A century of memories

He became a minister and served as a World War II chaplain

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Gregor Kutz remembers Stillwater back in the days when it was a thriving lumber town situated beside the St. Croix River.

Even though that river was a key force in town, he and his friends used to avoid it when they went swimming because of "dead ends" and instead chose Lake St. Croix.

Those boyhood memories remain sharp in Kutz' mind. They date back nearly nine decades, and Kutz succinctly shared them as well as other events in his life as he celebrated his 100th birthday Wednesday.

One of Kutz's first jobs was working in the lumber mill, followed by another job in one of Stillwater's two shoe factories.

Kutz, who moved to New Ulm in 1981 to be near family, was 15 years old and not quite old enough to join the Army when World War I ended in 1918. His family hung a flag with three stars on it in the window of their home to represent his three older brothers who were fighting overseas. He remembers his German father voting for President Woodrow Wilson because "he kept us out of war."

"I guess he had too much of the Kaiser in him," said Kutz of his father, who organized a carpenter's union in Stillwater.

When his two of his three older brothers returned from Europe, they shared few words about life in the trenches with their little brother. One told Gregor about a friend of his who was decapitated during combat. Another brother, who spoke German, stayed in Germany to help with post-war relief efforts.

"When you make a soldier out of a civilian, they can't take things like a hardened, professional soldier can," Kutz said.

One of those brothers was particularly close to Gregor. Every summer -- from the end of the war to Gregor's high school graduation -- the two would canoe up the St. Croix to a campground near Taylors Falls and spend the weekend. Kutz still remembers making some very tough pancakes.

In 1925, he graduated from high school. He found his calling not too long afterwards.

"The pastor in the Stillwater church had an influence on me. After I graduated from high school, I was just drifting around and so I found myself," he said.

Kutz first became a pastor in the old Evangelical Reform Church in the early days of the Great Depression. His first parishes were small, rural churches in southern Illinois and Indiana. His first church in Arthur, Ill., had no electricity. He left for Newburgh, Ind., about two years later.

"There was a plague that ate up the farmers' crops. Also, this was during the Depression, so you put those two things together ...," Kutz said.

One of Kutz's favorite memories to this day is of the parishoners in Newburgh. Every summer, an ice cream social was held at the church. They made and stored the ice cream in the basement of the parsonage. Kutz remembers it being very much like the kind found in grocery stores at the time -- it came in many different flavors and rarely melted.

His next congregation was in Tulare, S.D. He arrived around the time of the 1940 drought and remembered seeing a giant hole where a lake once stood. South Dakota was one of many Midwestern states that made up the Dust Bowl. Kutz also remembers grasshoppers eating pitchfork handles. The church he used for services became home to a skunk, so the church needed some fresh air before it could be used for services.

Gregor eventually got his chance to serve the Army in World War II. He was considered too old for combat, but he volunteered as a chaplain and spent three years tending to the spiritual needs of American airmen at a field hospital in England.

He said each Christian denomination was given a quota for chaplains back then and the Evangelical Reform Church was short on chaplains. He was already married with two daughters when he enlisted in 1943. His wife's family took care of the children while he was overseas.

"We served the fliers who came back from Germany. Sometimes they were shot up. We also saw POWs after the war. We had to fatten them up before there were sent back to the States."

Kutz got the soldiers' point of view of World War II. He said they often told him about their problems. Listening to those problems was part of a chaplain's job.

"It's hard to put into words. A soldier is set apart from a civilian and a chaplain had to bridge that. A lot of them were unhappy because they'd been drafted," Kutz remembered. "Chaplains were the bridge between the Army and the civilian life."

Ten years later, Kutz was called back into the active Army to serve as a chaplain during the Korean War, but he served at an Army base in Colorado. The scenery and the work were both different from England in because Kutz now had a chapel in Colorado, compared to working mainly in a field hospital in World War II. Colorado was more pleasant than England.

Kutz spent one year in the Army before he took a position at a church in Chicago. Kutz likened Chicago to "several towns put together." His church was surrounded by Poles, Jews and blacks. He remembers having some microphones stolen out of the church one evening and how men's dartball leagues were fashionable at the time. He even remembers the smell of the Chicago stockyards.

But Kutz wasn't what he calls "a city guy" and got homesick for Minnesota. He moved to West Concord, Minn., after three years in Chicago.

"The people were nice people," he said of the folks in the Chicago neighborhood. "I didn't object to the city life at all, but I was driving around Chicago like a cab driver."

Kutz's last stop as a pastor was at a church in Fergus Falls. He retired in 1968 and moved back to Stillwater, where he stayed until his move to New Ulm in 1981. He moved with his daughter, whose husband built an addition onto the house where Kutz still lives today. He took up golf and bowling early on and was still driving a car until the age of 98.

Kutz isn't exactly sure what's contributed to his longevity but he thinks his two healthy parents and his decision to quit smoking 25 years ago have contributed to his health. He also credits his late wife, who was a nurse who didn't smoke or drink alcohol, for part of his success.

Kutz said his one regret in life is loosing track of the people he came to know over the past 70 years. He said people ought to cherish friends and family because they become more valuable as time moves on.

A card from President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush congratulating Kutz on his 100th birthday is displayed on his television set.

"I suppose that's not remarkable, but living to 100 is no cinch either," said Kutz.