{"id":227,"date":"2008-04-01T10:01:13","date_gmt":"2008-04-01T10:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2008\/04\/01\/mielke-had-many-brothers-many-sons\/"},"modified":"2008-04-01T10:01:13","modified_gmt":"2008-04-01T10:01:13","slug":"mielke-had-many-brothers-many-sons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2008\/04\/01\/mielke-had-many-brothers-many-sons\/","title":{"rendered":"Mielke Had Many Brothers, Many Sons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The memorial service for Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Computer Science Paul Mielke \u201942 was three days ago, but like the life of the man it celebrated, it\u2019s not something the mind and heart want to let go of. You could do a lot worse things for your soul than meditate upon the lives of Paul Mielke and his wife, Mary Lou, lost to the Wabash community within months of each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

I tried to write something about Paul’s service right away, on Saturday
\nnight, but I was overwhelmed after hearing his son, daughters, and grandchildren remember him; listening to two of his favorite poems by William Stafford, a favorite poet of mine; hearing the wonderful love story of Paul and Mary Louise, how they loved to dance, and how their life together mirrored that dancing.<\/span><\/p>\n

And hearing that the last thing written out by this mathematician was a reference to Micah 6:8\u2014\u201cHe has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you. but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?\u201d I hope Paul realized that in his gentle manner, love for family, friends, and students, his co-founding of Crawfordsville\u2019s chapter of the NAACP, and his support of his colleagues and community, he personified those words for many of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was all too much to \u201csum up\u201d in a news story. I can\u2019t even begin to
\ndo justice to the man. Especially for those who did not know him. And those at Wabash who didn’t know him, need to.<\/span><\/p>\n

So we\u2019re gathering the words his children and grandchildren spoke on Saturday and we\u2019ll have them for you next week. Their words are what you need to hear about this man.<\/span><\/p>\n

For now I want to pull on one thread of what Kathy, PT, Mardie, and their
\nchildren shared with us so beautifully on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

His daughter, Kathy, said: \u201cMy parents had many, many sons. Most every
\nSunday and holiday, students were welcomed into our home.\u201d
\n<\/span>
\nAnd: \u201cWhen my father was a student at Wabash, his fraternity brothers
\ncalled him ‘Yogi’ for his uncanny ability to help them with his
\nhomework. \u2018Yogi, look into your crystal ball and gives us the answers,\u2019
\nthey\u2019d say.
\n<\/span>
\n\u201cIt gave him great satisfaction to help his fraternity brothers.\u201d
\n<\/span>
\nPaul’s only biological son, PT, read this about how the satisfaction he found helping his brothers was transformed into a lifelong passion:
\n<\/span>
\n\u201cHis enthusiasm for teaching was palpable. He was passionate about the
\nsubject at hand. He was always prepared. It is evident that many of his
\nstudents felt the depth of his commitment to teaching. It is remarkable
\nhow many of them remained his lifelong friends. He took a genuine interest
\nin their progress, both as students and as human beings, and they repaid
\nhim by keeping in touch throughout his life.\u201d
\n<\/span>
\nAt Saturday\u2019s service in the Wabash Chapel, I sat in front of one of those
\nstudents\u2014Ted Wiese Jr. \u201960. He and his wife, Sandra, established the Paul
\nMielke Fellowship Fund in 2003 to pay tribute to Paul\u2019s \u201cmentoring of
\ngenerations of Wabash men.\u201d There\u2019s a brick on the Alumni Patio
\nrepresenting another donation by Ted. It reads simply, \u201cIn honor of Paul
\nMielke \u201942.\u201d One look at Ted after Saturday\u2019s service made it clear how
\nmuch Paul had meant to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

