Mercedes Benz

Pat was a friend of mine while I was on staff at HQ. We spent a number of evenings together chatting over dinner and a glass of wine, perhaps one of her few indulgences as she was fanatical about staying in shape. She was a strong personality, but under that she had a great sense of humor and appreciated my sarcasm, which not everyone at HQ did.

I have thought of her a few hundred times through the years and am sorry to hear that she is gone. I will hold on to my memories of her in her little apartment in New Knoxville and the hours we spent talking over the state of things at HQ. She was someone who was in my life for a reason and I will never forget her.

Paw,

More thanks to you than words can express.

Loved her music and her spirit.

I'll miss her.

Kristin, Excathedra, I am so terribly sorry for the crimes committed against you.

Thank you for your courage.

You ladies are my heroines.

Wow, haven't seen her in years but have very fond memories.

I thought she got out in the late 80's - hope that's accurate.

My sincerest condolences, Likeaneagle.

Your brother is one of many of our country's sons to whom we owe a great deal of honor, respect and gratitude.

I'm so sorry for what he had to live through over there, and I'm also sorry that his nightmares followed him home. As a country. we didn't give the Nam vets their due. I can't help but believe that omission contributed somewhat to the hardships they faced in the years after.

Again, I'm so sorry. You and your family are in my prayers.

So sad....so sorry.

March 26, 2007

Remembering Ellen

Posted by Brian Montopoli

Over the weekend, Ellen Crean, one of the nicest and most thoughtful people I've ever met, passed away. Below you'll find a tribute from her colleagues Mary Jayne McKay and Carol Kopp.

Today we are mourning the loss of a colleague: Ellen Crean, a writer, producer and founding member of the CBSNews.com team.

During those nine years at CBS, Ellen did almost every job in the newsroom, streaming video, writing news reports and features, producing photo essays and interactives, and working with TV producers, especially those on The Early Show, to get their reports online. She also was on the team that created CBSNews' TheShowBuzz.com.

Among her contributions were a commentary on some of the early seasons of "Survivor" and a number of entertainment feature pieces.

An Internet pioneer, Ellen had been providing news and features to computer users since the late 1980s. She was producer of entertainment news and features, and later manager of entertainment news, for Prodigy, an early online news service. She started her career as a newspaper reporter at Gannett Co. in Westchester, a suburb of New York City, and worked on several newspapers and magazines in Westchester before turning her talents to the Internet.

In our newsroom, Ellen was known for her intelligence, curiosity, her love of good writing and good entertainment, her clever headlines, her keen eye for typos and spelling errors, and her devotion to her large family.

She was a kind and generous colleague, with a strong sense of fun and a giant laugh that resounded through our studio.

Ellen died unexpectedly at her home in Larchmont, N.Y., on Sunday. She leaves a mother, six brothers and sisters, six nieces and four nephews.

She will be much missed.

Ellen Crean, longtime believer and a woman of many rare and special gifts, passed away unexpectedly Sunday morning at her home in Larchmont, NY. She was 51.

Some of you may have known her from here at Greasespot where she posted occasionally. I am lucky to have known Ellen for nearly 30 years. As it happens, we lost touch at times, but Ellen was wonderful in that she always "found" me before too much time passed. I am happy to say she was good enough to hunt me down before the holidays and we had been enjoying a nice reunion ever since.

Ellen was a wonderful writer, a great wit and an unparalleled conversationalist. Most recently she worked for CBS news. Here is a link to a tribute written by one of her colleagues.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/publiceye/main500486.shtml

Sweet sleep, my sister. You touched my life and will be forever in my heart. Thank you for all your gifts to me - especially the ones you gave me most recently. I will see you in the sky.

Thank you for your beautiful tribute to your Mom. One can see plainly that she was a wonderful woman. One can also see that you were a loving and devoted son.

I look forward to meeting you both one day.

Your family is in my prayers.

What sad news. I met Ginger when I stayed in her RV one Corps week and ROA. We kept in touch for a while after that and occasionally saw each other at ministry events. I remember her as a kind, generous woman who took everybody seriously - even if they were "younger in the Word" or didn't have the highest ministry credentials. I guess what I mean to say is she treated people with respect.

I didn't know she was ill and I'm terribly sorry that she had to endure such pain.

Though her time was too brief, she made a difference in the world. She will be missed.

Worked my tail off one summer at Gunnison while in residence during Family Camps. I can remember ironing sheets until all hours of the night. They were pretty fanatical about every aspect of those camps to ensure that the campers had a top notch experience. In some ways the level of detail that went into the various areas of those camps surpassed the ROA. I always hoped to be on the camper side someday to see how it felt but I checked out of the ministry before I ever went.

I met him when I was in high school. He was my best friends uncle. I can't say I really "knew" him but I certainly was impressed by his work through the years, especially his starring role in the movie "Joe" for which he was nominated for an Oscar.

I'm sorry to hear this and my prayers are with his family. The ones I knew were wonderful people.

