[Dialogue] A Great Life Completed

Fri Apr 11 13:43:44 EDT 2008

Thank you, Dick. A great tribute to a great iron man!

John

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From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Richard Alton
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 1:33 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] A Great Life Completed

 A Remembrance:

You might say John Rupert worked for me as I was the Co-Area Director for
Area  Nairobi from 1980-86 which was kind of a joke with Slicker, Rafos, Kay
Hayes, Wiegel and Lingo..they were all extremely gifted and impossible to
manage. 

With John Rupert I periodically went on fund raising calls with him as he
seemed to know everybody. I can remember once he wanted to go visit the
first Kenya Attorney General under President Jomo Kenyatta. We trudged out
to a huge coffee estate right outside Nairobi. The former Attorney General
gave John Rupert a huge hug. As I remember the story, and it may be hard to
separate story from mythology, John Rupert had moved from the UK to Kenya to
become a farmer. It was just after the Mau-Mau period of Kenya freedom
fighting. But for whatever reason, John Rupert was set upon by two Kenyans
who tried to kill him on his farm. They left him for dead but John Rupert
somehow was able to find help and eventually survived the attack. After his
recovery, John Rupert discovered that the two Kenyans had been caught and
were sentenced to be hanged.  John Rupert was horrified and immediately
charged off to the Attorney General's office.  John Rupert somehow was able
to get in to see the Attorney General and he pleaded with him to spare the
lives of the two men who had tried to kill him. I can remember the former
Attorney General saying it was the most amazing thing to see this white man
who was almost killed by those two young men pleading for their lives. They
were spared.

I am full of John Rupert stories..it is like he was an incarnation of our
'Iron Man' stories. 
" After making coffee, Iron Man set out on his journey." were he ran into
the garbage truck of reality.
He was brought back to the 'Now' by the sound of a large diesel engine and
the  screech  of  rubber  on  black  top. 
He looked up to see the Garbage Truck of Reality bearing down upon him."

John Rupert was a Kenyan citizen and this sometimes made it difficult for
him over against us foreigners. John Rupert was our front man for starting
new locations so he was always visiting people to get authorization to work
in a District. But the upfront job did make for difficulties. As I remember
this story, John Rupert was out West doing set up and thought he would do
some fund raising for the new project area and started visiting businesses
for their support. He was stopped by two policemen who wanted to see his
permit- probably just a ruse for chai (bribe) as we never had permits. They
took him to the police station and he was sitting there when he suddenly
realized he had an appointment with the Church of the Providence
(CPK-Episcopal) Bishop. He was not going to stand up the Bishop, so he
proceeded to walk out of the police station. The police caught up with him
and dragged him back. They then went through his backpack and discovered the
book we were then studying, The Art of War. Not the best thing to be
carrying around Kenya at that time. Things then took a nasty turn. John
Rupert was not one to shy away from making a point or challenging people's
views. All this is to say, the police used a garden hose on him and damaged
one of his ears. We finally were able to get John Rupert out of jail by
sending a lawyer from Nairobi to spring him.

   "He got up and brushed off the dust of despair and picked up his pack. It
had  peanut  butter and jelly oozing from 
one pocket, but otherwise seemed  O.K.  Iron man  wiped  up  the  mess with
some napkins he had in-kinded at
 Burger King and strode off to his philosophy class. He'd be late, but he'd
already had more than enough 
philosophy for one lifetime. "

Now John Rupert was never shy about asking you to help him out or to give a
lift. He was famous for waving down cars for rides by standing in the middle
of the road and moving his arm up and down. He was also a great in-kinder. I
remember one time he in-kinded a rental car for a week to do set-up in one
of our Kenya's distant districts. The problem was usually that after you got
off the tarmac, the roads were dirt and many times as rough as a washboard.
John Rupert had a great strategy that if you went fast enough you would fly
over those ruts in the road. One could not go slow if one was to set up
1,500 villages. So, after a week on the road visiting villages and chiefs
John Rupert brought the rental car back to the car dealer.  The car looked
to be in great shape, from the outside.  John Rupert left the car with them.
About a week later I had a call from the rental car dealer saying that they
had just checked the underside of the car and it was ruined. It was so bad
that they were going to have to trash the car. 

Iron man's mind left the present moment and drifted back to Chicago where a
"We Shall Build the Earth" session
 was in progress. He reflected on the fact that the notion was not quite as
easy as it had seemed back then in the day
 of a new era.

John Rupert was a unique and unrepeatable spirit who made possible one of
the most exciting adventures I have ever participated
 in. It was very clear we were not "shoveling shit in Louisiana".  He laid
down his life for the rise of local people, and he did it every 
day.

Dick Alton

Richard H.T. Alton International Consultants and Associates 'building global
bridges' 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:1.773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back
Babe Ruth

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Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:56:50 -0700
From: gharper1 at mindspring.com
To: oe at wedgeblade.net; springboard at wedgeblade.net; Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Dialogue] A Great Life Completed

Colleagues --

Just a brief note at the moment.  We'll want to pause for a moment to
celebrate the completion of a wondrous life, that of John Rupert Barnes, who
died yesterday in Kenya.  I just had word of it from daughter Elena.  

Ah, the stories we'll tell . . . .

Gordon

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