A true Le Mars original

When I began working at the Sentinel nearly 12 years ago, I was, in many ways, a fish out of water. I moved my family to a new and larger community, took on a faster paced, higher pressure job and things had definitely changed.

I'm not a big fan of change, but it is one of the few constants in life. I have found that it is much better to embrace change, because it will happen with or without you.

One of the many friendships that I have formed in my time here was with George Jennings, who passed away this week at the age of 95. George wrote for the Sentinel for years, bringing his unique perspective on the world and religion to our readers.

I often told him that he has forgotten more in his life than I will probably learn. George had a unique perspective on life. He was an ordained Baptist minister as well as a cultural anthropologist. He and his late wife, June, travelled extensively in the Middle East and the Southwestern United States. They studied native tribes in Iran, Iraq and America.

Author of numerous books on the Middle East, many of which are still used by missionaries studying the region before travelling there to serve, Jennings was considered an expert on the region.

But to me, he was a dapper, articulate and above all cheerful breath of fresh air. For years, there was a chair in the newsroom for George. Every afternoon between 3 and 4, he would stop in to see how everyone was doing. His warm, effortless smile and calming presence would instantly remove the stress from the room.

He would read the paper and share observations about the headlines, give some historical perspective and more often than not laugh out loud at the editorial cartoon on the opinion page. He greatly admired editorial cartoonists and their gift of making a pointed observation with a few words and some drawings.

George became a sort of surrogate grandfather to me, and I imagine many others. He and June did not have any children, but they influenced countless thousands of children and young adults.

George spent many years in Minneapolis, teaching and serving as pastor. When my oldest daughter, Lindsay, decided to attend college in downtown Minneapolis, with a few landmarks identified, George could tell me exactly where she was going to school, as well as several personal anecdotes about the neighborhood.

The school that Lindsay attended was across the street from the downtown YMCA, where George had played handball as a young man. We went through the building to get to the skywalk system and it was comforting to know that George had been in that very building.

George was 83 when I met him and I never ceased to be amazed at his vigor, curiosity, sense of humor and kindness. His columns were extremely intellectual, but he was as approachable and as common as a comfortable shoe. He constantly challenged himself, learning new technology at a time in life when many simply give up on learning.

I spent several evenings with George working on his computer. He would get to a point where something would go wrong and call me, upset that the machine had gotten the best of him. Most things we were able to fix quickly, and I enjoyed this time immensely.

Shortly after I began at the Sentinel, George invited me to a Thanksgiving luncheon that he hosted for area ministers and other members of the community. It was a gesture of kindness that I will always remember.

George once told me that in all of the areas of the world he had studied, no matter what language the people spoke, no matter what their traditions, the easiest way to set everyone at ease was to do one simple thing: smile. It immediately sets everyone at ease.

That's the lasting lesson of George Jennings. If we all did that one simple thing, the world would be a better place.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.