INTRODUCING RAFE REFIOR
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Paul D. Refior (my friends call me “Rafe” and my name is pronounced “Ray’-fee-or”) was born in 1950 in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and was raised in Iowa and Wisconsin, graduating from Whitewater High School in 1968. He returned to Mt. Pleasant to attend Iowa Wesleyan College, where he met and married his sweet, wonderful and beautiful wife, Pam, and where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in 1972 prior to attending law school. While at the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City, Iowa, Rafe was elected president of the Iowa Student Bar Association. Rafe was awarded his Juris Doctor degree with honors and was admitted to practice law in the State of Iowa in June, 1975. Following law school graduation Rafe served as a Navy JAG officer stationed at the Naval Legal Service Office, Naval Station, Norfolk, Virginia. His primary duties involved criminal trial work, both as a defense attorney and as a prosecutor. His large caseload included murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, rape, counterfeiting, large narcotics cases, theft, and a variety of other criminal matters with jury trials and bench trials in San Diego, Panama, Italy, and Norfolk. When Rafe returned to civilian practice he joined a law firm in the small town of Pinedale, Wyoming, which is a beautiful, authentic western town with an elevation of 7,200 feet at the foot of the towering Rocky Mountains of the Wind River Range. Both Rafe and his law partner had a pilot’s license and they carried on a trial practice which covered Wyoming and parts of Colorado. In 1979, Rafe and Pam received an unexpected invitation from missionaries in Takamatsu, Japan, to serve as short-term missionaries under The Evangelical Alliance Mission. After much prayer and counsel it was decided that it was the will of God for the Refiors to accept the call to go to the great nation of Japan as missionaries. Following that 13-month sabbatical the Refiors moved back to the Midwest, deciding to settle in the State of Indiana which is Pam’s home state. In the fall of 1981 Rafe was admitted to practice in Indiana and he opened Refior Law Office in Warsaw. In September of 2001 he was also admitted to do practice in Florida.
Rafe is admitted to all of the courts of the States of Indiana, Florida, Iowa and Wyoming, several Federal District Courts (including Indiana, Michigan and Florida), the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Services, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and 11th Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of The National Lawyers Association, Indiana State Bar Association, The Florida Bar, Wyoming State Bar, Iowa State Bar Association, the Kosciusko County Bar Association and the Tippecanoe County Bar Association. Rafe and his wife are members of Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, Indiana. He is the chairman of the board of Lakeland Child Evangelism Ministries, and is on the international board of directors of The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM).
Pam and Rafe have two outstanding daughters—Nikki Lambeth and Laura White. Nikki is married to Jonathan Lambeth; they have three sons, Luke, David and Stephen. The Lambeths reside in Lafayette, Indiana, where Jonathan is the elementary school principal at Faith Christian High School and Nikki is an effective wife and mother and a freelance French translator. Laura is married to Brian White, and their four children are Karis, Jocelyn, Samuel and Nathan; Brian is the Senior Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel North, Indianapolis. Laura is the head of women’s ministries.
Rafe enjoys loving his gorgeous and outstanding wife Pam, being a happy and involved grandpa, the beach, warmth and fun in Naples, international travel, family travel, family activities, sports of all kinds (especially following the great Iowa Hawkeyes), woodworking, writing (e.g., novels, articles, books on Christian topics, children’s stories), kayaking, woodcarving, art and graphics, walking the beach, bicycling, studying, meditating and applying the Bible, speaking at seminars and retreats, Bow-flexing and weightlifting.
(May 2008)