Elaine Gasser was born on a dairy
farm outside of Baraboo, Wisconsin, forty miles north of Madison.
Two older brothers, Melvin and William (Bill), alternately teased
and spoiled their little sister. (Retrospective honesty admits
that spoiling won!) The hills and bluffs throughout the area were
very much a part of making it "home" for many of the
German/Swiss population, the Gassers included.Church (Evangelical, Evangelical United Brethren and United Methodist) played a central part in family life. Elaine's mother (Louise), a teacher before marrying her dad (Robert), instilled a lifetime love of reading and learning. Active in the Women’s Missionary Society, she nurtured an interest in and zeal for mission. Elaine remembers a visit by Dr. Susan Bauernfeind when she was five. Her lasting impression was not that the visitor was the first single woman missionary sent by the Evangelical Church to another country, nor that she was a long-term (eventually forty years) missionary to Japan, but that she ate her entire meal, including the ice cream, with her chop sticks! Immediately following graduation from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois in 1950, Elaine spent three years teaching social studies and English at Red Bird Mission High School in Beverly, Kentucky. The beautiful hills, only slightly higher than those in Wisconsin, quickly became "home," as did life among co-workers, students, and people in the area.
A letter from Miriam Faust arrived, telling of the need for another teacher at Harford School for Girls in Moyamba, Sierra Leone. Before long, an application was on its way to the Board of Missions. After a year at the University of Wisconsin to get the required Master's degree, August of 1954 found Elaine on her way to West Africa. Because of the timing, orientation consisted of letters from Miriam Faust, an exceptional communicator and administrator. Ten wonderful years at Harford School were spent teaching primarily English (as literature and grammar), and working with the Harford School and Moyamba Church choirs.
As students became trained to teach what she was teaching, the time seemed right to move on. A staff opening with the EUB Women's Division in Dayton, Ohio, in Programs and Leadership fulfilled another longtime dream. January of 1965 began twenty-six exciting and varied years on the staff of the Women's Division, until 1968 in Dayton, and then in New York City. Staff responsibilities were in both program and administration (first in the section dealing with Schools of Mission, spiritual growth studies, membership and nominations, and leadership development, and finally with district team development). New York gave opportunity for further graduate studies, and for continuing lessons in its wonderful diversity of peoples and cultures.
The end of 1990 marked more than forty years with the Board, and retirement seemed appropriate. Elaine and Joyce Anderegg bought a home and moved to Maryville, Tennessee, where her brother (Bill and Lois) had retired (her older brother having died in a farm accident in 1975). This time the hills of Tennessee -- the wonderful Smoky Mountains -- became home. They continue to be, on the other side of the mountain, here at Brooks-Howell, in Asheville, NC.