CFormView class data members getting corrupted

I have a class derived from CFormView which contains instance data such as a pointer to a CStatic which is used to load and display a bitmap and is initialized in OnInitialUpdate(). The problem is, when entering other class member functions, the hWnd of the CStatic* is no longer valid. I have worked around it by using GetDlgItem() every time I want to reference the control. This problem does not occur in CDialog derived classes, just when trying to do the same thing in a CFormView. Is there a special way to treat member data such that it remains stable from member function to member function??