We heard from other students of Paul\u2019s, too, soon after word of his death was posted here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jack Hauber \u201966 wrote: “In 1967, I received an NSF grant to attend Dartmouth and learn more about using time-shared computers in high school education … not possible without Dr. Mielke. In 1971, I received one of the first MS degrees in Computer Sciences from Purdue … not possible without Dr. Mielke. He introduced the computer to Wabash and to me, and changed the lives of both. I would be honored to be considered a member of his ‘brotherhood’.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Steve Kain \u201963 wrote: “I spoke to Dr. Mielke at Homecoming and he remembered my name from years ago. I had my son and grandson with me at the time and they were impressed that a professor remembered a former student so easily. Dr. Mielke was my first advisor at Wabash, and a great Little Giant for the students.”<\/p>\n

And this from Phil Vincent, Ted Wiese\u2019s classmate: \u201cPaul Mielke was one of
\nthe greatest teachers in my academic life. He<\/span> was always supportive. I switched to economics upon applying to graduate school at Stanford, but I suspect that it was his aid that helped me into the latter program; I know that I was ahead of most fellow economics graduate students in math training at that time.<\/span> I had hoped to see him again at the class 50th reunion in 2010.
\nWabash has lost a great son, professor, and benefactor.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Several years ago during an interview for Wabash Magazine,<\/em> Paul said,
\n\u201cWabash gave me the brothers that nature denied me.\u201d
\n<\/span>
\nPerhaps knowing what it felt like to be an only son, Paul cherished more
\nwisely the brothers he made at Wabash and throughout his life. He never
\ntook them for granted. He celebrated them in his photographs every bit as
\nmuch as he celebrated the beautiful places he photographed out West. I
\nremember looking over photographs of friends and students as we made
\nselections for a Faculty Gallery in the magazine. He told me stories about
\nall of them, then what they were doing the last time he\u2019d heard from them.
\nUsually that time was measured in weeks or months.<\/span><\/p>\n

He had many brothers. He had many sons. His niece, Cherie Dwhytie, called
\nWabash Paul\u2019s \u201cextended family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He received much from this College; he gave back more.
\n<\/span>
\nThere was a quiet strength at the center of this man who tended a garden,
\nbut also fought in World War II on Okinawa. It was a \u201cbrotherliness\u201d that
\nallowed folks like me, who met him late in his life and spent relatively
\nfew hours with him, to feel completely at home and at ease in his
\npresence, even as we were learning so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought of that quiet strength as his daughter read one of Paul\u2019s favorite poems by William Stafford, once poet laureate for Oregon, another place like Wabash and Washington State, that Paul loved. She talked about how her father taught his children to be \u201coutdoorsmen\u201d on their many trips to the most beautiful places in the West.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe made us rich in the only way he knew he could,\u201d Kathy said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assurance<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>You will never be alone, you hear so deep
\na sound when autumn comes. Yellow
\npulls across the hills and thrums,
\nor the silence after lightning before it says
\nits names\u2014and then the clouds\u2019 wide-mouthed
\napologies. You were aimed from birth:
\nyou will never be alone. Rain
\nwill come, a gutter filled, and Amazon,
\nlong aisles\u2014you never heard so deep a sound,
\nmoss on rock, and years. You turn your head\u2014
\nthat\u2019s what the silence meant: you\u2019re not alone.
\nThe whole wide world pours down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPaul\u2019s daughter read it, but I heard it in Paul’s voice. He spoke it as a
\nblessing, not only on his children and grandchildren, but on the students
\nand teachers of Wabash: that we, too, would discover what he had found in his life and had given back to the people and places he loved. I carried phrases from it with me as I walked home through the arboretum after the service that celebrated Paul’s life\u2014words that spoke of him, that spoke to us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou were aimed from birth: you will never be alone. You hear so deep a
\nsound when autumn comes\u2026 That’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone.The whole wide world pours down\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

“You will never be alone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We’ll have more about Paul Mielke next week, and in the next issue of Wabash Magazine.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The memorial service for Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Computer Science Paul Mielke \u201942 was three days ago, but like the life of the man it celebrated, it\u2019s not something the mind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}