Wesley J. Fuerst, 1930-2007

A Memorial Minute

Ralph W. Klein, Christ Seminary-Seminex Professor of Old Testament

Wesley Fuerst was a pillar on the LSTC faculty from the beginning until his retirement in 1998. He came to LSTC after teaching in Argentina and at Central Seminary in Fremont, Nebraska, and after earning a Ph. D. from Princeton Seminary.

He was a big man on campus, both literally and figuratively. He served as Dean at LSTC during the early years when LSTC took shape during times of societal unrest and deep financial disappointment. When the LSTC president became incapacitated he served in some ways as de facto president. He was an important broker in the three-way support for Christ Seminary-Seminex offered by St. Louis University, Eden Seminary, and LSTC. For its first years the Seminex degrees were issued by LSTC and under its accreditation. In later years he served as Director of Graduate Studies, and, as with both his predecessors and successors, he was a passionate and sympathetic advocate for international students.

Above all Wesley was a beloved teacher, both in English and in Spanish. His favorite subject was Wisdom literature, which he taught as himself a sage. His publications were relatively few but significant, chapters in Our Naming of God (published by the LSTC faculty), and in Festschriften for the legendary Professor Arthur Voobus of LSTC and for Professor Carroll Stuhlmueller, a legend in his own right at CTU. He wrote short commentaries in the Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible on books like Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Lamentations, and the Shorter Books of the Apocrypha. He wrote: “Our reaction to these books [of the Megilloth] is confronted with the same test. We are asked also to weigh their messages against the whole of the traditions which we have received, as well as the whole of our faith. But we must also let them speak to us about their religious experiences, faiths, observations of the world and life and God, and their conclusions.”

Wesley embodied what it meant to be a colleague. About 1980 the LSTC faculty used its weekly colloquies to allow each faculty person to share their teaching styles, their hold on theology, their passions. It was called “the year of the colleague,” and Wesley must have suggested a dozen times in my hearing that it was time for another “Year of the Colleague.” Even when his thoughts on theology, the church, and secular politics were no longer the majority opinion at LSTC, one could count on Wesley to be there, to listen, and to respect the other.

Wesley was a person of the soil and the Nebraska farm and never forgot his roots. Several editions of the LSTC catalog featured a picture of Wesley standing in front of an enormous combine, on which he had worked during the summer as a loyal member of the family well into his 50s.

Wesley knew the trials of life. One of his most painful duties was to tell the professor from whom he had learned to love the Old Testament that he must retire early because of LSTC’s financial situation. He had heart surgery to replace a worn out valve and fragile health thereafter. He learned about the time of his retirement that the dementia associated with Alzheimer’s would be his lot.

Thirty-two years ago Wesley wrote about Koheleth’s grappling with death: “Koheleth relentlessly holds to his tenets, and will not permit the fine and simple enjoyments which he has laboriously defined to be weakened by a creeping optimism or contrariwise to undermine his own hard observations. [We] can enjoy life; but that does not make the world less empty, the future less uncertain, or death less final. It might be claimed that the revelation of resurrection to Koheleth would have changed his entire message, but that is to jump to a conclusion. Would that make things seem fairer, or the future in world history more predictable, or death less certain?”

As the shadows of death closed in upon him, and the once wise mind lay hidden behind his hulking body, Wesley experienced a love story. His former wife Betty moved back in to care for him and tend to his every need even when no reciprocal or coherent word from him was possible. I would like to think that Wesley knew that love, as he knew so well the love of God for all of humanity. This last weekend as Pastor Said Ailabouni read Revelation 21 to him, Wesley seemed singularly engaged, hearing that promise that God finally will make all things new.

Rest well, Wesley, friend, colleague, child of God.

May 16, 2007