Father Harry Thiel is a very
important person in the history of Ruamrudee
International School. Staff members and students
of the early 70's will remember Father Harry
as the Director of RIS and Pastor of Holy Redeemer
Church. He served the school at the 'old campus'
from 1970 until 1973.
In more recent years our Community Service
groups have become more familiar with Father
Harry's work among the Hmong Mountain Peoples.
Trips of teachers and staff members to the mountains
of Nan, and the Hmong Center in the city of
Chiang Mai, and into the mountain range of northern
Thailand have been an inspiration to those who
had the privilege of witnessing Father's work
there. Our visits to the homes of Hmong families,
accepting their hospitality in their simple
dwellings, have taught us how humbly the poor
people eke out their living. Father Harry Thiel
lived among these people, walking the mountain
passages, sleeping under mosquito nets in huts
with dirt floors. He was a Redemptorist missionary
in Thailand for forty years before he returned
to the States to care for the Hmong refugees
in America.
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