by Keith R. Widder

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Dick’s faith in Jesus Christ shaped his entire life and shaped his relationships with other people. At the heart of Dick’s being was a desire to serve people around him. He was a testimony to James’s exhortation in his letter, chapter 2, verse 17: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” I will share some examples of how Dickie’s service to others (including me) influenced me although at the time I was usually unaware of it. I am 11 years younger. Growing up on a dairy farm the role of a big brother is quite different to a little brother. 

 

1. How to honor and serve our parents – without complaint

• he worked tirelessly in the barn & in the fields; after Ma & Pa became old, he returned home on weekends and on summer days to do tasks they needed to be done – an example for me to serve Ma & Pa after I left home and to serve Agnes’s parents many years later. 

 

2. How he looked after me

• he took me to Wheaton in fall & brought me home in spring in the Volkswagen bus        - built a built a room in their basement when I need a place to stay in order to attend UWM

• he taught me the importance of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior & how to begin that relationship

• he introduced me to a larger world than the farm by taking me along to Minnesota one summer to visit people he had worked with during a summer mission; I brought back a garter snake.

 

3. Modeled the importance of having good friends

• Christian friends

• non-Christian friends who knew right from wrong, didn’t get drunk or raise a ruckus

• Christian Youth Center was a good place to hang out

 

4. How to go to college when our parents had no money to pay for it

• I have no idea how he paid for Moody or UWM; but he worked hard & used his money wisely

• I saw him earn degrees at Moody, 2 degrees at UWM, & a PhD at Marquette

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5. I admired him for the way he loved Nancy and their children – Bonnie, Kerry, Suzy & Wendy

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6. I admired his fairness – he respected people whose views he did not share. I don’t know who he voted for in the 1992 election, but I doubt it was Bill Clinton. But when we were talking about the upcoming vote, Dick offered a thoughtful insight: “Clinton offers hope for people who have little of it.”

 

7. He was fun to be around and do things with

• Good Friday sucker fishing, when I was probably 8 or 9; we went to Martin’s Den which is where the Pigeon River runs into Lake Michigan – a long walk down a steep hill – standing in water (wearing hip boots) – he caught the limit 50 suckers – each fish he caught he threw on shore where I put it in a burlap bag – Dickie then had to carry that bag of fish up the hill and back to the truck. Our dad spent his afternoon cleaning the fish.

 

8. Having Dick as a brother, especially an oldest brother, was a gift from the Lord.

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