Odo Siahaya

Odo Siahaya was born on May 15, 1937, in Bandung, Indonesia.  He went to be with his Savior on March 23, 2024, in Nampa, Idaho, after eight months of battling leukemia.

Odo spent his childhood in Indonesia, including two years in a Japanese-run concentration camp for Dutch-Indonesians during World War II.  He was orphaned during the war and raised by his siblings, who eventually moved with him to join family in Holland.  He graduated from Hogero Technical School in 1958 with a degree in aeronautical engineering, and taught student pilots as part of the Royal Dutch Air Force.  He immigrated to the United States in 1960 and joined the United States Air Force shortly thereafter, where he was a biomedical researcher.  During his time in the service, thanks to the base chaplain, Odo came to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior.  After four years in the USAF, he went to Moody Bible Institute to become a missionary.  It was through missionary training that he met his first wife, Beverly.  They and their two children served in Indonesia for five years with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), before returning to work at MAF’s then-headquarters in Redlands, CA.  Odo spent the rest of his professional career as an engineer working to modify MAF’s planes with extra safety measures, and then on contract from MAF with Lifewater International, where he traveled the globe digging clean, accessible wells and installing water pumps, thus playing a part in saving countless lives.  He and his wife moved to Idaho in 2001 to be closer to family, and Beverly died from leukemia in 2003. 

After “retirement,” Odo began to pursue astronomy and astrophotography, which eventually led to him leading the observatory at Bruneau Dunes State Park, and also to start an astronomy program at Lucky Peak State Park where he worked on the maintenance crew.  He was always eager to show the stars, moon, and planets to anyone who would look through his telescope, and even had a special lens to allow him to view the sun.  When he wasn’t stargazing, he continued to travel the world on various mission trips, as well as being incredibly involved in his church, where he did everything from teaching Sunday School to running the lights and sound during Sunday services, weddings, and funerals.  He met and married his second wife, Fariba, in 2015 while working for Wycliffe in Armenia, and they later moved back to Idaho together.  

Odo would drop everything to help someone in need, whether that was loaning them his car or opening up his home.  Everyone who had the honor and blessing of knowing him knows how loved they were by him, and what an incredibly intelligent, devoted, funny, hardworking man he was.  He loved Jesus with all his strength and is now with Him in paradise.

Odo was preceded in death by his parents and all five siblings, as well as his first wife, Beverly Shrader.  He is survived by his wife Fariba Sohrabi of Nampa, daughter and son-in-law Becky and Matt Freeman of Boise, grandchildren Malea and Joshua, son and daughter-in-law Mark and Kristi Siahaya of Hayden, and grandson Logan. He also has numerous nieces and nephews in Holland and Australia, extended family in Iran, and friends truly all over the globe.

There will be a celebration of Odo’s incredible life at 11:30 the morning of Friday, April 5th at Cole Community Church in Boise and a live feed will be made available.  His earthly body will be buried at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery in a private ceremony.  Donations in honor of Odo’s life and legacy can be given to:  

• Idaho Parks and Recreation to be used for expanding the stargazing program in his honor. (checks made payable to Idaho Dept of Parks & Rec, c/o IDPR Director 5657 Warm Springs Ave, Boise, ID 83716)  
• Or to the Global Outreach program at Cole Community Church (checks payable to Cole Community with #2300 “Odo Memorial #2300” on the memo line - 8775 W. Ustick Rd, Boise, ID 83704 or through this link – choose General Global Outreach #2300).
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If you wish to learn more about Odo’s life, please use this link to access an oral history he recorded at the Nampa Warhawk Air Museum for the Library of Congress archives.