![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learnteachJoe Tevis
Why is it that we know people's whole life stories only after they are dead? It cuts away the complexity, I suppose, and you don't get to steer it as much as you normally do.
Joe Tevis was born in 1925 to a first generation Slovakian Catholic family. He was one of (six?) surviving children, and had an older brother, John. He enlisted in the Navy during World War II. His brother John (two years older) was killed in Okinawa.
When he came back, he broke from his old life and made a new one. He married Marie, a staunch catholic, and while married put himself through engineering school by repairing televisions. The first couple kids were born at this time. By the early sixties, he was one of the men who followed the defense industry around: Vandenburg for sattelite launches (he worked on satelites his whole career), King of Prussia, Connecticut, then back to Southern California.
In order to provide continuity for his family, he settled them back into Solvang, which is where they had lived when he worked on Vandenburg. My family met his when he and my father worked on projects together at Vandenburg; we lived in Lompoc, and Berwyn (they lived in Philedelphia.) My parents and Marie celebrated their birthdays together in August, and it was a big deal.
When they went back to Solvang, we were in the midwest for a little while, then came back to Northern California. At that time, the job market got bad. Joe got a job down in Watts, and commuted to it every week, spending weekends in Solvang. My dad lost his job for a while, which is a different story.
The Tevis' is the only family that I can remember that I know everyone in--all the kids by sight, even if Joe Jr. (now Paterfamilias) has grandchildren. The house in Solvang lives in my dreams--I remember it so clearly from childhood, although the spaces change (the secret fort I used to treasure is no more than 3' by 4'; I remember it being large enough to fit 3 8 year old into...but I'm now as big as four 8 year olds!) I know the names of them better than my Schmidt Aunts and Uncles, and have a measure of them. They have had the varying lifes of many of my generation, with their share of tragedy and success.
Joe was very involved with his church, Mission Santa Ynez, and the priests all came to his funeral rosary, and mass, and burial. The church was full at his funeral.
We were cleaning up the hall after the reception after the funeral, and Joe Jr. was putting tables together and helping, and was told not to do that--he didn't have to. He said that cleaning is what you do at the church after something; it would feel wrong not to straighten up. This was noted as a characteristic of his father during the rosary; Joe had to go first, so he could get heaven straightened out for John Paul II.
The biggest thought I had was that so many people said Joe was conservative, or traditional, or somewhat set in his ways--he never seemed that way to me; a little old fashioned about somethings, but not really hidebound or anything. Hearing about his life laid that out in terms that he was strong-willed and very directed; but worked on new things.
Bye, Joe; see ya sometime again, absent friend.
Why is it that we know people's whole life stories only after they are dead? It cuts away the complexity, I suppose, and you don't get to steer it as much as you normally do.
Joe Tevis was born in 1925 to a first generation Slovakian Catholic family. He was one of (six?) surviving children, and had an older brother, John. He enlisted in the Navy during World War II. His brother John (two years older) was killed in Okinawa.
When he came back, he broke from his old life and made a new one. He married Marie, a staunch catholic, and while married put himself through engineering school by repairing televisions. The first couple kids were born at this time. By the early sixties, he was one of the men who followed the defense industry around: Vandenburg for sattelite launches (he worked on satelites his whole career), King of Prussia, Connecticut, then back to Southern California.
In order to provide continuity for his family, he settled them back into Solvang, which is where they had lived when he worked on Vandenburg. My family met his when he and my father worked on projects together at Vandenburg; we lived in Lompoc, and Berwyn (they lived in Philedelphia.) My parents and Marie celebrated their birthdays together in August, and it was a big deal.
When they went back to Solvang, we were in the midwest for a little while, then came back to Northern California. At that time, the job market got bad. Joe got a job down in Watts, and commuted to it every week, spending weekends in Solvang. My dad lost his job for a while, which is a different story.
The Tevis' is the only family that I can remember that I know everyone in--all the kids by sight, even if Joe Jr. (now Paterfamilias) has grandchildren. The house in Solvang lives in my dreams--I remember it so clearly from childhood, although the spaces change (the secret fort I used to treasure is no more than 3' by 4'; I remember it being large enough to fit 3 8 year old into...but I'm now as big as four 8 year olds!) I know the names of them better than my Schmidt Aunts and Uncles, and have a measure of them. They have had the varying lifes of many of my generation, with their share of tragedy and success.
Joe was very involved with his church, Mission Santa Ynez, and the priests all came to his funeral rosary, and mass, and burial. The church was full at his funeral.
We were cleaning up the hall after the reception after the funeral, and Joe Jr. was putting tables together and helping, and was told not to do that--he didn't have to. He said that cleaning is what you do at the church after something; it would feel wrong not to straighten up. This was noted as a characteristic of his father during the rosary; Joe had to go first, so he could get heaven straightened out for John Paul II.
The biggest thought I had was that so many people said Joe was conservative, or traditional, or somewhat set in his ways--he never seemed that way to me; a little old fashioned about somethings, but not really hidebound or anything. Hearing about his life laid that out in terms that he was strong-willed and very directed; but worked on new things.
Bye, Joe; see ya sometime again, absent friend.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-05 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-05 07:43 pm (UTC)Condolences for your loss.