Timothy Ranard Ashley

Dr. Timothy (Timm) Ashley, age 77, of Onalaska, WI, passed away peacefully on Thursday, May 1, 2025, at the Gundersen Medical Center of La Crosse, WI. Memorial services will be held on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at the First Baptist Church, 1209 Main Street, La Crosse, WI. Dr. Ashley was a semi-retired pastor at First Baptist Church at the time of his passing.

This is a story to tell of the life of a servant of God. Timothy Ranard Ashley was born on June 2, 1947, in Wheaton, Illinois, to the Rev. John H. Ashley and Dorotha Lucille (Ranard) Ashley. There were already three daughters born to this family: Dottie Leggett, Marilyn Donnelly and Nancy O’Neill. A son was warmly welcomed to this family. Timothy was a creative child with an interest in words and how they fit together. He loved books from the very beginning. There was a drawer in the bookcase in his father’s study that was reserved just for him. He kept his books there and was allowed to play with them while his father worked on sermons, if he could be quiet. He always credited his dad as a mentor in his role as a preacher because of this gift. Another sister (Celia Landon) was born, providing a welcome playmate for him and a character in their many dramatic presentations. The Bible was a frequent source of content for the pair as they told their stories. It became a favorite book for him early in his journey, for it was filled with stories and big, interesting words. The interest in drama, theater, speech and literature remained with him throughout his education. Because this was the family of a minister, the group moved frequently. Timm lived in five different cities in four different states while he grew up.

As he began to consider a career path, Timm began to identify himself as a teacher, and chose appropriate courses as he went to college, resulting in a bachelor’s degree from Sioux Falls College in South Dakota. His interests began to expand to include an interest in church life and in the possibility of entering the ministry, or perhaps even going on for further study in the languages of the Bible like Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. He completed an honors M.A. from the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Covina, California, including those language courses. While he was there, he met and fell in love with Maxine Clark, a fellow student. They were married on August 5, 1972. Three weeks later they moved to St. Andrews, Scotland, where Timm would be entering a PhD program in Hebrew and Oriental Languages. Two years later he had finished the course work and the dissertation could be completed while working at another location. So, he returned to the United States and was offered his first temporary teaching position at North American Baptist Theological Seminary, teaching New Testament. Timm enjoyed the work, but the experience taught him that the schools for training ministers needed to be in touch with the churches. He realized he did not know enough about that work with no experience behind the pulpit. So, he intentionally looked for a ministry/preaching experience rather than a teaching one while finishing his Ph.D. So, for the next ten years he served two churches: First Baptist Church of the Northern Hills in Lead/Deadwood, South Dakota and Aurora Community Baptist Church in Aurora, Colorado. Timm enjoyed the work, and he formed a firm belief that the seminary and the church were equally important. The church needed the seminary, but the seminary needed to talk to the church and understand what was needed. He shaped the rest of his career path based on this belief.

The first full-time job as a professor soon arrived and the couple made another decision involving a large move. They would travel to Nova Scotia where Timm would form the frame of the Old Testament program that future ministers would meet as they finished their degree. It was the perfect ministry for him. He could still teach and use the languages he loved, work to prepare students to know how to read and understand the Bible so they could teach the churches they served and write books and articles using his love of learning. It was a good 20-year ministry. But as you can tell, there wasn’t a lot of time to travel to family or to keep those ties of talking to the church he had learned to value. So, one other intentional move was made. Timm would seek a position to return to be the pastor of a local congregation. In 2003, Timm and Maxine accepted an invitation to serve at First Baptist Church of La Crosse, WI. To the end of Timm’s journey, this church has affirmed by their decisions the belief he had that the church and the school needed to serve as a team. The work of the ministry requires the diligent study of the academy, and the lay study of the Bible that informs the church’s ministry in the world. So, this good academic used his gifts, but not for his own praise, but for the training of persons for ministry. This creative person used the words he loved to help people understand the hard words in the Bible. This fun-loving guy worked hand in hand with a small church willing to make difficult changes in the way things are done for the good of the church and the community. Several years ago, Timm developed a disease that became chronic and debilitating. He didn’t think the work to which he was called was finished and he struggled to fight against it. He suffered pain and fatigue from the illness, but he maintained the love he had for the people of this congregation and the love of the words of the Bible which he cherished and the strength he had in the faith that somehow God had a plan worked out. He didn’t always know what it was, but he could trust the word of the poet in Psalms who declared that “God has his back.”

On May 1, 2025, this Professor, preacher, child of God, finished the work he could do. But the work continues in the lives of those scholars who seek to understand more and also with the students he helped to train and the parishioners he walked with. His was a life well-lived. Thanks be to God.