless, unable to cross, and unable to return to Germany. When Mission President M. Douglas Wood heard of their predicament, he sent Norm Seibold to find those missionaries and get them to safety as quickly as possible.
Norm accomplished his assignment by riding trains along the Dutch border. At the cavernous train stations, he climbed atop baggage carts and whistled the first four notes of the hymn, Do What Is Right.
He found the missionaries a few at a time. Together, they headed north to the border of Denmark, sometimes sneaking aboard over-crowded troop transport trains. It took three days to get from the Dutch to the Danish border. They traveled, standing in hot, overcrowded cars. They slept little and had almost nothing to eat. They were arrested, interrogated, and threatened on several occasions and put off trains more than a dozen times.
At the Danish border, Norm, worried that he had not found all the missionaries, went back into Germany. There, he found another pair of elders and gave them enough money to get to Denmark before he continued south, still searching. After another day he was, at last, certain he had fulfilled the assignment and turned north, heading to the safety of the Danish border.
A month later, the evacuated missionaries boarded ships bound for the United States. Though they traveled through mined waters regularly patrolled by U-boats, they arrived safely.
Norm was released from his mission shortly after his return to the States.
In 1940, he married Ruby Eliza Davenport in the Salt Lake Temple. They were blessed with two daughters and four sons and farmed in eastern Idaho. In 1956, they moved to Rupert, Idaho and Norm took over management of the Imperial Produce Company. From 1962 to1982, Norm managed the Minidoka Stake Welfare Farm.
In June of 1971, Ruby passed away. The following year, Norm married Dona Ostergar.
In 1983, Norm ran for and won a seat as a Minidoka County Commissioner. He held that position for twelve years, becoming widely known for his straight-talking manner as he tackled many controversial issues.
At one time, Norm said of himself, “I was an ornery missionary and I am an ornery County Commissioner.”
“From my standpoint, I didn’t see that side of Norm,” his neighbor, Earl Coreless, said. “He may have been firm but he was always fair.”
Coreless recounted a time when, as Minidoka County Commissioner, Norm was involved in a controversy with commissioners from neighboring Cassia County.
Norm said, “I want to beat you. I want to beat you bad. But I only want to beat you on the high school football field. If we are to get anywhere with this, we have to work together and come to an agreement.”
Said Coreless, “That’s what they did.”
At Norm’s funeral on Wednesday, December 3, 2003, Norm’s youngest son, Bruce, talked about the standards of exactness by which his father lived. He expected the same standards from his children even in things like the straightness of crop furrows and the importance of irrigation water reaching every plant in the field.
Norm’s daughter, Fran Andersen, eulogized him as “gruff” and “stern” but “tender-hearted” and “dignified.” She said, “Our parents taught us many things, but, most of all, they taught us the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
“He was a great neighbor,” Coreless said, “always willing to help with anything. And he was absolutely devoted to his wife, Dona.”
Kelly said, “He was someone to emulate. He was one of my heroes. A man who did what was right.”
Norm was preceded in death by his parents, a brother and two sisters; a daughter, Diane and a son, Charles (Chick), a grandson, Wade and a great-granddaughter, Allison.
He is survived by his wife, Dona; daughter, Fran Andersen and sons, Dick, Jerry, and Bruce, and a stepson, Rod Ostergar; 27 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
Interment was at the Fielding Memorial Cemetery in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
An account of Norm’s experiences during the evacuation can be found reposted today in Meridian Magazine as Whistling in the Dark.
A complete account of the West German Mission Evacuation of 1939 is available in book form. Ask for Mine Angels Round About published by Granite Publishing of Orem, Utah.