Bishop Desmond Tutu’s visit to Cove remembered – Yahoo News

Jan. 4COVE A leather fisherman's cap worn by Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu saved the day for a party he was traveling with on Interstate 84 in Baker County four decades ago.

The South African was riding in a car with Rustin Kimsey, then the bishop of the Eastern Oregon Diocese of the Episcopalian Church, and his wife, Gretchen, on a hot August day in 1983. The three had left the Ascension School Camp in Cove a half hour earlier. They were bound for the airport in Boise, where they were supposed to pick up Tutu's daughter, M'Pho, before returning to Cove where Tutu was making presentations during a week-long conference.

The trip to Boise was going well until the car overheated because of a malfunctioning radiator. The vehicle was stranded on the side of Interstate 84 and the situation looked bleak before Tutu spotted a drainage ditch below the road.

"Undaunted by the steepness and while wearing his leather fisherman's cap, he scampered down the ravine, dipped his hat into the drain ditch and brought enough water to our overheated radiator to cool it. Soon we were on our way again," Gretchen Kimsey said.

The three, after a stop in Baker City for repair work, made it to Boise to pick up Tutu's daughter and soon returned to Cove.

Gretchen Kimsey has fond memories of that day and of Tutu. Kimsey's husband, Rustin, had become a good friend of Tutu's after getting to know him at international meetings of Episcopalian church leaders. Tutu, who had just attended a meeting of the World Council of Churches in Vancouver, B.C., had come to Cove to speak at the Ascension School Camp at Rustin Kimsey's invitation.

'He spoke to the heart'

The Kimseys were among about 70 people who attended the 1983 conference Tutu spoke at. Tutu, who died Dec. 26, 2021, at the age of 90, was well known but not yet in the international spotlight in 1983.

He was a year away from being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent opposition to apartheid in South Africa. Tutu, on the verge of major celebrity status, was able to move about freely in Northeastern Oregon.

Story continues

"He was not well known yet. I think it was fun for him to be anonymous," Gretchen Kimsey, who lives in The Dalles, said.

Kimsey marveled at Tutu's ability to connect and communicate with people using plainspoken brilliance at the conference in Cove.

"He never spoke in complex terms. He spoke straight to the heart," she said.

Kimsey was also struck by Tutu's sense of humor, which he displayed during his visit to Northeastern Oregon and throughout his life.

"He brought laughter to a lot of people's lives, and we all know how healing laughter can be," she said.

Kimsey said her husband shared Tutu's sense of humor.

"That is what drew them together," she said.

A great spirit

Jim Hayes, of Joseph, then an eighth grader, was among the younger people who attended the 1983 conference at the Ascension Camp in Cove. Hayes said he was struck by the sense of happiness Tutu exuded.

"He was joyful, a great person," he said.

The Wallowa County resident grew more impressed with Tutu following the conference when he learned what he had endured while fighting apartheid in South Africa.

"I didn't understand how, after what he had gone through, he could have such great spirit," Hayes said.

The Rev. Churchill G. Pinder, of the Episcopal Church, who then lived in Baker City, was impressed with stories Tutu shared of his life in a close-knit setting.

"We all had the privilege of sitting at the feet of Desmond as he shared his experiences with the struggles in South Africa as well as his journey of faith," he said. "I clearly remember him describing his experiences of being very sick as a young child in a hospital and the impression he had when an Anglican priest came and visited him and prayed with him. Desmond shouted with glee, 'For me. What a wonder God's love is.'"

Pinder said the magnitude of the experience is hard to put into words.

"How can I explain the wonder of enjoying all the activities of Family Camp including playing softball, singing around the campfire, and eating meals with Desmond Tutu and his family and many of the members of the Diocese of Eastern Oregon," he said.

Pinder was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church at the Ascension School Camp during a ceremony conducted by Tutu and Rustin Kimsey.

Sarah Moore, a former reporter for The Observer, who attended the conference, said that Tutu was always accessible.

"It was such an intimate setting. Everyone had access to a famous person. He was always willing to sit down and talk at meals and outside," said Moore, who now lives in Orcas Island, Washington, with her husband, David, who was the rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in La Grande 40 years ago.

Moore said Tutu accepted the invitation to come to Cove because he knew Rustin Kimsey so well.

"His friendship with Rustin Kimsey is what made it happen," she said.

Rustin Kimsey died in 2015, and Tutu was among those who attended his service in The Dalles. Tutu came unannounced, Gretchen Kimsey said, because he did not want to take away attention from his friend.

"We were so happy to see him," Gretchen Kimsey said. "It was such a wonderful gesture."

Read more from the original source:

Bishop Desmond Tutu's visit to Cove remembered - Yahoo News