KAY FISCHER

JULY 10, 2016

Kay's family first arrived at the CSA on July 1st, 1957, coming from their new home in Iowa City, and were instant converts to the Assembly. This was true even though the cottage they rented that first summer had squirrels scampering around the kitchen at night knocking pans off the shelves.

After two years of renting they bought a lot from the Assembly and built their beloved log cottage, "Red Chimney". Kay fondly remembers walking home in the dark as her husband Harry led them in singing the old hymn "Let the Lower Lights be Burning" while they felt their way along the edge of the pavement until the faint glow of the porch light finally showed them the path to the Red Chimney.

In those years, the Assembly was very much matriarchal - fewer women worked outside the home so mothers and children would spend the summers here while the fathers were home. Kay spent the summers watching their four children on the beach during lessons, urging them on during tennis tournaments, and helping with operettas and dances. 

She quickly became actively involved in the volunteer life that is the heartbeat of the CSA, serving as a Trustee, as a member of the Women's Association Board and Committee and was part of the Citation Committee during its early years. 

But committees and board memberships come and go. If you want to know the essence of Kay Fischer, you are encouraged to go to the lounge in the Assembly Building and study the Centennial quilt, put together in 2001, hanging on the wall. The large central block, the focal point of the piece, is the visual representation of the Assembly's "then" and "now". There in front of the Meeting House are the transparent ghostly figures of the Assembly's past coexisting with the brightly dressed figures of "now" accompanied by the words "They led the way - we follow still." This was the creation of Kay Fischer - the design for it grew out of her great love and appreciation for the Assembly; the beauty of it grew out of her willingness to share her talent.

FRANK AND BARBARA SOMERS

JULY 19, 2015

Every summer we come to the Assembly hoping and expecting that things will be as wonderful as in each year before – believing that whether we need re-creation or recreation, chances to teach or to be taught, days to make decisions or to go with the flow – all these things will be here for us.  That they are here is because of the many people who volunteer their time and their ideas to the Assembly.  Some of our wonderful volunteers represent clans of many generations, some have “married in,” and some have more recently come and become irreplaceable members of the Assembly extended family.  But all have in common a love of the CSA and a desire to help it flourish.  Each year the Citations Committee has the good fortune to recognize exceptional volunteers and to remind all of us that the reason the Assembly is the place we love is because of the support given by many over the years.

This year we are pleased to present the Citation for Long and Valued Service to the Assembly to a couple – Barbara and Frank Somers.  Let me tell you a bit about them.

R.J. Bennett first came to the Assembly in 1905 from the Northside of Chicago where he had been active in the Congregational Church and the YMCA.  A wholesale grocer who had been burned out in the Chicago fire, his creditors had offered to accept reduced payment, but he demonstrated the combination of rigorous ethics and entrepreneurship that would later benefit the Assembly and he rebuilt his business with such success that he paid back all his creditors with interest.  Involved with the CSA here in Pilgrim from its beginning, when there was a need for more permanent structures than tents he provided the major funding both for the Dining Hall and for the auditorium named the Bennett Auditorium, that preceded this Meeting House.  
His great-granddaughter, Barbara Brownell, grew up in Kalamazoo.  She would spend two weeks each summer with her grandparents, Bessie and Will Bennett, in the cottage built by R.J. Bennett in 1915 - on Standish Road at the S. Shore Road.  Those years of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s were quieter years at the Assembly with no phones, few cars, and lots of family time.  In recent years when they were remodeling the old cottage the family almost didn’t put in a dishwasher because, Barbara recalled, “That’s when I talked with my grandmother – doing the dishes.” (Note: they put it in anyway.)

Barbara enrolled at Northwestern University where she was an English major, a member of Tri Delta sorority, and a fan of the football team that went to the Rose Bowl in her senior year!  After graduation she lived with three sorority sisters in Chicago and worked in advertising – in the early “Mad Men” years!