Sadly, my old friend pre-deceased him. She never made it to her 40's.

Just bringing this up to the top in case anyone knows anything about her.

He was a huge factor in my leaving TWI.

That decision moved me to make subsequent decisions which have led me to a wonderful life. However, I am not giving him credit for anything other than the above. The rest was God's doing.

Yeah, there was the pond out back where the swans lived. Many Corps weddings were performed there.

I remember raking leaves on the grass out front and shoveling snow on the circle drive at odd hours of the morning. I made some great friends working on the Grounds crew.

Reading this article was creepy for me - and also sad. I went here with a heart full of love for God. I left there knowing the ministry was a mess and that I would never be back.

Erv and his wife Lynda live near Westminister, Maryland. I believe his parents still live there as well. They have two kids and last I heard were doing well. I don't have an email address but I bet you could find their phone number without too much trouble.

Erv and Lynda are wonderful people. I have many great memories with each of them.

Left staff in '87 and faded into the sunset in NY. By then I'd seen enough to leave and never look back.

Anybody remember a band called "Selah" that sold their tapes/records at the ROA? It's been a long time, so possibly I'm confusing things - maybe this was the album's name instead of the band's.

My WOW family coordinator had it and I used to listen to it quite often. I would love to get a copy of it.

I am very sad to hear this.

Milford was a kind and gentle man.

Betty was a loving and devoted wife.

They are part of my "good memories" collection from HQ.

My love and prayers are with the Bowen family.

I was involved in a dispute with several other people who were likewise sentenced to Gunnison. (You might imagine how such a thing could easily arise given 14 hour work days, complete exhaustion and an environment electrified with fear.) It was sort of a group disagreement. Arlene (Mrs. TJ) had spoken with me and the other's involved individually earlier in the day and asked for some specific details. When I met with her I told her things which happened to be extremely relevant to solving the situation. She said that Tom should meet with all parties involved at once, and during said meeting, I should repeat what I had told her and everything should be easily resolved.

Well, at the beginning of the meeting Arlene told TJ that she had met with all of us one on one and then she asked me to speak. I barely got 2 words out of my mouth before TJ began foaming at the mouth in my direction. He just started screaming - without having any handle on the problem. I then realized that he had no real desire to help anyone involved in this matter. I supose he thought that by screaming and ranting at us all he would enhance his own reputation as the "big man." I remember Arlene looking from TJ to me and once feebily trying to say something. Then she shut up and let him rip each of us apart. I felt pity for her but I also lost all respect for her that day.

He wanted to be a harda$$. He so wanted to be that slick leader that LCM was promoting. And he was ruthless in his ways. He seemed to think the way to 'train' corps was to annihilate them. I know several people that he systematically destroyed from the day they got to Gunnison. He wiped away their very dignity.

He was just a nasty little man.

Quoted from Excathedra:

"and i was doing something on my hands and knees with rocks, i believe, but i can't for the life of me remember what it was"

______________________________________________________________________

This really made me laugh! I too had to straighten those rocks which bordered all the gravel walkways - it was a daily job. My parents came out to Gunnison before the ROA and saw the Corps doing that - thats when they started believing that we were all being mistreated. My mother was convinced they ordered us do it just to see if we'd do anything they asked.

Yes, it was a beautiful place. But when TJ ran the joint, it was hell.

By the way, I had always heard that TWI purchased the property from a believer whose family had owned the land for many years. I also heard that they sold it to TWI for a fraction of what it was really worth, since they were , after all believers. God I really hope that wasn't true.

I left when I realized that the person I had been when I first went to a twig fellowship in the late 70's would no longer be welcome in The Way of LCM. That the Twig people who had overlooked my pot smoking, unorthodox lifestyle and embraced me, helped me to heal, would have gotten in trouble with their branch cordinator for allowing me through the front door. When it was no longer okay for me to refer to VPW as "Vic" in front of my Twig coordinator. I can remember the moment when I realized that the person I once had been would no longer have been viewed by Way people as "God's masterpiece" with a little baggage, but rather someone worthly of ridiculing on a Sunday night tape. Someone to distain.

I left when I no longer saw the love.

While on staff at HQ the year after the POP hit, I had occasion to speak with two people, specifically wives of the BOT - who told me they were involved in the voting process which included all the BOT and their wives. Also included were wives of deceased "early" Way members. They said there were several people nominated and that they discussed the merits of each as a group. The names I heard mentioned were Walter, Ralph, LCM, John Lynn and Vince.

One wife told me point blank that she had voted for Ralph. She made it clear the vote was not unanimous in LCM's favor and that they had to take several votes to break ties. She said some felt Craig was too ambitious to be a safe choice. Apparently, his desire to be the hier apparent was obvious to some from his early days in the Corps.

Wow - seeing her name here made me smile. She was a great girl - no pretenses, just real. Last time I saw her was in 1990. She was married and living in Philly. Sorry, but I can't remember her married name.