Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2020

new home in Lake Jackson, Texas. Lorne’s career plans were coming together, but the conviction of the Holy Spirit was intensifying. It boiled over a month later while he was cutting grass in the Texas heat. “The conviction got so bad I had to come into the house,” he said. “I knelt down in the formal dining room and said, ‘I can’t live like this.’ I went through all the instructions I could remember about how you became a Christian and accepted the free gift of salvation.” When he told Kathi and her mom, the women cried with joy. Kathi, unbeknownst to Lorne, made a profession of faith as a high school senior at a Billy Graham Crusade at Fenway Park. Around the time of the move to Texas, she decided to finally live out her faith, and she and her mother began praying for Lorne. “I couldn’t believe the reaction,” he said. Lorne felt a peace he didn’t recognize. He expected his career to continue its momentum. But his short-term plans didn’t fit God’s long-term ones, and corporate upheaval resulted in a job loss. UNDERWAY IN IOWA Des Moines, Iowa, was the next stop. In 1984, Kathi and Lorne started Katecho, the contract manufacturing company he still owns, along with Surmasis Pharmaceuticals. Katecho is a world leader in producing hydrogel and builds innovative parts for medical devices, such as the pads for portable defibrillators. The business got off to a rough start, but Lorne was where he was supposed to be, and the business began to flourish in year two. Lorne, however, had yet to hear about Cedarville. He believed in Christian education. Mark was growing up in a Christian school, and going to a Christian college was something the whole family desired for him. Cedarville was 600 miles away, but a neighbor was a student, and Mark was invited to join the family for Li’l Sibs Weekend. Mark chose Cedarville for college and earned a business degree in 1997. Meanwhile, Lorne was asked to consider joining the Board of Trustees. He didn’t want to at first. “I’m not a joiner,” he said. But his mother-in-law and wife eventually persuaded him. Lorne joined the Board in 1994, served three terms as Chair, and retired to emeritus status in 2018. He received the school’s 14th Medal of Honor in October 2019. As he sat in the chapel audience waiting to go on stage and receive the award, there were other announcements awaiting that had been kept secret from him for two years. President Thomas White announced that the Scharnberg family had pledged $10 million toward a new business building. Lorne didn't knowMark —now President of Katecho and majority stockholder — was planning a large gift, and $10 million was far more than he thought Mark would have agreed to. Then Dr. White announced the building would be named the Lorne C. Scharnberg Business Center. “I knew I was going to get an award,” Lorne said, “but the biggest shock of my life was to hear this.” Lorne didn’t plan any of this. He often wondered — especially in those last days in Texas and the early ones in Des Moines —what would become of his business career. But he never forgot the words he heard on the plane about God having an even better plan for his life. “In the back of my mind, I was convinced that maybe before I died what was told me — that because God is God, maybe it will come true,” he said. Becoming a Christian opened Lorne to many ideas he had not considered, especially in giving. Tithing became important to him, and he taught Mark to do the same. But the commitment required to give $10 million started with a conversation he had one day on campus with fellow Trustee Bill Bolthouse. Bill told Lorne he had divided his life into three parts. First: He learned his business from his dad. Second: He grew the business. Third: He was giving it all away to the Kingdom. “That just stuck with me,” Lorne said. “I thought to myself, ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’ And that’s what I’m doing.” The first big thing Lorne gave away was the business to his son. Lorne still serves as CEO, but Mark is President and runs the business. When Kathi died in 2018, Mark took over the company finances and began to think about how the company could expand its giving. Mark learned giving from his parents, but it was a teaching series he listened to by Mark Driscoll, Senior and Founding Pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, 12 | Cedarville Magazine