MY FATHER WALT GAUTHIER
I did not meet my father until I was about 15 years old. My mother had divorced him before I was born, and I first met him when he sought us out in an effort to be reunited. I enjoyed meeting him and was a bit enthralled by some card tricks he showed me and his energetic personality. My mom met with Walt briefly outside, and after he had left, she announced that although he had asked us to get back together as a family, she had strongly refused that idea.
Then many years later, he tracked me down through the registrar while I was in college in Santa Barbara, Calif., and asked her to tell me he was coming to see me from his home in Lancaster, Calif. So, on the appointed day, my wife Janet and I were waiting on the lawn in front of the college’s main building when he and his wife Pat drove up. He looked very much as I remembered him—short and thin, with a smiling face. We took them to our downtown duplex and shared lunch together. Walt was very warm and showed a keen interest in everything I had been doing through high school and college.
We made plans to visit them at their home a couple of weeks later, and then he took me to Sears and Roebuck, where he was still working in Lancaster, and bought us a double bed to replace our small fold-out couch. However, the very next Sunday, they showed up at the tiny church where I was serving as a student pastor to hear me preach. It was a pleasant visit, and Walt seemed very proud of me. We later visited him and his wife in Lancaster, and they drove us to see both Death Valley and Mount Whitney, the lowest points in California.
It was fascinating to get to know my father and see how much we had in common. He was very energetic, friendly, and highly successful as an appliance salesman for Sears and Roebuck. In fact, the previous year, he had won an award as the most successful Sears appliance salesman nationwide. While we were visiting, it became obvious how and why he was such a successful salesperson. He kept a clipboard hanging next to the phone and did most of his business by taking calls from people he had recently met on the store floor, which he wanted. In fact, I found out that he only went to the store three days a week and did most of his sales from home. Walt and his wife made a couple more visits to hear me preach, and each time he tried to get me to change my last name back to Gauthier, which was his. I explained that at this stage of my career, this would be both difficult and confusing.
I spent the following academic year earning a Master’s degree at the University of Washington in Seattle. Walt and Pat arranged to pick us up after my Thesis Exam and drive us to California to visit my wife’s family before heading to New York for further studies. The trip went smoothly, although our one-year-old son had a tough time in his car seat in the back seat. It felt good to reconnect with my father once again. Walt died about a year later during a coughing fit caused by his asthma. Pat called me while I was in New York and asked me to come to California to officiate at Walt’s funeral. I gladly agreed, because getting to know my father, even so late, meant as much to me as our meeting had to him. It was wonderful to finally have a father!