Meanwhile, Frank Somers was growing up on a farm in Illinois.  After his freshman year at the University of Illinois he joined the army and spent 3 years with a mortar battalion in Europe during WWII, returning a decorated veteran in 1945.  He went back to the University of Illinois on the GI Bill.  During the summer of 1947 he visited Kalamazoo with his roommate and, in the wonderful way of serendipity, his roommate had a friend who knew a girl named Barbara Brownell.  At the end of summer, back in school, Frank would hitchhike from Champaign to Chicago on the weekends – he says that wearing a buddy’s glamorous Air Corps jacket seemed to get him rides faster than wearing his own jacket.  When he graduated he went to Kalamazoo and got a job with The Sutherland Paper Company – staying with them through several changes of ownership for 40 years.

Frank and Barbara were married in 1951 and spent much of their married life being sent from place to place by the company as Frank advanced in management.  They lived in Pittsburgh, Omaha, Des Moines, Kansas City, Saratoga (CA) – and each of their 4 children was born in a different place.  Finally they were able to move back to Michigan and at last could spend more time in the place that for them, as for so many of us, was more home than any other place.

With a big porch looking over the lake it was inevitable that over time their garage would fill with things that float – paddleboards, kayaks, motorboats – and they loved swimming and the beach.

Barbara’s service to the Assembly has always been the quiet kind that can be overlooked – unless you are working with her.  That’s when you realize how much she cares about the Assembly, how much time she’s given, and how much she has contributed.  She was a long time volunteer with the Women’s Association, helping with all the many services it has provided through the years, as well as serving on its board, and she has spent many many years on the Membership Committee – meeting every week of every summer, offering an open, welcoming, and thoughtful perspective from her long experience.  
Frank brought his energy and his business experience to this Assembly that he had come to see as a welcoming home.  He was on the Property Management committee for years as member and chair, served on the Board of Trustees as vice-president and a member of the Executive Committee; he was a member of the Long Range Planning committee for several years and for 16 years was on Bud Strong’s famous Septic System Review committee.

We always make the point that there are many ways in which individuals provide dedicated service to the Assembly – through committees, through highly visible activities, and through being mindfully present, helping when help is needed and contributing thoughtful critiques and ideas as new ways of doing things are proposed.  Frank and Barbara Somers represent all those things while contributing greatly to the level of civil discourse that will help the CSA continue to be the place called ”home” by future generations.  Those who have shared time with them over the years have long noted and appreciated the quiet but significant ways in which they have enriched the lives of all of us.

Barbara and Frank – we’re delighted to recognize your contributions to the Congregational Summer Assembly with this Citation.  Your names have been placed on the plaque at the back of the Meeting House and members of the congregation can greet you outside after the service.

1979 - George Gibson

1980 - Mary Sherwood Hill

1981 - Catherine Stebbins

1982 - Emilie Williams

1983 - Jean and Russ Petrick

1984 - Joe Reeve

1985 - Norman Johnson

1986 - Agnete Hunt

1988 - Laurence Van Tuyl

1989 - A. Ray Cartlidge

1992 - Lucile and John Hawley

1993 - Charles (Bud) French

1994 - Katy and Hugh Gosnell

1995 - Eileen and Karl Rauschert

1995 - Evelyn Walter

1996 - Elsie and Bob Walton

1997 - Betsy Petersen

1998 - Arthur (Bud) Strong

1999 - Marjorie Pearsall-Groenwald

2000 - Doris and Dave Robertson

2001 - Jane and Telfer Mook

2002 - Lou Pray

2003 - Russell Freeburg

2004 - Bill Dahman

2006 - Kent Murmann

2007 - Jim and Luanne Buzzell

MARILYN STIMSON WINTER

AUGUST 7, 2011

Each year the Citations Committee reflects on the generous sharing of time and talent by members of our community and introduces one of those individuals to you.  Sometimes we learn of contributions that are quiet and behind the scenes – sometimes they are out where everyone is aware of them.  In the process we discover many things about what makes the Congregational Summer Assembly such a special place for all of us – and one of these things is how the concept of service to the community is a family value that is carried out from generation to generation.

