SARA JOY BURKHOLDER, 1976-2002

Archbold teacher was devoted to God, ‘hard-to-love’ students

ARCHBOLD - Sara Joy Burkholder, 25, a junior high teacher and devout Christian noted for her compassion, died Friday from complications during childbirth.

A native of Monroe, Wis., Mrs. Burkholder was a 1995 graduate of Archbold High School, where she was a member of the National Honor Society. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Anderson University in Anderson, Ind., where she made the dean’s list every semester, said her father, Chuck Rychener, former mayor of Archbold.

Mrs. Burkholder pitched four years for Anderson’s softball team and set several school records, Mr. Rychener said. Her minor at Anderson was Spanish, and "she had a heart for the Hispanic kids in the area," her father said. "She worked with Spanish-speaking kids and just loved them."

As a public school teacher at Burr Road Middle School in Wauseon, Mrs. Burkholder made sure to give extra attention to the most difficult students, Mr. Rychener said. "Sara was the kind of person who loved the hard-to-love, the people others would turn their back on," he said. "The students in her classes that were struggling or unruly, those were the ones that she felt needed her the most."

Her pastor, the Rev. John Horning of Pettisville Missionary Church, said Mrs. Burkholder said she wanted to teach junior high students "because she remembered what it was like at that age, and she thought she could help young men and women."

Mrs. Burkholder met her husband, Jay, through local Youth for Christ activities, Mr. Rychener said. The couple were wed July 8, 2000. Their infant son, Jackson David Burkholder, was in stable condition last night at the Fulton County Health Center.

Mr. and Mrs. Burkholder were volunteer leaders of the junior-high youth group at Pettisville Missionary, where her mother is the church secretary.

"She was deeply devoted to God, deeply devoted to her family and friends," Mr. Horning said. "She wasn’t what you would call ‘showy.’ She didn’t want to be the center of attention. She loved everybody she met. There was not a person that she met that she didn’t love and it was returned."

Mr. Horning and Mr. Rychener said it was evident how many lives she touched by the 2½-3 hour line of people waiting to talk to the family during visitation last night at the church.

Mrs. Burkholder traveled to South Korea for a two-week missionary trip last summer and previously had taken missionary trips to Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

She played saxophone in the Archbold High School band and loved to sing, Mr. Rychener said.

"Sara was one of God’s jewels and He just decided to take her home before we wanted Him to," her father said.

Surviving are her husband, Jay; infant son, Jackson David; parents, Chuck and Pamela Rychener; brothers, Matthew and Joshua; sister, Rebekah, and grandparents, William and Ruth Clair and Dorothy Rychener.