Name the CO's you can recall..... favorites? (page 14)

HappyDad

Whoa guys..................look at what I just found.

In my reply to this topic, I stated that Harry Mitani was one of the best CO's that I knew. So now I Googled his name and this is what came up...

deseretnews.com

Deseret News, Sunday, February 22, 2004

Obituary: Michi K. Mitani

1925 ~ 2004

Michi K. Mitani, 79, passed away on February 13, 2004.

She was born in Salt Lake City on January 25, 1925 to Momojiro and Yone Kobayashi and raised in Rexburg, ID and Turlock, CA. She attended the Porter Grammar School in Alameda, CA and graduated from Amache High School in Amache, CO. She also attended BYU and UC of Berkeley.

On June 5, 1949, she married Harry Mitani. They owned and operated The Neat Cleaners dry cleaning shop at 1115 S. 900 E.

On May 3, 1953 she, along with her husband, dedicated her life to her God, Jehovah. From 1963 on, she served with her husband in many full-time missionary assignments. She served in Salt Lake City, Provo and Price, Utah. Also in the states of Iowa, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Hawaii and California. Up until the time her health deteriorated, it was her goal to help as many people as possible learn the wonderful truths in the Bible. She touched the lives of many and will be missed.

All of us look forward to the time when Jehovah God will awaken her from death in a paradise earth (Acts 24:15) and she will have her health restored.

She is survived by her husband Harry, Salt Lake City; daughter Kathleen (Ronald) Blanton, Marietta, GA; son Jeffrey (Jocelyn) Mitani, Salt Lake City; granddaughter Tiffany Blanton. Also, survived by many spiritual brothers, sisters and children.

Her family gratefully thanks the many friends who were there during their time of need. Also, the Woodland Park Care Facility and Utah Heritage Hospice for their wonderful care.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2:00 p.m. at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 2240 S. 600 E. Friends and family may meet after the service at Byde-A-Wyle Hacienda Clubhouse, 3500 S. 1151 W.

In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to either Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mill Creek Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Geesh.........his wife Michi was as genuine a person as he was. Sorry to hear about her passing, but it is something we all are going to do......some day.

I think what made them special was the fact that they raised a family and knew what life was about. They never had an iota of arrogance and were as understanding as you could imagine. The religion is full of faults and crap, but there are and were some of the adherents who really showed Christian love. The Mitani's were a family like this! They were assigned to our circuit in 1980. Did anyone else know them?

HappyDad

hillary_step

Propolog,

Why the fascination with these men? I posted here also. It shows how much influence they had on our lives? And why do some of us still refer to them as Brother. Is this nostalgia? I feel sorry for them AND us.

It is not fascination I don't think, more a sense of connection with a common past that we all had. The use of the term 'Brother' just proves that old habits die hard, harder than most CO's it seems. I would not take the thread too seriously.

HS

AudeSapere

El Kabong wrote: The names are getting harder to remember since it was so long ago, but I remember the following names. Bro. Langley, kind of a "meh" speaker from what I remember. Bro. Athelete (or something like that) Block. If I remember correctly, he was a very good speaker, and always threw in little jokes. I kind of enjoyed having him as a Circuit Servant. Bro Pellecia (sp?). Good speaker, very friendly to the rank and file witnesses. Had a VERY German wife. Seemed like nice people. Then there was the others, who's names I can't recall, but they were kind of assholes.

We must have been in the same NJ circuit in the 70's.

I was just about to post the few names I remember without straining my brain:

Langley 1969-1971 ish

Athley Block 1972-1973 ish He would tell little joke at the beginning of his visit... Made mention of his unusual name and said he considered changing it. But Athley SMITH didn't sound much better to him!

Jim and Renate Pellachia They would stay with us for 3 weeks at a time, twice a year. Renate would cook for us on Monday's. As I recall, they were called out of circuit because Brooklyn wanted her computer skills.

Weidner

Sekella (pioneer school 1985)

That's all I really remember. Many of the names on this thread are familiar but that could be from District Conventions, etc.

-Aude.