The person we recognize this morning spends so many hours of each summer here in the Meeting House that a lot of people think she’s part of the paid staff.  And she is so closely identified with music that many people have no idea how much she does and has done here that has been totally unconnected to music. So I look forward to telling you more about her – MARILYN STIMSON WINTER.

It’s impossible to tell the story of Marilyn’s involvement in the Assembly without acknowledging her parents, Dr Edward Stimson and Emily Maclean Stimson.  They were larger than life in more than height and and are rightly seen as the role models for their three daughters – Kay, Marjorie, and Marilyn -  in representing what the Assembly is all about.

Marilyn was born the youngest of the three in Cincinnati, OH.  As her father accepted the call from Presbyterian churches in new cities the family moved to Galesburg, IL; Sioux City, IA; back to Cincinnati; and, finally, when Marilyn was 10, to Omaha, NB, where they remained.  A cheerleader in high school, Marilyn went on to Northwestern University where she was on the Pep Squad.  Anyone watching her get scores of children engaged during operetta practices can see that as a natural progression.  Who hasn’t heard this:  clap clapclap clap clap – clap clap? At the beginning of her junior year Marilyn transferred to Occidental College in Los Angeles where she went into music, stayed for a Masters in Voice with a Minor in Theater, and met Brian Winter.  Together they continued their education in music at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.  Marilyn taught 4^th grade while also earning her second Master’s Degree, in Vocal Performance, at Illinois.  Then followed Enid, Oklahoma, and several years of traveling in a kind of educational triangle:  Illinois, the University of Arizona, and Alma, MI – with both of them teaching and continuing work on their Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice programs.  Brian completed his in 1981 and Marilyn in 1982.  In 1983 they moved to Austin, Texas, where he was Director of music at the Methodist Church. Marilyn conducted 5 choirs at the Presbyterian Church and taught grades 1-6 plus  K – 12 vocal music.  In 1999 they moved to Severna Park, MD, where they have lived ever since.

That was a lot of activity out in the “real world.”  What about the Congregational Summer Assembly – our real world?  In the mid-40’s Dr. Stimson and Dr. John Lukens were both Presbyterian ministers in Cincinnati and were friends.  The Stimsons had vacationed in the Charlevoix area but were looking for a summer location more suited to the children.  Dr. Lukens had told Dr. Stimson many times how great the CSA was.  As Ruthie Lukens tells it, one summer morning in 1946 she and her parents were sitting at the table in the cottage, when all of a sudden they heard loud steps clumping across the porch, and a huge booming voice saying, “We’re here!”  Needless to say, her parents were panic stricken, especially her mother, thinking he meant “We’re here – to stay – with you”– in their small cottage!  Actually the Stimsons had rented a cottage – and beautiful Crystal Lake plus the atmosphere at the Assembly immediately captured them.  The next year they rented one of the Steele cottages and were “July people” for several summers before buying the last lot available on the east side of M-22.  In following summers they sort of camped out in the very basic structure that was erected while Dr. Stimson completed much of the work himself.

That began the real involvement in CSA activities – in operettas, Stunt Nights, and plays: “Cinderella,” “Ojibway Legend,” “Smokey Mountain,” “The Night of January 16^th.”  Marilyn worked as a waitress in the Dining Hall and, after it closed, at the Crystal View when it served sit-down meals.  She also worked as Mr. Pope’s assistant in the Post Office.

During her college years she helped Emilie Williams with “Hiawatha,” teaching the children the music; and with the Monday night children’s dancing – subbing for Emilie at the piano on occasion.  She started singing in the CSA Choir at age 11 and sang many offertory solos and duets over the years.  After her marriage she and Brian also did recitals for the Assembly community as their daughters were to do later.  She worked on children’s operetta costumes for several years, then took on the Music Director’s role with Pandora in 1986.   For many years she either sang a major role, did the conducting or was the musical director of the adult operettas: “The Gondoliers,” “ Brigadoon,” “Flower Drum Song,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “ Oliver” (in which, as the undertaker’s wife, she fell into the coffin!).  Marilyn has always been one to take her work very seriously and herself very lightly which is a wonderful pairing of qualities – so no one who saw “Road to Dunsinane” can ever forget her “heroic soprano” presentation of Lady MacBeth in gold breastplate and horned helmet.  Recently, in what she calls her “post ingénue period,” she played the wonderfully comic role of Sister Mary Regina, the Mother Superior, in both presentations of “Nunsense.”

