Theodore Eggan

As we go through life we acknowledge and rejoice in the sovereignty of God. But it is usually when we look back after an event or after the passage of time that we are best able to glimpse just how the hand of God moved and directed, marvel at how God allowed danger and preserved life, and understand the people and events God used to shape a life. I will share little stories about my Dad that illustrate all of these.

Dad was born in Seattle, Washington, on January 4, 1925, the 8th of nine children. Nine siblings sharing four bedrooms was a tight squeeze. Being one of the youngest, Dad’s bedroom was literally the large closet in the bedroom of his two older brothers. Dad is survived by 2 older sisters, Virginia Stewart of Los Angeles and Marcia Rosellini of Seattle, Washington. His sister Virginia remembers how all the children were lined up at the front door on Sunday mornings before walking half a block to Woodland Park Presbyterian Church. After lining up, their father would give each child a penny to take to church for the offering. The children walked to church; the parents stayed home.

Dad loved ice cream. He learned, shall we say, an "enterprising" way to get more. Sometimes on Saturdays he and his friends would sneak uninvited into weddings just for the cake and ice cream at the reception.

Dad started a lifelong hobby of woodcarving around age 12. He carved figures, plaques and decorated anything that was wooden. He made them and gave them away. Childhood summers were spent bucking hay and other farm chores with his cousins on their farm in Jerome, Idaho.

When Dad was 16, he started working for the Strum Flooring Company at 70th and Aurora in Seattle. It was while he was working there he heard about summer camps. He was invited to be a counselor at Warm Beach Bible Camp by Mrs. Epperson. The job interview was one question: Are you saved? Dad replied, “Yes,” but he wasn’t. He didn’t even know what that meant. The first night at camp he heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said he just got up and went forward and knelt down. As Dad knelt, he listened in on a nearby conversation. An adult was talking with another camper about salvation in Jesus Christ and what that meant. Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Bible also says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” As Dad listened to that conversation, he understood what was being said and trusted Christ as Savior that very night. He said he didn’t know the lingo for praying so he just repeated the prayer the other camper prayed.

Did Christ make a difference in his life? Immediately. He had hated his father. You see, his father was an alcoholic and abusive to his wife. On numerous occasions Dad had to guide his father home because he was drunk. When dad became a Christian, his heart changed toward his father. His father died one year after Dad became a Christian. Dad later told my sister Kathy, “I had one year to love the man.” After becoming a Christian, Dad started attending Emmanuel Tabernacle across from Woodland Park in Seattle. He sang in the choir. A Mr. Smith took him under his wings and became my Dad’s first Christian mentor. Mr. Smith invited Dad to Sunday dinners and was always talking about scriptures. That was how Dad said he learned.

Dad was a reluctant sailor. He didn’t want to be in the Navy, but he was drafted in World War II just the same. He served as a radar man on the USS Cabot for nine campaigns from the Solomon Islands to Iwo Jima. He didn’t entertain us with many war stories. I know of only two:

He told a story about the day his ship was attacked by Japanese kamikazes. His area was damaged and he tried his escape route, but there was a very large redheaded sailor blocking his way and wouldn’t let him pass. The redheaded sailor told him to go a different way to avoid the danger and carnage. Dad later checked. There were no redheaded sailors on the USS Cabot. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Could it have been a redheaded angel sent to guide him to safety?

He told us how General Halsey didn’t believe the weather report and sailed directly into Typhoon Cobra. The waves were 70 feet high, and the wind was over 100 knots. Dad told me “sea water came down the stacks.” Most sailors were green with seasickness. Dad never got seasick. Not even a little bit. I imagine he had the entire dining room almost entirely to himself. No waiting in the ice cream line that night.

After the war Dad did what everyone else of his generation did when they were discharged from the Armed Services after the war. Dad came home and picked up where he left off. He didn’t talk about the war much. That doesn’t mean the war didn’t affect him. I’m sure it did. Being in a war one sees firsthand the suffering and dying, and man’s cruelty to friends as well as to foes. That has to change a person. Talking about the war to us was almost out-of-bounds for conversation.

He enrolled in Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada. While attending the Prairie Bible Institute, he met another student June Cheraz, from Glendale, California. They were married, and that’s when Dad moved to California and stayed for over 55 years.

In 1964, Ted, June, and by now their six children, settled near El Dorado, California. He was employed at Aerojet General Corporation as an inspector in the “Solids” unit until his retirement. Leaving retirement he worked for more than 10 years at Walmart as a greeter, retiring again at age 86.

My sisters shared a couple of childhood memories about Dad. Ruth remembers how Dad would polish all our dress shoes every Saturday evening. On Sunday morning we would collect our shoes for church from the line of newly polished shoes. Linda remembers getting to stop for ice cream on the way home from school every Friday. Guess who was the one picking the children up from school? How many times have I mentioned ice cream so far?

Dad went to heaven two months after his 89th birthday. The time of death was between 4 and 5 am. Interestingly, as my sister, Ruth, recalled, that was the time Dad normally was up reading scripture and praying before going to work at Aerojet all those years. That was his regular hour to meet with God, and it looks like he did again that day—in person.

Reflecting on the life of Ted Eggan, can we learn some positive lessons from his life? Absolutely! So, what lessons can we learn from Dad’s life and example, uh, besides not to put one’s elbows on the table? Just as Dad polished our shoes for us every Saturday night, his example can teach us to polish our own sermons in shoes. I thought of three positive lessons I could learn from my Dad’s life the first day I started reflecting on his life. There are more, I’m sure, but I’ll share the first three I thought of:

1. Work ethic. Dad was always a hard worker. Even when he moved to Washington and transferred to the Walmart there when he was in his 80’s, his work ethic made him do above and beyond the required job. This, he informed me, was how he insured himself job security. He made himself indispensable. First one in; last one to leave; do more; help others.

2. Faithfulness. He went to work every day. He rarely took a sick day. And I’m sure he never heard of taking a “me” day to do whatever he wanted for his self-esteem. When we were young, we got a milk cow that Dad had to milk twice a day, once in the mornings and once in the evenings, even though he was already getting up early to get ready for work, eat breakfast, read the Bible and pray before leaving for work at 6 a.m. He never complained about his workload. He just shouldered another responsibility. He stayed married, never said anything unpleasant about his wife and never raised his voice to her.

3. He did not return evil for evil. When he was slandered, he didn’t slander. When he was mistreated, he didn’t retaliate. When he was cheated on a deal, he didn’t try to get even. He put other people first, except maybe teasingly, like in the ice cream line.

Where do you think all these character traits came from? He didn’t learn them at home while he was growing up. No. His life was changed forever that first night at Bible camp. God changed his heart, and the evidence of that inward change worked itself out in his life by his behavior and attitudes. Dad’s behavior was evidence of the Spirit of God in his life. Evidence of the Spirit is described so well for us in Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.”

Now is a good time for us to pause and reflect not just on Dad’s life but also on our own. Remember how I said Dad used to polish our shoes? In a way, he can still help us shine our shoes. What do I mean by that? Have you heard the term "sermons in shoes"? By his example, Dad taught us ways in which we can walk more polished in our Christian lives. And remember, it was his constant connection to God through Bible reading and prayer that kept him focused on what was right when the going got tough. We may stumble a little here and there on our journey through life, but I hope, through grace, we, too, can walk well enough to make an impact for the Lord now and leave a Christian legacy for future generations.