Memorials for Bill Dear all, One of the blessings out of this sudden and sad event is the collection of cards and emails I am gathering from people who want to tell me of their love for Bill. I only hope he knew how deeply he touched people! One of the most meaningful letters I have received came from a woman I don't know. She saw Bill's picture in the paper, found out my address, and wrote to tell me of how she once saw Bill with Karl at a bus stop, and marveled at the love and attention he showered on his son. He couldn't have wished for a higher compliment. Bill adored his family. He loved God, and out of that love, lived for Karl, Else, and me. Despite the unconventional nature of it, he stayed at home to care for the kids. He was a great dad. He took Karl to the Regensburg train station several times a week to watch the trains come and go, and on very special days, they hopped on a "double-decker" and shot down the tracks to the Munich airport where they spent the afternoon watching planes take off and land. Rarely a day went by when Karl didn't get a pretzel for a treat. Little Else had only eight months with Bill. I had predicted that she would be a daddy's girl. He loved waking up with her, and often snuggled to her so tightly that she cried when he accidentally scratched her face with his morning stubble. My labor with Else, as with Karl, was lightening quick. But even though it was quite clear that she was on her way, Bill took our kaput computer to the repair shop so that he could get the word out right away that he was a proud papa two times over. She was born two hours after he got back from the shop. He sacrificed five years of his vocation to support me in mine. From such grandiose expressions of love, to tiny ones, like purchasing for me my monthly bus ticket because he knew I would forget, Bill spoiled me. He loosened me up with his silliness, he made me feel like a queen, he knew me better than I knew myself. As a gift for my doctoral work being finished, Bill gave us a life-long membership to the Sierra Club. The environment was a passionate concern of his. He loved the land; the prairie, the Alps, the water. As a small token of gratitude for his support during my work here, I gave him the promise of a canoe. He could hardly wait to take it and our family up to the Boundary Waters, where we honeymooned. Bill loved the liturgy, loved worship, and knew how to plan a service. He would have been pleased by his Regensburger funeral. It was very important to him that Christians knew what they believed and how that ought to shape their lives. Worship was the center of this conviction, pulling people into the realm of the gospel and pushing people out to share it and live it. Christ's resurrection freed us for sacrifice, freed us to hope, freed us to love, freed us to act. He learned this from his family, through the Lutheran camping system in Ohio, and at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. Each institution, so to speak, reinforced his trust in the gospel, each shaped his faith, each told him of the importance that we believe not in isolation, but that we need each other. That is why I have named this email list "The Communion of the Saints." This short testimony to Bill leads into my choice for memorial designations. I have selected threethree that I hope reflect what Bill would have wanted. In thankfulness for Bill's life as testimony that life comes out of death, please consider the following: 1. First, Lutheran Outdoors in South Dakota. Bill's family annually attended the family camp at Camp Luther, in Ohio. He himself spent many a year as a camper, counselor, and program director in this system. Bill was thrilled to return to South Dakota, to "plant our asparagus" there, as I once heard, to stay there at least as many years as it took until the asparagus were ready to eat. Not least of all, Bill couldn't wait to involve our family in the SD camps. As an acknowledgement of thanks to the Ohio camping system which taught Bill his love of camping ministry, and as an acknowledgement of Bill's excitement to return "home," I have established a memorial through Lutherans Outdoors in South Dakota. Should you wish to support this ministry, please mail your contribution to Karen Kraus, Lutherans Outdoors in South Dakota, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD, 57197. (Please see July 14, No. 2 Continued for the rest of this message.)