While she has been the Music Director of many adult operettas, her first love has been being Music Director of the children’s operettas which she has continued to do since 1986.  For the last 25 years you have been able to find her every day during the 2 weeks before the show, working not only with the whole cast but with individuals and small groups – giving the equivalent of hundreds of mini private voice lessons – encouraging the timid, calming the anxious,  developing the abilities and the self esteem of the novices.  It has been a wonderful gift to all of us and to all of our children.  What the casual observer might describe as a form of masochism Marilyn describes as “just fun.”  In her words “It’s just fun to help people do things they never thought they could do.” And in recent years she has also started writing new songs to add to the shows.

But Marilyn has always had a deep feeling of responsibility for the non-musical side of the Assembly – those tasks that keep things running and that both reflect and direct the way our values and mission are carried out day by day as a community.  She was on the Youth Committee for several years and was instrumental in first providing a Staff Dinner in thanks and appreciation for their work.  During the years of the big teen dances she sacrificed her hearing to act as a chaperone.  Marilyn served on the Board of Trustees and was Vice President of the Board.  She has been a member of the By-Laws Committee for many years.  And she provides a long institutional memory for the Membership Committee having served as a committee member, as the committee chairman, and now again as a member.  Even when she is in the midst of rehearsals she comes to the weekly meetings and is never at a loss for words.

So, Marilyn, your parents represented for you what the Assembly is about – but over the years you have represented for hundreds of young people what it means to serve the community you are part of with joy.  Your name has been engraved on the plaque at the back of the Meeting House and everyone can thank you personally after the service.

The Congregational Summer Assembly continues to be the place we love and want to return to year after year largely because this community in the woods between two beautiful lakes has so many wonderful people who volunteer their time and talent for the good of all of us.  The Citations Committee is privileged to learn about these contributions, to get to know more about these wonderful people and each year to let you know more about the one who receives the Citation for Long and Valued Service to the Assembly. 
We live in an era that seems to be consumed with instant transmission of information, with what is new or “just about to happen” seeming more valuable than what has already happened.  But in the lounge of the Community Building a lovely quilt hangs on the wall that was made as part of our Centennial celebration.  The centerpiece is a beautifully stitched picture of the Meeting House with ghostly figures in period dress going off in one direction while others in colorful modern dress are entering.  The words stitched on it read “They led the way…We follow still.”  The recipient of the Citation for 2012 is a man who personifies that centerpiece.   He is a true bridge between those who founded the Assembly and established the values of our community and those who follow still. 

