[Oe List ...] RE: [Dialogue] News Article on the Completed Life of Mark Poole

[Michael & Molly Shaw]

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer had a fine article on Mark's life in today's
paper.  http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/194155_pooleobit07.html

I have copied the article below.

Peace,
Michael Shaw 
michael at shawplace.com	

Thursday, October 7, 2004

The Rev. Mark Poole, 1932-2004: Pastor fought injustices, inequalities

By M.L. LYKE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

As a young father, the Rev. Mark Poole sent his children off into the world
every morning with a soul-searching question. 

"What are you choosing to do with your life today?" he asked them. "How are
you going to show that you care today?"

It was a question Poole, who died Sept. 30 of congestive heart failure at
age 72, could have answered at length. 

The progressive thinker, social activist and unapologetic Nader-ite -- who
served as associate pastor at University Temple United Methodist Church from
1985 until his retirement six weeks ago -- felt deeply about social
injustice, economic inequalities and discrimination.

He cared, and he acted.

"He walked his talk," said daughter Mary Poole, 44, a college teacher from
Arizona. "He believed the purpose of the church was to serve the world."

Poole marched for civil rights, stood up against war, demonstrated at the
World Trade Organization protests in the '90s. With his wife, Jean, he
helped start a homeless shelter at his church for young adults, ages 18-25
-- a shelter that began with one bed and now has 25 to 30.

He liked tackling tough issues. He supported gay clergy in his church and
performed gay-marriage ceremonies. He didn't like the war in Iraq and was
actively involved in The Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith peace
organization.

He supported Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader against attacks
after his initial run at the White House. "The Greens did nothing to (Al)
Gore other than challenge him to be a Democrat," he wrote in a Seattle
Weekly letter to the editor.

Poole grew up in Ohio, one of three children of a poor tenant farmer and a
young immigrant woman who'd escaped Nazi Germany. He rose early to milk cows
-- a habit that carried over into early rising the rest of his life. 

Farm life suited him, until he got the call to ministry and headed off to
seminary.

"That's when he started to think beyond the words in the Bible to the
implications," said his daughter Mary. 

Working in small churches in the Cleveland area, he preached equal rights,
started integrated preschools and often took his children from their
suburban home into the inner city. 

"He told us that all the children of the world were equally important, and
that the future he wanted us to grow up into was a just and equal world,"
Mary said. 

He was extremely critical of American materialism, and taught his children
anti-consumerism first-hand. "We didn't have stuff a lot of other kids had
-- the trips, horseback-riding lessons and other stuff," said daughter Carol
Poole, 40, of Kirkland. "It was very hard at the time, but today, I deeply
appreciate it."

If one of his children complained, the reverend -- prematurely bald with a
great deep laugh -- had a ready retort: "If life was fair," he told them,
"I'd have hair."

Poole's concern spread across international borders. He and his wife spent
four years living in a small Egyptian village in the 1970s -- not to promote
religion but to help the population, half Muslim and half Christian, get a
clean water supply, start a preschool and set up a cottage industry, making
marmalade to sell in Cairo.

For the last 10 years of his life, he devoted much of his energies
volunteering for the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition, a non-profit
dedicated to preserving the culture of native Africans and protecting the
animals and the land they roamed.

Poole's family describes him as a feisty, friendly man who loved a good
political debate, and loved winning them. "My mom always said, 'When I met
Mr. Right, I didn't know his first name was Always,' " Carol said.

He was devoted to the Mariners and was following Ichiro Suzuki up to bat
right up to the time of his death. 

After years of disabling heart disease, he was prepared for the end, and
asked his family to hold "a religious service, a wake for stories, and I
want you to have a hell of a party and make this my last big fund-raiser."

He thought a lot about his own heart, and the metaphoric heart of a
community in his last days, said his family. He was preparing a last sermon
called "The Amazing Heart" days before his death. "He was concerned about
the possibility a society can lose its heart," said Mary.

In addition to his wife and two daughters, Poole is survived by his son,
John, of New York; sister, Marian Karpoff, of Seattle; and two brothers in
Ohio.

A service open to the public is planned for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at University
Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 N.E. 43rd St. The wake follows at 5
p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the Maasai Environmental
Resource Coalition, 12036 Hiram Place N.E., Seattle, WA 98125.

P-I reporter M.L. Lyke can be reached at 206-448-8344 or
m.l.lyke at seattlepi.com