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The Rev. Richard Meibohm
The founder of Fountain of Life Lutheran Church in Tucson suffers a stroke Thursday at age 85.
A memorial service will be held Saturday for the Rev. Richard P. Meibohm, founder of Tucson’s Fountain of Life Lutheran Church.
The Rev. Meibohm, 85, died Thursday after suffering a stroke.
He came to Tucson in 1957 and was the first permanent pastor of the New Lutheran Mission Congregation, which became Fountain of Life Lutheran Church.
Before that, he founded congregations in WinstonSalem, N.C., and Cleveland. He also established Christian radio and television broadcasts in those cities.
Wherever he went, the Rev. Meibohm touched the lives of the people who knew him, said family members and colleagues.
”The Trinity Church in Cleveland was a very rundown inner-city parish,” said the Rev. David Kruse of the Lutheran Church of the Risen Savior in Green Valley. ”Through his efforts there, the congregation renovated the church, and today it’s an historical landmark in Cleveland.”
Kruse was confirmed by the Rev. Meibohm and will be one of the pastors officiating Saturday.
It was common for the Rev. Meibohm to stay involved with church members throughout their lives, said his daughter, Barbara Brennan.
”Here in town, he not only baptized people, confirmed them and married them but then sometimes buried them,” Brennan said.
After he retired, members of the congregation still asked him to baptize their children, she said.
He was active in Lutheran camps for teen-agers and in the Campus Christian Center at the University of Arizona.
The Rev. Meibohm led hikes for southern Arizona hiking clubs. ”He loved nature,” Brennan said.
He was born in Buffalo, N.Y. He attended Concordia Collegiate Institute in New York and Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis, where he graduated in 1937.
The Rev. Meibohm is survived by his wife, Ruth; three daughters, Brennan, Carla Langille and Joyce Swinehart; a son, John Meibohm; a sister, Dr. Edna Lindermann; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by two brothers, the Rev. Theodore Meibohm and Walter Meibohm.
Saturday’s memorial service will begin at 10 a.m. at Fountain of Life Lutheran Church, 710 S. Kolb Road.
Memorial donations may be made to the University of Arizona Parkinson’s Disease Research Fund, Department of Neurology, 1501 N. Campbell Ave., Tucson, Ariz. 85724.
(Dated May 06, 1997)
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Nall was billionaire’s agent
Private services are tomorrow for the man who represented Howard Hughes in land sales here.
Private funeral services for James Herbert Nall, who was instrumental in acquiring 23,000 acres of Tucson-area property for billionaire Howard Hughes, are scheduled tomorrow.
Mr. Nall died Sunday in Tucson after an illness. He was 87.
Though he never had a residence in Tucson, he made frequent business trips here in the 1950s and 1960s, according to his daughter, Patricia Barnes of Tucson.
”He was very incognito. His job was to represent Howard Hughes and purchase his property,” she said. ”He kept a very low profile.”
Mr. Nall, who was born Oct. 3, 1909, in Indiana, attended Indiana University and Purdue University, acquiring degrees in law and civil engineering.
He was associated with Summa Corp., formerly known as Hughes Tool Co., between 1951 and 1977. He served as manager of the land portfolio, vice president, secretary and director of subsidiary corporations.
Under his supervision, the Hughes organization acquired 31,000 acres in Las Vegas and 1,400 acres in California, in addition to the acreage in Arizona.
Before working for Hughes, whom he met in person only once, Mr. Nall worked for two decades as manager for Right of Way Indiana and Michigan Electrical Co., and as a title attorney for Title Insurance and Trust Co., both of Indianapolis.
In addition to Barnes, his survivors include Mr. Nall’s wife, Lillian; two other daughters, Claire Blue and Thea Blue Badal; a son, William Blue; a sister, Betty Powell; a brother, Harold Nall; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
(Dated May 06, 1997)
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Longtime banker G. ‘Buster’ Rex
A memorial service will be held tomorrow for George ”Buster” Rex, a longtime Tucson banker who died Sunday at age 70 after a long illness.
Mr. Rex started his banking career in 1953 at the Southern Arizona Bank & Trust Co. after graduating from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in business and public administration.
He became a branch manager in 1960 and joined the bank’s real estate loan department in 1967.
He later worked in the real estate department of The Arizona Bank and was promoted to branch manager. He also worked at American Savings & Loan Association and Territorial Bank.
Mr. Rex was a 1944 graduate of Tucson High. He retired in 1988. A native Tucsonan, he moved to Phoenix in 1992 to be near his brother.
