MEMORIAL ADDRESS

May 4, 1981
By Rev. Charles Hanson

"Jesus, knowing ... that he had come from God and was going to God ..."
John 13:3-4

Late on Friday evening of last week, Eurus Stoltz, known as 'Red' to his friends, dropped into a gentle slumber that quietly carried him across that mysterious barrier that separates this life from the next. The departure was in a way not unexpected, because for a number of years he had been fighting an uphill battle against odds, and recently complicating illnesses had but increased those odds. But what a wonderful spirit he maintained--showing every consideration to his beloved wife and family--always presenting a spirit of courage and optimism.

This does not make our grief and sense of loss any less, and how much more profoundly must Marjory and Dan and Linda feel this! When a dear member of the family circle departs, it is not like an evening gone--it is more like a life-time uprooted! The trauma must be confronted and healed, the disappointments of dreams unfulfilled must be accepted as sad-sweet companions and the future met with courage and faith.

Still, there is another sense in which we can find consolation and that is in the remembrance, and joy, and even celebration that our lives have touched his life, have felt the uplift of his energy and stamina, known the caring helpfulness of his friendship. The Christian uses the word 'celebration' in the original meaning of it--we moderns have invested this word with much frivolousness which does not properly belong to its true meaning. To 'celebrate' is to do honor, to pay respect to, to honor with dignity and joyful remembrance. So in the midst of our grief, we should not fail to celebrate this fine and good man, Eurus Stoltz--to do him the honor, the joy of our remembrance at having called him husband, father, teacher, neighbor, brother, friend.

Although I first became acquainted with him as his pastor, I celebrate him today as my friend. For through the years I come to appreciate the rich qualities he possessed, and was literally won into a deeper fellowship with him by a community of spirit and interests. When we fell into conversation it was almost impossible for me to tear myself away, because I usually became so engrossed in what we were discussing. It is not hard for me to understand now why he was such a good teacher, and why his peers wanted him in later years to give his leadership to vocational training. He had an endless rapertory of stories and references which kept me eagerly awaiting his next words. But even more, he had the quality of drawing out of you what you thought you had forgotten or didn't know you knew!

These last weeks of failing energy were not characteristic of 'Red', who, all of his life had an unbounded stamina, which not only carried him to the top of his profession, but into other areas of excellence associated with or outside his profession. In early manhood he was for two years named to the State All-Stars in basketball. His energy and determination won him his teaching degree in the manual arts, in which he developed a skill and artistry that he never laid aside even after leaving active teaching. His genealogical studies and investigations in these later years were just about completed and ready to be published in a large volume when this last bout of illness overtook him. This work will be finished by Dan and others. We remember, also, that his Masonic lodge honored him by naming him its Master a few years ago. We celebrate a person of wonderful vitality in Eurus Stoltz-a sportsman, a teacher, a devoted husband and father, a scholar, a craftsman, a community leader, and not least, a Christian gentleman.

The other day I comented to the family that I saw a relationship in his being a lover of fine wood and a craftsman of the same, and his genealogical interests. A fine wood craftsman is concerned about the grain and fiber of the wood he uses in his work--particularly if he wishes to accomplish fine work. A genealogist is concerned about the grain and fiber of the stock that goes into the make-up of the family tree. While the wood-worker may pick and choose the stock he uses, and while the genealogist must accept without picking and choosing the family tree he is handed, still, it seems fitting and proper to me that an excellent manual arts teacher should also excel as a genealogist. Both are concerned with the grain, whether it be of wood or of families. And it seems to me that a genealogist should make an excellent worker in fine wood, because he would have already at hand the knowledge that the straight and true grain is the strongest and best. Red and I never discussed this, but I mention it now because it helps me to a deeper appreciation of him, and lifts up another way in which we can celebrate him; for another aspect of genealogy which is sometimes overlooked by the uninitiated, is that it has to do with origins and destinies. Where did we come from and where are we going? A genealogist must be very interested in these things. And it occurs to me that a Christian is just naturally a genealogist eager that he or she be of the lineage of grace and goodness and love, and faithful in the trust that a person's direction is always pertinent in determining the destination.

We have just celebrated Easter and are now in the season of the Church Year known as Eastertide. Our minds are still fresh with the events of Holy Week, and of the night when Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room. We remember the account of that last supper and how Jesus began that occasion with his washing of the feet of his disciples. There are some words in the account that John gives us in his Gospel that stand out for us Christian genealogists. The words: "Jesus, knowing ... that he had come from God and was going to God ... girded himself with a towel." These are the key words for Christian genealogists. WE CAME FROM GOD--WE ARE GOING TO GOD. No matter what the names are in between that may be necessary to fill in the family tree, and even if it should happen that some of those branches and limbs are never quite named or clearly stated-the important words are that 'we have come from God and we are going to God.' Jesus said to his disciples on that night in the upper room, "In my Father's house are many rooms ..." As God's Son he knew his Father and the Father's house. We can believe him. He, too, was a worker in wood, and knew about the desirability of a strong and true grain, and he knew that if one knows where he came from, he ought to have a pretty good idea of where he is going. He knew where to put his trust, and he never gave up the faith 'that he had come from God and was going to God.'

These thoughts, now, in your great sorrow can give you hope and warmth, because this was the faith of your beloved, and our friend, Eurus Stoltz. He has been living with this faith all of his life and giving evidence of it in his many excellences; his many associations. No person could have poured such energy into existence, had he not believed in the worthwhileness of that existence! And that assurance of life's ultimate worth is derived from the knowledge our faith has given us: "We have come from God... we shall return to God."