[Oe List ...] Marge Kloepfer

Thu Sep 21 15:54:51 EST 2006

Dear colleagues,

My brother's wife, Marge Kloepfer, died on September 4, 2007.  For me she
was one of those rare exemplars of what St. Francis of Assisi in the Prayer
of St. Francis called an "instrument of peace."   Most of us pray to attain
the attributes of love, pardon, faith, hope, light, joy and seek to console,
understand, forgive, and give.  Marge succeeded in her life to manifest
them.

John is not on this list-serve but can be reached at Kloepfer at igc.org . Her
biography along with many eulogies and witnesses were read at her memorial
service on September 9th.  

Margery Lucille Coon Emig Kloepfer

December 5, 1941 - September 4, 2006

            In Cortland, New York on December 5, 1941 she was called by God
to be born into this world as Margery Lucille Coon, daughter of Harold and
Nellie Coon.  Harold and Nellie were from Scott, New York, but had moved to
Auburn, where Harold worked for the H. R. Wait Furniture Company and Nellie
owned and operated a beauty shop.  The second of four children, Margie, as
she was fondly called by her family, grew up with her older brother,
Carlton, and her younger brother, Gary, until she was nine years old, when
she was given the gift of a younger sister, Audrey.  

            For most of her childhood years their family spent two weeks
each summer camping in tents in Scott, NY on land Harold had helped develop
in the National Forest Preserve when he was in the Civilian Conservation
Corps during the Depression years of the early 1930's.  This gave Marge an
appreciation of and sense of wonder about nature and the out-of doors.

            She attended West High School, where she provided leadership in
school government, many organizations, and activities including speech club,
chorus, gymnastics and cheerleading.  Among other achievements, she won
First Place in several local and regional Speech Contests.  She also was
active in intramural sports, and as an adult often said how sad she was that
when she was in school women did not compete interscholastically in sports.
With a reputation as the most popular girl in the school, she was
overwhelmingly chosen by the students to be their Homecoming Queen her
senior year.

            She attended Auburn Community College, where she earned her
Associates Degree in 1961.  She then enrolled in SUNY Oswego, where she
resided in a dormitory for one year before marrying Roger Emig in June,
1962.  Her brother, Gary, recalls that over the next twelve years Marge and
her family moved thirteen times.  

            They lived on South Street in Auburn, as Margie commuted to
Oswego and student taught in Auburn to complete her Bachelors Degree.  Upon
her graduation they moved to the Southern Tier, where Marge taught
elementary school in Elmira, and where their daughter, Karen, was born in
Binghamton in 1965.  After a brief residency in the city of Oswego while
Karen was still an infant, Roger was transferred by the W. T. Grant Company
to Willowick, Ohio (near Cleveland), where he was a store manager.  He later
was recruited by the Hallmark Card Company, for whom he was a regional sales
representative first in Cleveland, where their son Douglas was born in 1968,
and later in Cincinnati.  It was in Cincinnati that Marge, active in her
local Presbyterian Church, became connected with the programs of the
Ecumenical Institute.

            In 1971, her husband became ill with cancer of the spleen, and
died in October of that year, leaving Marge a young widow with two small
children.  One year later her four-year-old son, Dougie, was run over and
killed on his way to nursery school by a truck that ran a red light.  Margie
refused to sue the driver or his company, even though the driver spent
months in jail for negligent homicide.  The grief over these deaths helped
shape the depth and compassion people always experienced when they were in
her presence. 

            Following this second tragedy, Marge and Karen moved back to
Auburn, NY, and lived for a brief time with her parents.  They then moved to
Rochester, NY where Marge enrolled in a Masters Degree program at the
University of Rochester.  She received her Masters in Learning Disabilities
in 1975, and that summer married John Kloepfer, who had one more year of
seminary at Colgate Rochester Divinity School.  The next year they lived in
an apartment in Penfield, a suburb of Rochester, where Marge worked in the
Middle School as a Learning Disabilities specialist.  

            Upon graduation from seminary John received a call as pastor of
the Presbyterian Church in Bovina Center, New York, where they lived for
eight years.  During this time their daughters, Kristen and Kendra, were
born and Marge worked as the Director of Christian Education in a large
church in Delhi, New York.  It was here in the Catskill Mountains that Marge
took up snow skiing, which the family did often, as well as tennis and
biking, which she and her family enjoyed together for many years.  They also
bought their first camper while living in Bovina, and enjoyed spending time
in it each summer.

            In 1984 they moved to Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, where John began a
Ph.D. program at Duquesne University and Marge began teaching in the local
preschool where Kendra was a student.  She loved this job more than any she
ever had before or since, but left it after two years, in 1986, when she
contracted breast cancer.  After surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, Marge
eventually returned to the work force, this time accepting a position she
was offered with Action Housing, a community service agency in Pittsburgh.
She was asked to use her expertise in education to design curricula and
train teachers for programs in the area of energy education.  

            In Pitcairn, an old railroad town, the houses were right on the
street and very close together with almost no yards at all.  They therefore
kept their camper at a campground in the country about 20 miles away, and
spent most weekends and much of the summer enjoying the outdoors life with
their family - not quite as rustic as her childhood experiences of tent
camping, but still allowing her to be in nature.

