He was known for his missionary work

In 1931, Otto Schoerner answered a call from China Inland Mission, then seeking 200 new volunteers to work in China.

Fresh with his degree from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, the Pennsylvania native was among the last five missionaries accepted into the program. It launched him on an unforgettable journey that would stretch nearly 20 years working in mainland China.

Mr. Schoerner died Sunday. The former 15-year resident of Carol Stream was 101.

"He had been back from China for more than 50 years, and done so much here, but people always asked him about China," says his oldest son, James, of Oak Lawn. "And he loved talking about it."

After studying the language for nearly two years in Shanghai, Mr. Schoerner and five other missionaries were assigned to work in the remote province of Xinjiang, in far northwest China.

To get there, they would have to go through Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert, essentially following the same route Marco Polo had traveled centuries ago on camelback.

"If they had ridden on camels, it would have taken months," his son says, "so they obtained specially equipped Ford trucks for the journey, and drove across the desert."

There were no bridges built across the Yangtze River. Consequently they had to load their trucks, filled with supplies, on ferries at points during the crossing. In all, the trip took 57 days, including several delays along the way.

Mr. Schoerner and his colleagues stayed nearly six years in Xinjiang. During this time, he proposed by mail to a classmate of his from Moody Bible Institute, Katherine Dodd, who also was serving in China, and it took months before he learned of her reply.

In 1938, as Mr. Schoerner and the other missionaries prepared to leave Xinjiang, they had to take another route because of World War II military escalations in central China. Consequently, they traveled by horseback through the Himalaya mountains until they reached India, where they sailed to Shanghai.

The couple married in November of 1938, and they soon were dispatched as a mission couple to teach in a school in Honan Province. Later, they settled in western China, near the Yellow River in Gansu Province, where Mr. Schoerner served as business manager for the Borden Memorial Hospital, founded by the China Inland Mission.

By 1951, with hostility heightening against Americans by China's Communist regime, China Inland Mission summoned all of its missionaries, leading Mr. Schoerner and his wife and five children to leave for good.

"My father never talked much about the converts he made; in fact it was hard for them to see results," James Schoerner says. "But the church has grown tremendously since those missionaries were there. The growth has been largely indigenous, but the seed was planted by those early missionaries."

The family returned to the Chicago area, where Mr. Schoerner worked in alumni placement and development for Moody Bible Institute, until he retired in 1972.

It wasn't until he reached his 90s that Mr. Schoerner wrote his life story, detailing his historic work in China, and life afterward.

"He originally wrote it for his family, but we've had so much interest that we put it on the Internet," says his son, Jim, of Prescott, Ariz. "It's drawn more than 10,000 hits and reached people all over the world."

To learn about Mr. Schoerner's life and work, visit: www.members.aol.com/Fpimages.

Mr. Schoerner was preceded in death by his wife in 2000, and two sons, Benjamin and David. Besides his older sons, he is survived by his daughter, Anna (John) Loss of Prescott, Ariz., and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Windsor Park Manor retirement home, 124 Windsor Park Drive in Carol Stream.