Fortier Class 1955 Classmate Memory Book
Update 8/8/2014
Stock, Jr., Edwin (Ed)
1) Name of Classmate: Stock ,Jr., Edwin (Ed) Witte . Married: Anne Munch Thomas, August 31, 2013; Previously married to Martha Dale Johnston for 50 years, now deceased, . Reside in Poulsbo, WA and Cary, NC.
2) Further
Educational accomplishments: BA
Rhodes College, MDiv Union Theological Seminary of Va., STM Yale University
Divinity School, Doctor of Ministry Louisville Theological Seminary.
3) Family
history: I have two children, five grand children,one
great grand -daughter. My son Ed III, Memphis,TN, has four children and one
grand daughter: The first is Amanda who has a child Madison, and the other
children are Evan, Sloane, and Shea. My daughter, Sarah Stock Mills, Austin,
TX, has a daughter Ella Grae Mills.
4) Achievements
and Occupational History: Most recently, I married
Anne Munch Thomas, class mate with whom I reconnected at the 55th Reunion,
exchanging coast to coast friendship emails for nearly three years, giving
support to her in her grief process after the recent death of husband, Charles
(Chuck) and she giving encouragement to me in my daily care-giving to my termially
ill wife, Martha Dale. We spoke by phone for the first time five weeks after
my wife's death.
Past: walk on in football at Rhodes College (formerly Southwestern At Memphis
College) lettered three years, lettered in track and field, Honor Council,
Moderator of the Assembly's Youth Council, Presbyterian Church, U.S; Omicron
Delta Kappa Society; at graduation recipient of The Algernon Sydney Sullivan
Award. At Union Theological Seminary, Student Council Officer; Ordained by
Presbytery of New Orleans, June, 1962; married Martha Dale Johnston, Okolona,
Ms., August, 1962 whom I met in graduate school in Richmond, VA an "Ole Miss"
majorette who swept me off my feet; utilized scholarship at Yale University
Divinity School with Martha Dale working in Divinity library and with me being
an instructor in Field Work for thirteen first year Divinity student, completed
dissertation. First pastorate was a two church field in St. Bernard Parish.
Ten days before Hurricane Betsy, I accepted position of Director of Church
Relations at alma mater, Rhodes College; Memphis, TN; pastorate at Buntyn
Presbyterian Church when in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated,
active in Civil Rights for Public School system, Superintendent's Advisory
Council; a week after King's murder marched with 200 clergy (Roman Catholic,
Protestant, Jewish) to mayor's office to present a petition to work for reconciliation
between black and white in Memphis and to resolve the sanitation strike by
workers with City of Memphis; overcame a period of burn-out and a bout of
bacterial endocarditis, entered the Doctor of Ministry program at Louisville
Presbyterian Seminary; accepted pastorate at Second Presbyterian, Lexington,
KY, earned DMin degree in 1979.( Chapter of dissertation was later published
in American Presbyterians, summer 1993), while in Lexington had privilege
of being a spotter at home football games for University of Kentucky; accepted
pastorate at First Presbyterian, Wichita Falls, TX. after terrible tornado
wiped out 20% of city, became President of Interfaith Disaster Response Committee
which channeled and coordinated relief monies, volunteers, over several years
to rebuild homes and to assist families; accepted pastorate at First Presbyterian,
Raleigh, NC where I served fourteen and a half years. The congregation engaged
in a $ 9 million campaign, and I was privileged to have had the 39 thousand
square foot facility named after me. After 40 and a half years in ministry
I was granted retirement by the Presbytery.
In retirement I worked for six years for Union Theological Seminary and the
Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Richmond, VA on its Development
staff to raise $56 Million for endowment, scholarships, and a new facility.
Over the years of my ministry I was privileged to have served as Moderator
of three Presbyteries, been a commissioner to three General Assemblies (the
highest governing body of the denomination), counselor at and/or director
of various youth camps and conferences. The yearly routine of preaching, teaching,
officiating at marriages, baptism, funerals, counseling, visiting in homes
and in hospitals, leading Bible studies, writing articles; multiplied by years
of service can only remind me that what I did was only by the grace of God
and divine strength in the midst of my vulnerabilities, and the patience and
good grace of an understanding wife and family.
5) Fortier
Reunions attended: The
25th, 50th, 55th and the anticipated 60th.
6) Other
personal comments: After
my burn-out and, later, a bout with bacterial endocarditis, I had to come
to terms with my mortality and realize that my body, mind, and spirit had
to be nurtured with rest and time off, and that I had to trust that I was
not in charge and that God certainly was.
After the death of Martha Dale, my marriage to Anne Munch Thomas has been
a rebirth of life, new and fresh, for both of us. Our previous long and healthy
marriages, for over fifty years, Anne to Chuck and me to Martha Dale, gave
us encouragement to marry for the second time. It is a wonderful journey together,
as we step into our futures each day, hand in hand. .