            In 1989 she and three others she worked with founded Kinetics, a
consultation and training firm that worked with utility companies in
Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York designing energy education programs for low
income families and training people to run them.  A pioneer in this new
field, Marge helped to establish and run numerous workshops for what soon
became (and still is) the largest annual conference in energy education,
known as Affordable Comfort.  

            During these early years of consulting, Marge developed strong
ties of spiritual friendship with several of the women she worked with from
all over the country.  They soon became known as the Energy Sisters, and
once or twice each year would gather for a spiritual retreat they each
helped to design and run.  For the rest of her life, and especially through
her health struggles, this group of crazy, unique and creative women were a
source of inspiration, strength and comfort to Marge.

            As much as she believed in and loved what she did, Marge did not
enjoy the travel and time away from family that consulting entailed.
Therefore, in 1992 she accepted an offer by Niagara Mohawk Power Company in
Syracuse, NY, who had been trying for several years to persuade her to come
and work for them.  As she took this new position, she commented that the
only time in her life she ever had to apply for a job was her very first
teaching position out of college.  Every other position she held she was
recruited for and offered.  This was never surprising to those who knew her
closely.

            She and John had a home built in Onondaga Hill, where the family
still resides.  In 1993, soon after moving into what they believed was a
house larger than they could ever possibly need, Marge's daughter, Kristen,
gave birth to Nathan, giving Marge her first grandchild.  And less than two
years later, in 1994, her oldest daughter, Karen, gave birth to Bryan.  Both
daughters and their sons, in addition to Kendra, who was in Jr. High School,
were then living in the house, making Marge's life both full and very happy.

            While her job responsibilities kept changing, the programs in
energy education she designed throughout her initial years in Syracuse are
still being offered throughout Upstate New York.  Indeed, they have been
replicated and adapted by utility companies all over the United States.

            In 1996 her husband became pastor of Columbian Presbyterian
Church in LaFayette, NY, and Marge became active once again teaching
preschool age children, this time in the Sunday School program.  She was
loved by all the children, and was affectionately known as "Miss Marge."  Of
all the many things Marge loved and enjoyed, the thing that brought her the
most satisfaction was being with and teaching young children.

            It was during this time in Syracuse that Marge and her husband
switched from road biking to mountain biking as their main form of exercise,
as there are many wonderful and challenging biking trails in the undeveloped
areas near their home. 

            From the mid-80's on, both Marge and her husband were
experiencing an expanding interest in spirituality, eventually finding Kikis
Christophides, a spiritual director on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Since 1999 they have both loved to visit and study under him at least once
each year.  

            In 2001 Marge had a recurrence of breast cancer, which required
a full mastectomy and further chemotherapy treatments.  Then, in 2004 she
was told the breast cancer had metastasized into her liver and lungs.  At
that time the doctors felt she might live another six months to a year, and
she was forced to retire.  From April of that year until this past August,
she was undergoing chemotherapy.  In September of 2004 she and John spent
three weeks in a small village in central Brazil visiting a spiritual
hospital.  This experience strengthened Marge both spiritually and
physically, and she was convinced that it was one reason she was able to
survive her cancer for so long.

            In spite of her constant struggle with cancer from that time on,
these were some of the most enjoyable years of her life.  She had said for a
long time that after she retired she would take up golf, because she just
knew she would enjoy it.  However, after her recurrence of cancer in 2001,
she decided not to wait.  She could not do mountain biking any more, but
loved to golf every chance she could.

            It was also during these last years that Marge derived immense
pleasure from her family.  In 2003, her oldest daughter, Karen, gave birth
to Eva, a third grandchild, and Marge acted as midwife, as she had earlier
with Bryan.  That summer Karen, Bryan and Eva moved in with their parents,
and one of the things Marge looked forward to every morning was little Eva
coming into bed with her before anyone else in the house was up.  

            She was also able to see two of her daughters get married,
Kristen in 2004 to Rick Lape and Kendra in 2005 to Brian Knebel.  Helping
with the planning and being part of these weddings gave her great pleasure,
and just this past January Kristen and Rick gave birth to her fourth
grandchild, Carter.  One of her greatest delights these past seven months
was taking care of both Eva and Carter at home two days each week.  She was
able to do this right up into July of this year.  

            In spite of her illness, Marge insisted on keeping busy and
involved in many aspects of life.  In 2004, for example, she accepted
nomination to the Session of her Church, and became Chair of the Property
Committee, where she felt she could make use of her years of project
management at Niagara Mohawk.

            Marge was one of those rare souls who had a way of endearing
herself to everyone who met her.  She loved to host people in her home,
where they were all made to feel like they were the most important person in
the whole world.  Many who knew her closely considered her to be their very
best friend, perhaps partly because they derived spiritual strength whenever
they were with her.

            She was a rare woman with an open mind, a generous heart, an
inspiring presence, and an infectious smile.  She will be missed terribly by
those who knew her.

Jean Watts

Facilitative Leadership Training Institute

ICA New Orleans

1629 Pine St.

New Orleans, LA 70118

phone & fax: 504/865-7828

cell: 504/913-7828

http://www.facilitativeleader.com <http://www.facilitativeleader.com/>   

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