[Dialogue] In celebration of G. Alfred Hess, Jr.

[Marilyn R Crocker]

Dear Colleagues,

Today I learned from Pam Bergdall that Fred Hess completed his life last
Friday of pancreatic cancer.  Thereupon ensued a flood of images: Fred's
very tall, thin, somewhat awkward presence at Boston Region movement
meetings in the  60s when he was serving a Methodist Church in western
MA; his offering of illusion-shattering feedback (as might have been
expected) when, as my pedagogy teacher in 1966, he critiqued my first
attempt at teaching the Bonhoeffer paper  ("What in the world did you
think you were you doing when you asked that question, Marilyn?"); my fun
in jitterbugging "New-England style" with him at West Side celebrations
in 1968; his constant. unfolding delight in his handsome (and also tall,
even as a preschooler) son, Randy; his total absorption in reading (and
later quoting) Newsweek cover to cover during Collegiums at Kemper in the
late 70s; my enjoying tremendously an article authored by him that
appeared on the back page (feature status) of Education Week in the 90s. 
I was invited by Pat Scott to facilitate her husband, David's, 40th
birthday celebration way-back when, and I recall Fred was an important
participant at that event. I think they may have been classmates at some
point.  (Charles and Doris, do you know if David has been contacted?).

As we remembered Fred tonight, Joe read the words of Kazantzakis (The
Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises), which we think Fred might also have
recalled over the passing years:

Whether we want to or not, we also sail on and voyage, consciously or
unconsciously, amid divine endeavors.  Indeed, even our march has eternal
elements, without beginning or end, assisting God and sharing His perils.
 
Which is that one force amid all of God's forces which man is able to
grasp?  Only this:  We discern a crimson line on this earth, a red,
blood-splattered line which ascends, struggling, from matter to plants,
from plants to animals, from animals to man.  
This indestructible prehuman rhythm is the only visible journey of the
Invisible on this earth.  Plants, animals, and men are the steps which
God creates on which to tread and to mount upward.(p.93)
We celebrate the completed life of our colleague G. Alfred Hess, Jr. and
give thanks for his footsteps, among those of others, that continue to
give form to the ever-unfolding crimson line.

Grace and peace,

Joe and Marilyn Crocker
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