ED TUCKER [Sat, 11-4-23]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—ED TUCKER [Sat, 11-4-23]

 

Going through old files… discarding most… keeping some… enjoying the memories… which is why I kept all this stuff…

In the booklet Garrett Theological Seminary put together for the 40^th anniversary of my class, they asked each of us what we remembered most or liked best from our student days there. Ed Tucker said, “The daily commuting rides with John McFarland, when he drove in from Cedar Lake, Indiana and picked me up on the south side of Chicago.”

Because we spent so much time together, Ed is one of my best memories, too, not just for seminary days, but when we were together for class reunions and occasional continuing ed events. Even when we were retired, when he lived in Chicago’s western burbs and I in Sterling, IL, to be with the grandkids, we would meet halfway, in Dekalb, at a Borders store, and drink coffee and buy books and reminisce.

Ed originally thought of himself as a Lutheran, because one Sunday afternoon, at Christmas time, when he was in 8^th grade, his father took him to a Lutheran church in their neighborhood, and dropped him off for the Christmas party for kids.

He said, “I have no idea why. We never went to church, anywhere. My father was a huge racist and was mad at church people who were in favor of integration. But it was great. They gave me a book as a gift. No one had ever given me a book before. And they had food! I was in 8^th grade and weighed 200 lbs. I loved to eat. I kept going back.”

The guidance counselors saw Ed as a big dumb fat kid and so sent him to Lane Technical High School to learn to be a draftsman. He said, “That’s all they taught us in the drafting program. We didn’t learn English or history or that stuff. But being big and dumb, I got to be the catcher on the baseball team. After sitting at a drafting table all day for four years, I knew I didn’t want to do that the rest of my life. I applied to Chicago Teacher’s College. They’d take anybody. Except me. But the baseball coach convinced the admissions people to let me in, because he needed a catcher.”

“I kept going to church. It was the days of Civil Rights. I grew up on Chicago’s south side, in a racist home. I knew how bad black people were treated. I met some Methodist ministers who were active in civil rights. I began to think I was supposed to be a preacher. So I applied to Garrett. I had a degree from Chicago Teacher’s College, with a baseball major and a D minus GPA. Garrett turned me down flat. But those Methodist ministers intervened. They convinced Garrett to let me in on probation. The first quarter, I flunked every class. Garrett was going to throw me out, but those guys begged them to give me another chance.”

I wrote this just because I love Ed’s story. I’m so pleased that Lutheran church gave a book to a fat boy who showed up unannounced, and that they gave him food. I’m so pleased that those Methodist ministers intervened for him. And did it again.

Ed used his drafting skills to draw the “Friar Tuck” cartoons that illustrated many books about church. [See the book cover above.]  He had a solid career as a caring pastor. He is remembered fondly in all his church appointments. God wants us, wants us all, even if we just come to church for the food…

John Robert McFarland

Remember to turn your clocks back tonight!