Rev. Bill, my father, leaves his legacy on community | TRIBUTE

On Jan. 2, 1990, Dan Kelleher, then Kent mayor, proclaimed the first week of January “Reverend Bill Carleton Week” for the city. A fitting tribute to a man that not only lovingly served God and shepherded his flock for 35 years, but also served the city as a community leader continually since 1955.

Rev. Bill came to the Seattle area from Minnesota when he was in junior high school. He went on to attend the University of Washington for three years. World War II interrupted his university life when he served in the U.S. Naval Air Corps as a pilot. He then graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and then pursued graduate school at the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he obtained a master of divinity degree before coming to Kent as the Minister of the Kent First Presbyterian Church.

In actuality, he served several communities: Church, family and Kent.

Ministers don’t often last 35 years in the same congregation. Exceptional leaders do. Those with a passion for the true role of leading a congregation do. But his church service wasn’t just about serving the local church and its congregants. It was also about serving the Presbyterian Church Synod of Alaska/Northwest as a member, chair or officer of various committees, commissions and task forces.

He also willingly served the Presbytery of Seattle as chair of many committees and also was an active participant in special investigative committees and judicial commissions. He was eternally proud of what churches within the Presbyterian denomination could accomplish together for their communities.

He also recognized that churches banding together can and should do far more. He gave generously of his time to bring other churches together as an active member of the Kent Ministerial Service and continued his community involvement with the Kent Human Services Commission, Kent Valley Youth Services, Kent Community Service Center, Kent Kiwanis, and the Seattle Peace Conference, among others.

He also led the nation in a prayer at the televised dedication of Kent’s Boeing Space Center in the 1960s. I recall Bill’s response to the sudden layoffs that tragically affected the Kent community in the 1960s when Boeing cancelled its Supersonic Transport project (the namesake for the former Seattle NBA franchise).

The food bank in town became a veritable crowded marketplace almost overnight. He was deeply troubled by the effect of this job crisis on Kent. Bill never saw people as Presbyterian first. He saw his service to God being service to all of mankind and worked hard to ensure families had food on the table. Church was just another word for community action in Bill’s life.

Seeing Bill Carleton, longtime minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Kent, in his long-term nursing home residence over the past eight years, he seemed at first glance a shadow of his former self. No longer the patriarch by virtue of his active leadership, no longer the husband and father that could bring comfort and support, I became angry with God. Why must this man, a true loving servant to God’s mission in the world, suffer this fading existence, this seeming indignity of life before death?

But we all know this is not an uncommon fading of human life. Nursing homes are filled with residents in similar circumstances. Speaking with friends, I heard the familiar words of those that are younger or less-informed: “For my death I want a massive heart attack that takes me instantly” echoed loudly in my ears from those attempting to control their own destinies. If it were only that simple – to choose our own end. It’s not that simple, and frankly, there is a good reason why.

I came to realize through Bill’s nursing home existence that this was not at all something to be mad at God about. In fact, it was something to celebrate. My father was not yet done teaching me or others.

What role did I now need to fulfill in his life? What did I now need to do for my mother? My brothers? Sister? Who should do what as the cycle of life continues? What an incredible gift we were given with this slow fade of human life. He was happy to the end. Ask any of the nursing home staff.

So I moved from being a listener of my father’s teaching to take on the role of teacher and with renewed vigor continue to help others in my own life. This was not a man who was a shadow of his former self. This was a deliberate fade to give me time to pick up the mantel. He left this world when I was ready, the day before my birthday on Feb. 19 this year.

Now it’s my turn to teach. If you can see him in my words and actions, then you know he is still teaching me, eternally until I join him and the mantel passes once more.

Thanks, Bill. A better lesson could not have been given to any of us.

Dr. Bruce Carleton is director of the pharmaceutical outcomes program at British Columbia Children’s Hospital, and professor of pediatrics, medical genetics, pharmaceutical sciences, population & public health.