He was a deacon at Catalina Methodist Church, and served in various positions with Sigma Chi fraternity for 35 years.
He is survived by four children: Gary of Tucson; Mark of St. Louis; Julie Mueller of Lafayette, Colo.; and Jill Mengert of Las Vegas.
Visitation will be held tomorrow from 10:30 to 11 a.m. at Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway, with a service to follow.
(Dated May 07, 1997)
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Douglas H. Shoumaker, 40-year newspaperman
The native Tucsonan, father of five, always found life to be ‘great,’ says a daughter.
Rosary will be recited tomorrow for Douglas Henry Shoumaker, who devoted more than four decades of his life to the newspaper business.
Mr. Shoumaker died Friday, a victim of cancer. He was 68.
He was born March 31, 1929, at the Stork’s Nest, a midwife center in downtown Tucson. By age 5, he was selling newspapers in the downtown area, family members said.
Mr. Shoumaker attended Davis Elementary, Safford Junior High and Tucson High School. Youngest of eight children, he left school in ninth grade to help support the family after the death of his father.
He went to work at Tucson Newspapers Inc. on Nov. 26, 1944, in the stereotyping department, where lead printing plates were made.
He left TNI in 1948 to enter the Navy, and served two years before returning to TNI. He worked in the ”old building” downtown, and moved to the new newspaper plant at South Park Avenue and East Irvington Road when it was completed in 1973.
Mr. Shoumaker was part of the transition of the newspaper business from the ”hot-type” days, with their heavy, unwieldy lead printing plates, to the much lighter zinc printing plates used on modern offset presses.
He retired Feb. 19, 1986.
His daughter, Jenet Soto, said, ”He was the kind of man who would give you the shirt off his back. Even when he was sick, when you asked him how he was doing, he’d say, ‘Great!’ They called him ‘Tony the Tiger’ because he’d always say, ‘Great!’ ”
Another daughter, Josephine King, said, ”He was a great father. He taught us all how to be self-sufficient.”
Mr. Shoumaker was a voracious reader, and taught himself appliance and electrical repair and auto mechanics, and gained computer expertise by reading manuals ”cover to cover.”
Three years before retirement, he decided to earn his General Educational Development certificate.
After retirement, he worked in income tax preparation, bookkeeping, real estate and at Manufacturing in New Technologies.
Visitation, eulogy and Mass are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Friday at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 1946 E. Lee St. The rosary will be said at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Tucson Mortuary, 204 S. Stone Ave.
In addition to his two daughters, Mr. Shoumaker is survived by his wife of 43 years, Josephine; two other daughters, Gail Holman and Elsa Shoumaker; a son, George Shoumaker; two sisters, Rose Martinez and Virginia Castro; and four grandchildren.
(Dated May 14, 1997)
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Enriqueta DeMeester stood tall in eyes of friends, family
Friends say Enriqueta DeMeester was tiny in stature, but big in spirit.
Mrs. DeMeester, whose life was always filled with music, died in Tucson Friday night . She was 92.
While growing up here on Convent Avenue, she took part in theater productions, both acting and dancing. Later she joined the Tucson Symphony, playing the violin.
At the symphony she met George DeMeester. They were married 61 years before he died in 1995 at age 99. Mr. DeMeester founded the Tucson Pops Orchestra in 1953. The DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center at Reid Park is named in his honor.
After graduating with honors from Tucson High School, Mrs. DeMeester became credit manager for Jacome’s Department Store, where she worked for 46 years.
The Jacomes regarded her as part of the family.
”Her kind comes along only once in a generation,” said Richard Jacome, who knew Mrs. DeMeester for 55 years.
”She was very caring and very smart,” said Henry Jacome Jr., who worked with her for more than 20 years at the store. He said she was barely over 5-feet tall.
Mrs. DeMeester was a founder of the Credit Women’s Breakfast Club and a Credit Women of America Regional Officer.
”She was a little ahead of her time in the business world,” said longtime friend Clifton Bloom.
Mrs. DeMeester volunteered at the Breast Cancer Screening program and as an interpreter at University Medical Center.
Survivors are sisters Tillie Freeman, Julia Leon and Geneviere Whalen; sister-in-law Isola Jacobs Martinez; and nieces and nephews.
A celebration of her life was held yesterday. The family requests donations be made to the Tucson Pops Orchestra, 2424 E. Broadway, Suite 114, Tucson, 85719.
(Dated May 20, 1997)
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