Called back

If you are a really good at literature or have a thing for Emily Dickinson like some of us do, you might recognize the title of this blog as the epitaph on Ms. Dickinson’s headstone in Amherst, Massachusetts.  Story has it the phrase ‘Called back’ was the content of the last note she wrote to her cousins just before her death in 1886.  Her brother and sister thought it an appropriate aphorism to set in stone by which the rest of us could remember their sometimes odd yet thoughtful sister.  

Quoting Emily’s last written thought seems appropriate today as I memorialize a couple of fine folks who have made a difference in the world and just recently have shuffled their way off this mortal coil. 

First, Dayton lost an adopted favorite son early Monday morning when Rev. Gordon S. Price, rector emeritus of downtown’s Christ Episcopal Church, took his final leave from this earth at Hospice of Dayton.  Gordon was 95 and in poor health recently, but that surely didn’t stop him from being involved in life.  

Rev. Price served the people of Christ Church and the downtown community from 1958 to 1982 as rector with perhaps his most lasting impact his spearheading the renovation of the 1870s-era church building, known affectionately as the Great Lady of First Street.  

Those who knew him well, however, would probably point not to the building, but to the impact he had on the community as his biggest contributions.  During his tenure, Gordon stood with Daytonians in the ‘60s as civil rights issues tore the town apart.  He was at the church helm when the Suicide Prevention Center formed there, as well as the Other Place, designed to help local homeless, still operating today as Homefull.  During his time, too, with the help of parishioner Doris Miller, American Sign Language began to be ‘spoken’ every Sunday at the 10:30 service with the ASL program coming soon thereafter to Sinclair Community College, under the guidance of Ms. Miller.

Aside from his church work, Gordon was one heck of a gardener.  Stopping by his and Ruth’s house any day from spring to fall, one could expect a little lecture tour on just what was happening in the side yard plots.  Unfortunately, it was that working in the dirt that impacted a knee with a nasty infection a few years ago that he never quite got over.  

Even though Gordon was no longer Christ Church’s rector, he was still very much engaged in parish matters.  I can’t tell you how many Waffle Shop meetings the guy attended.  Most recently he called and wanted to meet briefly to discuss what should happen to the Great Lady’s chapel space, recently determined to be so seriously undermined that taking it down brick by brick was one of the proposed solutions.  Gordon, of course, wanted to keep the room standing, and even had a list of ideas about ‘reconciliation’ that parishioners could discuss and thus renew enthusiasm for retaining the room.  

Rev. Price ran Christ Church during an era when downtown was the financial and commercial center of the Miami Valley.  He knew so many important people in his day, and even assisted in their pastoral care, regardless of their religious affiliation.  He liked to tell the story of being with David Rike during his final days.  

Needless to say, Gordon Price will be missed, though knowing how much he was involved in life over his long tenure on the planet somehow softens the blow.  Rest well, Gordon.  You deserve it.  You showed us all how to witness love for each other in our lives.  

***

On that July night in 1969 when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon, I was going to be nowhere near a television set.  

I was 19 that summer and was invited to attend an evening religious event in Cincinnati with a good adult friend and co-worker.  Even though I wanted to be anchored in front of the old black and white Westinghouse on Fauver Avenue, I didn’t know how to say no to my pal.  

Sometime during the evening, though, the topic of the moon walk came up, and I made it clear that I really hated to miss the event.  My buddy heard me, and on the drive home, he pulled off at some long-gone restaurant at the Paddock Road exit just north of Cincinnati where we found a booth and sat for an hour or so with Cokes and a roomful of proud strangers watching live images from the moon.   Oh, such pride Neil brought to all Earth-bound folk!  

It was a nice moment, too, when I was able to get grandkids and a son-in-law to Woodland Cemetery here in town this past June to see Neil Armstrong celebrate another great American hero, Wilbur Wright, upon the 100th anniversary of the first flier’s passing. 

And so it is with sadness that I offer this farewell to Neil Armstrong, a guy gone before his time.  (Eighty-two doesn’t sound near as old as it used to!)  

Such a humble guy who never wanted to take much credit for his first-in-civilization accomplishment.  Over the years in the few interviews he gave, he made it clear he was just part of a much bigger team working together to make moon flight possible.  I learned recently that the Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins names do not adorn the official Apollo 11 flight patch at the direction of Commander Armstrong.  He didn't want the men remembered.  He wanted the first moon landing notoriety shared by all Americans.  The patch features a bald eagle landing with olive branches, not arrows, in his talons.  Truly, Terrans left the safety of their own world in peace.  

True enough, I suppose, but Mr. Armstrong will live in my heart the rest of my days as a true American hero.  He's the man.  

Today’s Elder Idea:  It is the role of the church to give of itself for the world's reconciliation, not preparing man for heaven.

Rev. Gordon S. Price

quoted in The Magazine

Dayton Daily News (28 March 1982)

For an earlier Back Porch blog on Neil Armstrong’s visit to Dayton in June, see:  http://tomschaefer.blogspot.com/2012/06/some-dayton-history.html