Courtney J. Sather

Courtney J. Sather, 82, Jamestown, North Dakota passed away on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at Sanford Health in Fargo, ND.

Courtney , son of Bendik and Cora Sather, was born on January 24, 1928 in Northwood, North Dakota. Courtney is survived by brother, Dayne, and wife, Donna, of Cass Lake, Minnesota, nephews Erik and Josh, and nieces, Eve and Laura.

Courtney is survived by three sons, Christopher, and wife, Brenda, Savannah, GA; Addison and wife, Bonnie, Cumming, GA; Jack and wife, Susan, Clarkesville, GA; five grandchildren, Christopher Lee, Kimberly Jane, Jaclyn Marie, Erica June and Rachel Jessica; and very special family friends, Paul and Debbie Henderson, Jamestown.

Courtney grew up in Northwood, North Dakota. After high school graduation, Courtney enlisted in the United States Army on September 6, 1946. He served with the 42nd Engineer Construction Bn. in Seoul, Korea. He instructed enlisted men and civilians in English grammar, gave tests, graded and recorded scores. He maintained all records on students and relative to instruction work. He was honorably discharged on January 23, 1948. He returned to the North Dakota area and attended and graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He attended Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He attended Mayville Teachers College in Mayville, North Dakota. He attended graduate school at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Teaching duties included school systems in Reynolds, ND, Grand Forks, ND, Las Vegas, NV and his last assignment, retiring from the school system in Fresno, California.

Courtney always considered and loved his home state of North Dakota. He was very interested in geneology and the family background. He was known to ask where you were born, where your parents and grandparents were from and the last names. He seemed to always have some sort of short history lesson on any given name and background. It wasn't too often that you could stump him on a name or place. No matter where he was teaching at the time, Courtney found the time to come back home to North Dakota to see his mother, Cora, in Northwood, and to visit with his brother and sister-in-law, Dayne and Donna Sather, nieces and nephews, and friends all over North Dakota and Minnesota.

Courtney had a love and deep appreciation for the fine arts, classical music, languages, sciences, culture, biography and religion and the humanities. He was a strong supporter of teaching your children to grow up with Jesus Christ as the center of everything, to get a good education and go on to college and get that degree. He emphasized music to his grandchildren and encouraged them to learn how to play an instrument, especially the piano. He was a serious collector of books as anyone who knew him and visited his home could plainly see. His collection outgrew bookshelves, closet shelves and entire rooms, as his interests were shown by the titles and sheer numbers. If you had a particular book interest, he probably had a book to show you and tell you all about it.