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

[Isobel & Jim Bishop]

Thank you very much for posting this article to this far flung  group,
Michael and Molly. I felt as tho'I came to know so much more about the man I
barely knew, who used to come in  from a Development trip--through the
Sheridan St door of the Kemper Building with a lovely wide smile.
Peace be yours,
Isobel Bishop.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael & Molly Shaw" <mandmshaw at comcast.net>
To: "'Colleague Dialogue'" <Dialogue at wedgeblade.net>; "'Order Ecumenical
Community'" <OE at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 4:22 PM
Subject: [Oe List ...] RE: [Dialogue] News Article on the Completed Life of
Mark Poole


> 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
>
>
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