Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 1, 1896, William Scharffenberg attended Washington Missionary College and graduated in 1918. He married Katharyn Fickes. Shortly thereafter they traveled by ship to China. His first assignment was to be treasurer-evangelist in Honan Province. However, he spent the first year at Nanking learning the language. He persuaded the division president, I.H. Evans to assign him to education and was sent to Shanghai. Here he acquired a local Chinese teacher for another year.
Mr. Scharffenberg was truly a scholar and became very proficient in the Chinese language, being the first foreigner to officially complete the five-year Chinese language course. He had a very large library devoted to China. He was well know to Mr. Matsuoka, the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, and to General Carlos Romulo of the Philippines. Because of his fluency in the native tongue he had many friends in the Chinese government. There were two languages that he was well versed in, German and Chinese. As a child he learned Germany from his parents and it served him well later in life.
He was living in Shanghai in 1927 when there as civil turmoil in the government and the missionaries living inland temporarily came to Shanghai. He took advantage of this situation to begin a language school for the missionaries and they began the Fireside Correspondence School. When the turmoil was over the missionaries returned to their outposts. The Fireside Correspondence School expanded and secondary education for the missionary children was begun. This was operated on a correspondence basis. It was eventually called the Home Study Institute and the curriculum grew.
Mr. Scharffenberg developed and organized a 5-year study course in the Chinese language. He designed a complete phonetic system for the study course to include lesson studies, flash cards, and pull-down windows to assist the individual in his study efforts. The secret of his success was the utilization of the Berlitz method of learning. Local native teachers were not permitted to use any English during the teaching periods. The beginning emphasis was on the spoken word. This was very conducive to learning the spoken conversational local language. The advanced classes of the 5-year course included learning to read the local newspaper.
He opened a Chinese Language School with its main office on Nanking Road, Shanghai. He eventually had a chain of local language schools throughout the Far East with offices and schools in Tokyo, Pusan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, and Manila. The students came from all denominations as well as the business sector.
In 1937, the family was in Kuling for the summer when the war with Japan and Manchuria broke out. It was not possible to go back down the Yangtze River to Shanghai. Because of his knowledge of the Chinese language, Mr. Scharffenberg was able to travel overland back to Shanghai to procure funds to live on and to get out of Kuling. The family went to Chujiang with one flat teamer trunk of personal possession and waited for the next boat. When it arrived there were so many people climbing on board that the trunk was left on the pier. The boat went to Hankow where the family transferred to the railway to Canton. From there to Hong Kong was a short distance. The train stayed in the tunnel whenever Japanese bombers flew over. Many missionaries were temporarily housed in Hong Kong. Mr. Scharffenberg and family eventually returned to Shanghai. The unrest resulted in his return to the United States in 1940.
Upon his return to the United States, he joined the Home Missionary department of Lake Union and then became secretary of the same department of the General Conference. He established men’s societies throughout the church.
He then became secretary of the Temperance department of the General Conference. In 1948, Listenmagazine was begun and it still exists. Two years later he organized the first National Committee for the Prevention of Alcoholism and that same year worked to establish the first summer Institute of Scientific Studies which was held at Loma Linda. He held numerous summer institutes on The Prevention of Alcoholism. These institutes were directed to educators and church leaders throughout the United States. The Temperance Department developed many materials on alcoholism including many educational films starting with “One in Twenty Thousand.” He then branched out into the world and began the International Commission for the Prevention of Alcoholism. He was a world-wide traveler and was best known for his street surveys conducted in many international cities regarding alcohol. He was granted the “city keys” by mayors of many large international cities. In his travels he obtained the signatures of eighty-four men of cabinet rant or higher to pledge that they would not serve alcoholic beverages. One of these was Dr. U Ba, President of Burma. He was a personal friend of the president of India, Morarji Desai, as well as the chief justice of the supreme court, Tek Chand, and King Saud of Saudi Arabia. It was quite easy to understand why he became known as “Mr. Temperance.” He was sitting at the desk of the Minister of Health in Kremlin when the Kremlin cannon was fired and the official announcement was made over the Kremlin public address system that Gary Powers had been shot down while flying his U-2 over Russia.
He retired in 1964.
He had two sisters who were missionaries in Korea. The younger, Mimi, was forced to return for health reasons and passed away. The older Theodora Wangerin, served for many years as editor of the Signs of the Times. She held ministerial credentials and was well respected by Korean nationals even here in the United States. She buried a husband and a daughter in Korea.
Mr. Schaffenberg passed away on March 9, 1973. He will always be remembered for his energy and for his vision. He was what can be referred to as a “live wire.”