Through the things he has done for us all and the way he has served as a role model, he illustrates in his own person an often elusive concept – “The Assembly Way” – HAL KNIGHT.
The Henry Hafner family came here in 1914 from Pilgrim Congregational Church in St. Louis;  fellow church member W.B. Knight brought his family soon after.  Hal Knight Sr. and Mariel Hafner courted during a summer at the CSA, married in St. Louis, and Hal Jr. was born there in 1920.  When he was 7 years old the family moved to suburban Webster Groves and except for college and military service in WWII he has lived there ever since – since 1954 in the house that he and his wife Nan built.
Hal graduated from Webster Groves High School and then, in 1942, graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  After a year working at Curtis Wright in St. Louis he volunteered for the draft, was recruited by the Navy, went through a 3 month training program at Annapolis,  emerged as an Ensign and was soon promoted to Lieutenant j.g.  During the rest of the war he served on the USS Weeden, a destroyer escort, in both the Atlantic and Pacific .  He was officially an engineering officer but he also was the volunteer chaplain for all faiths on board – Protestant, Catholic and Jewish - which tells you a great deal about him.  As a sign of his versatility, he was the ship recreation officer as well. 
After the war he returned to Webster Groves, joined the family business, W.B. Knight Machinery Company, and reconnected with high school friends.  One of them was Bill Coffman whose sister, Nan, was 3 years younger and therefore had been somewhat invisible to the older boys during high school.  She got her degree in Fine Arts from Washington University and in 1946 she and Hal met during a church fashion show when Nan modeled the wedding dress as “Bride of the Future” with Hal as her escort as “Groom of the Future.”  Serendipity!  They were married in real life in 1947 and enjoyed just short of 60 years together raising 3 children in Webster Groves and watching grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow.  He passed many of his own passions and values down the generations and had two very proud moments when he pinned his own Eagle Scout pin on his grandson Christopher and later when Christopher graduated from Annapolis.
During his childhood his family would come from St. Louis for two weeks at a time, spending many of the summers at the CSA in various rented cottages or at the Lodge.  Later his parents bought Peter Evans’s “Fernside” cottage on the South Shore Road – it was built in 1906, originally as a logger’s cabin, and is known as the first Assembly cottage with running water.  With his friends Hal took part in operettas, painted flats and built props. But he had been a Sea Scout during his Boy Scout days and sailing was the activity he loved most, especially challenging sailing on stormy days with his good friend Bob Moller.  There were times when Nan looked over Crystal Lake from their screened porch during a storm certain that she would be raising their three small children alone!  And he would return exhilarated and beaming.
The things he did for and with the Assembly have always been a combination of quiet, behind the scenes activities on behalf of others and leadership opportunities that were presented to him because of his obvious skills and talents but accepted by him because of his strong sense of responsibility and service.  He spent many years on the Budget Committee as a member and as the Chair.  He was also on the Endowment Committee, then he became a Trustee and was President of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Executive Committee in the mid-90’s.
We now think of the Education Fund and the scholarships it provides to both CSA and Benzie County high school students as always having been there – but Hal was involved from the beginning, working with Cynthia Marshall Hood  and others to create the fund.  He and Nan made no claim as to their golfing skills but they happily played in the annual CSA golf tournament to help build the fund and he recalls the great time he and Rudy Lambert had on Main Street in Frankfort soliciting the local storekeepers for prizes.  He enjoyed attending the awards ceremonies at the high schools to explain the Scholarship Fund.
Hal was an involved and regular participant in the long standing “Tuesday Men’s Group” and was always an ongoing presence in and around the Assembly.  He didn’t just use his skills as an engineer on his own cottage but regularly helped his many friends with work on their cottages. A volunteer activity that he especially enjoyed was acting as a tour guide at Point Betsie.  He particularly liked to stay up at the light where he enjoyed telling the story of the light to visitors.  A favorite Point Betsie memory is of the day he was standing on the balcony outside the light and found himself looking down at a spectacular V of geese.  Nan shared his work at Point Betsie and took the map that was made of all the wrecks known to be in the lake, coloring and framing it to hang in the lighthouse.
Anyone who lives on the South Shore could count on seeing Hal every morning, rain or shine, cold or warm, walking his dog – first “Charlie Brown” and later one of a succession of Scotties.  Together he and Nan would walk the beaches to Frankfort or to Point Betsie and beyond while she would find objects for use in her art projects, especially rocks (often large and heavy) and interesting driftwood (often large and awkward) for him to carry home.
He still lives in the 3 story house in Webster Groves, responding to the daily phone call from the church and then going out to visit old friends or others from the church who aren’t as healthy as he is and who can’t get out.  He’s taught himself to cook so when helpful friends bring him dinner he can return the favor by baking muffins for them. 
Hal lives his faith as a humble and modest man who has always led by example.  It would be hard to find someone who is a better bridge between the early years of the Congregational Summer Assembly and the present with his ability to quietly demonstrate for us all what we mean by the “Assembly Way.”  Hal, I’m privileged to present you with this Citation on behalf of the entire Assembly and your name has been inscribed on the plaque at the back of the Meeting House.
After the service Hal will be on the patio outside the Meeting House where you can greet him and thank him in person.



