Conrad "Connie" Stiehler, 93, of Wayne, ME, formerly of Plainview and Hicksville, died on July 27, 2000 at the Maine General Hospital. He was born the son of John and Margaret (Mirschel) Stiehler on Jan. 10, 1907, one of six children, on a 60-acre farm in Springfield Gardens, NYC. His father was also born in that same farmhouse in 1880. He attended Public School #34 in Queens to which he was transported by a stage coach drawn by a team of horses.

In 1916, at the age of nine, his family moved by horse and wagon to a 60-acre potato farm that they purchased in Plainview where "Connie" grew up. He entered the Plainview two-room schoolhouse when he was in the fourth grade and graduated from the Hicksville Public School in 1921 at the age of 14.

"Connie" then worked the potato farm with his father and took over its management upon his father's death in 1945. He farmed in the summer and worked at his grandfather's lumber yard, Mirschel Lumber in Franklin Square, in the winter. In December 1946, he bought the lumber yard with his brother Bert and managed that business until his retirement in 1976 at the age of 69.

"Connie" was a founding charter member of the Plainview Fire Dept. establishing the very first fire protection service there in 1927. He competed in the very first Hicksville Fire Dept. Tournament in 1927 as a "nozzle man." He also served as chief of the Plainview Fire Dept. in 1938-39. "Connie" moved to Hicksville in 1948 but maintained an active associate membership in the Plainview Fire Dept. until the age of 90.

He joined the Manetto Brook Hollis Leodge of Masons #992 in 1933 and gave 65 years of loyal support to the Masonic Fraternity having been raised to the degree of Master Mason. "Connie" was a member of the American Farm Bureau, Arrowhead Gun Club, Plainview Voting Board of Elections, LaSalle Extension University, Manetto Mason Lodge, Plainview Fire Dept., St. Stephen's Lutheran Church and the Woodbury Methodist Church.

"Connie" was an avid hunter, fisherman and gardener. A kind, gentle, extraordinarily generous and loving man, he was very devoted to his family, his community and his church. His wife of 61 years, Nadene (Volk) Stiehler, predeceased him in 1989, and a son Kenneth Stiehler also predeceased him in 1985. He will be greatly missed by his son and daughter-in-law Robert and Joan Stiehler with whom he has resided the last few years in Wayne. He is survived by a brother Robert D. Stiehler of Washington, DC; a sister Georgianna Broadbent of W. Henrietta, NY; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

Arrangements were made by the Vernon C. Wagner Funeral Home, Hicksville. Funeral services at the Woodbury Methodist Church. Interment Memorial Cemetery of St. John's Church, Cold Spring Harbor. Donations can be made to the North Wayne Church Steeple Fund, RR #1, Box 500, Wayne, ME 04284.