ValiantBoy

Awww..James Simcox..did not know him until he left the circuit work. His wife had dies and he married a local pio sister. She is a genuinely kind person. I alway s wondered why she married him; he was such a jerk. Our newly built KH had a fleur-de-leis patter wallpaper trim. He said it was a symbol of French Catholicism and we had to redo it. Also when he met up with a black person in field service that said they were Baptist, he would ask them if they were aware that their church supported slavery.

abbagail

Hey Dagney... you wrote:

Best ever was Dave Thomas and his "color me beautiful wife" Trujean. Still around serving as an elder in Malibu last I heard. They should get some of his DNA and clone him, a truly fine brother.

---------------------

That's great, Dagney. I was hoping to hear someone else mention Dave and what they are up to; and thanks for reminding me of his wife's name, yes, Trujean. They were a riot together. I think I still have a wallet-size picture/portrait of them they gave me in my old "JW Years" box. She had had health problems in previous years and when they were our DO [late 1980s], they told me she had seen a Dr. Benesch (sp?) out in S. Cal who was a "Natural Hygiene doc" and I had just done a long-term fast for health reasons (after learning about "Natural Hygiene" myself), so we talked about that a lot. Because Natural Hygiene also teaches (or it used to) that blood transfusions are, by nature, biologically unhealthy, she had given me a very old copy of Dr. Herbert Shelton's newsletter which discussed blood transfusions from a Natural Hygiene perspective. I was thrilled at the time since Shelton was considered the "father of 20th century Natural Hygiene."

Hawaii would be the perfect place for them... seems right up their alley. And I agree about his DNA... lol... I mentioned just about the same thing back on page 2... in case you missed it... I would say the word "grace" just about sums him up... when they came by for lunch one day and I was just moving into a 3rd story apt (stairs, no elevators), they spent half of their lunch hour lugging up my boxes from my car. I didn't ask either... Dave just "took over" and started carrying boxes up 3 flights of stairs... even Trujean helped. I thought that was so nice. (In other words, they weren't so snooty as to think such things were "below" them).

From page 2...
[...]
Dave Thomas & his "Color Me Beautiful" Wife (I forget her name, too, but she was into the correct colors for women and their skin-tone thing, which I had been, too, so we hit it off on that subject. ;-)
[...]
And Dave Thomas was tall and handsome and nice as pie. I got to work with he and his wife for two DC's in the Admin. office when the WT held the DC's here for two years in a row...
[...]

But sad to hear he's still an elder... that means they have not "woken up" to the WT yet... yet somehow I think they COULD if someone would just put the evidence in front of them...
Glad to hear they are still alive... that means there's still time and still hope...

/abbagail

PS: I also saw several people mention Milikin -- not sure if that is the same as Hollis Miliken who we had as CO down here in Central FL in the 1980s. He was nice, too.

blondie

It always seemed to me that the COs and DOs became more company men by the 1980's. Remember when they were originally said to be "only another elder." The elders used to be so frightened of the CO visit before then and the COs used to parade the failings of the elders before the congregation on Saturday night.

Who remembers (some names I have gathered from others)

Eberlines (their story about losing their child to SIDS is in the Awake)

"Holler" Collar and his sister who was schizophrenic (only CO who really understood mental illness with compassion)

Bud and Winnie Lyman who came into the "truth" as adults who made it his mission to know every child's name in the circuit

Don and Karen Breaux, very young when they started (late 20's), unfortunately they are divorced now and she still struggles with some form of mental illness

There are those who go into the "work" after their kids are grown and while having been elders for years are not prepared for the emotional ping pong they become between the elders and the WTS and DO. You watch them get sadder, quieter, and grayer and they finally escape by going home to look after aging parents. Then there are the ones that leave Bethel to marry, special pioneer for awhile and get into the "work" and use their "authority" to chastise and chase out elders who could be their grandfathers.

Blondie

I mentioned Jerry Griffiths in one of my first posts on this thread and couldn't remember his wife's name. It was Lana.

Name the CO's you can recall..... favorites?

HappyDad

hillary_step

AudeSapere

ValiantBoy

abbagail

blondie

Wasanelder Once

Wasanelder Once

peggy

Mulan

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