3

On Sunday, August 3rd we gave Anne Wilson Dupre the 2014 Citation for Long and Valued Service to the Assembly. Thank you Anne for exemplifying the spirit upon which the CSA was founded!

In 1913 Edgar and Lola Armstrong drove north from their home in Fenton, Michigan, because he had decided a cherry orchard would be a good thing to invest in. After several days they discovered the very young Congregational Summer Assembly, said “Let’s forget the cherry orchard!’’, and bought property here at what is now the corner of Edwards Avenue and Fairchild. Soon they built their cottage and named it “Woodway.” Succeeding generations of the Armstrong family, including Maurice and Daphne in the 5th generation, have summered in that cottage and from the beginning there were usually three generations living together. (Anne’s cousin, Nancy Clapp Martinez, recalls sleeping in the attic with Anne, listening to the adults as they sat around the fire below.) Anne’s mother, Margaret Starr Willson Leutheuser, is 101 now and was here every summer of her life until traveling became too arduous.
Anne grew up in Philadelphia and during her teens took part in a program developed by the Quakers that helped young people learn how to volunteer effectively. As we will see, in Anne’s case this program was extraordinarily effective.
After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at Brown she went to Harvard where she was administrative head of the honors program for government and economics. The head tutor for government was the close friend of a brilliant young Canadian with a Ph.D. in government and economics named Stefan Dupre. The friend called Steve and said “Wait till you meet Miss Willson - you’re really going to like her!" He did. During their 50+ years of marriage they lived in Toronto and she devoted her intelligence, energy, and knowledge of how to volunteer effectively to community initiatives that seek to improve the quality of life of children, especially with regard to mental health concerns. In pursuit of those goals she has chaired countless major boards and committees in Toronto and Ontario, often as the first woman in that capacity, and she has a long history of association with important mental health projects. For twenty years she has been a strong voice for ethics in medical agencies, hospitals, and mental health centers. The range and the depth of her volunteer activities in Toronto is quite extraordinary and she has been recognized with the Ontario Volunteer Award, the Junior League of Toronto Award of Excellence, and the Frederick G. Gardiner Award, Metropolitan Toronto Citizen of the Year.
Anne has always worked very hard during the year and would arrive at Woodway with the feeling that many of us have: "At last! Let me just sit - take a long walk - see my friends.” But she also recalled the wonderful days of her childhood here when she and her friends were free to wander the woods and beaches and felt nurtured by the community. Because she values this community she has always volunteered her knowledge and her time to support the CSA and help maintain that sense of safe freedom she experienced growing up here. She has served as a Trustee and on the Nominations Committee to find new Trustees; she was first a member and then chair of the Research and Resources Committee and a member of the Budget Committee. For thirteen years Anne was on the Membership Committee, for 3 years as its chair, and during that time she was also on an ad hoc Voting Rights Committee established by the board. She was on the Long Range Planning Committee and - as the CSA started its slow move into the 21st century - she served on the Computer Committee. For the last several years Anne has been on the By-Laws Committee where her broad and deep knowledge always helps to clarify the issues. She clearly knows more about the things under discussion than most committee members but always manages to make you feel that, of course, you knew that all along. Somehow things seem to go on more smoothly after her input. She may have wanted to just sit and relax - and she is quick to say that she does do that - but she has continued to stay actively involved. And she has pulled her share of garlic mustard! As we have passed the halfway point in the summer season of 2014 and can see the signs that our Brigadoon will be disappearing into the mists again we are thankful for the insights and sense of order imparted by Anne over the years that give us confidence that next year, when we are ready, the doors of the CSA will open for us. Thank you, Anne, for your service to the Congregational Summer Assembly. Your name has been engraved on the plaque at the back of the Meeting House. Everyone is invited to greet Anne and thank her in person at the end of the service.