Nathan Knorr Holding "Brother Knorr": Memory Lane

compound complex

Walking Down Memory Lane: 124 Columbia Heights,

Many thoughts and experiences related to life at Bethel come flooding in, especially here at JWD, where your questions and answers jog my memory. Some of the following I've already mentioned elsewhere, some comments are new. This one came to mind a little bit ago:

1) There were two Brothers Knorr. During one of many slide presentations of official WT sojourns to the Third World was a shot of Nathan Knorr holding in his arms a little African Witness boy. He was chuckling over the fact that the parents named the lad "Brother Knorr" in his honor. What a namesake! (where are you Brother Knorr ?[about 40 years old by now]).

2) Brother Knorr often went overtime at morning worship (on a rant, maybe?), which created great anxiety for the automotively-endowed brothers. When released, they would rush out and find their cars ticketed. Parking in Brooklyn Heights---a very dicey affair.

3) Brother Knorr had a paper printed out for young brothers with "the problem": information on what dosage of potassium nitrate (salt-peter) would prove helpful.

4) If your roommate is bad association, dump him! Through the proper theocratic channels, of course.

5) If you must wear certain types of non-approved clothing---bell-bottoms, flaired-leg trousers, etc.---you may do so only in your room or adjoining hallway. A compassionate concession to the clothes horse's sartorial needs.

6) At the Gilead Graduation, spring of 1972, Brother Knorr announced that the newly-conceived elder arrangement would be tried out at Bethel for six months "to see if it works." Did it?

7) Ministry Section: In the foreign language ministry you're in a whole different world. The people want you to visit them; they are both honored by the visit of an American and want to discuss the Bible. The entire household will shut down and listen attentively to your message. One group was so taken by our Bible discussion that, upon our departure, four men eagerly followed us out in service to observe and participate. That was a very good day! (attitudes, I concede, might have changed over the years.)

So, if you were ever at Bethel and recall some quirky things, would you please share them. Non-Bethelites' experiences regarding visits to Bethel or friendships with inmates of the Big House are most welcome too.

Out of the compound,

CoCo

gumby

3) Brother Knorr had a paper printed out for young brothers with "the problem": information on what dosage of potassium nitrate (salt-peter) would prove helpful.

What a dummy he was. Salt peter only make a guy not be able to get his dinger erect, wheras a pic of a lady like the one below make a guy never want sex ever again. He shoulda just gave all the masterbatin guys a picture of her to keep under their pillow.

hambeak

Interesting I would like to learn more of your experiences at Bethel. The cong I attended as a young man had several go to Bethel and they would come home on a visit and give a slide presentation but never spoke of life at Bethel.

As for the second post That could make em gay

uninformed

My wife and I met Brother Nathan Knorr one time.

In 1969 at the Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City version of the round the world international assemblies, he conducted the Gilead Meeting.

Since my sweetie and I wanted to save the world at the time and were pioneers, we went to the meeting. During his brief discourse, he noticed some poor sap holding a microphone attached to a tape recorder. You wouldn't believe his reaction------------don't remember it all, but it went like this, "What do you think you are doing? Are you going to broadcast this meeting around the world? Either put that thing away or leave!"

I am not embellishing, this is not quite as shocking as it was in person.

From that time forward, I did not respect him ever again.

Pompous son of a bitch! Prick, bastard. Sure reminded me of Christ Jesus! NOT!!!

Why didn't I quit then? Stupid I guess.

Brant

ninja

When I visited bethel a good few years back..we were getting the tour when 2 young bethelites came round the corner having a dummy fight...(I hope....get the potassium nitrate...: )))and ran into us...they were pretty embarrassed...and I always remember one old old sister on a motorised wheelchair not observing the speed limit nearly running down anyone in her way...can't remember if this was brooklyn or patterson...but she was scary...carmageddon woman...names I remember were bill bellows and sunny chicky...anybody know them?

compound complex

Hey Guys,

What can I say? Thanx for your input! Being there you see the reality in day-to-day interaction. When a higher-up acts badly, and you witness that behavior personally, all his rhetoric from the platform falls flat. The warmly glowing, sanitized stories we all believed were part of our heritage as God's people no longer cut it! Many were angry and bitter and often had good reason for their gripes. One Bethel sister known for her directness said, 'Sure, we love our brothers, but would YOU want to live with them?' That was her response to an outsider's swooning over how wonderful life at Bethel had to be. And then, there were the "BA's" and the "SR's"....(curious?---The Bad Attitudes v. The Self-Righteous)

Randy at Freeminds has lots of stories from former Bethelites. I knew many of them.

Emancipated and good to go,

CoCo

juni

Thanks for sharing CoCo.

Did you ever see any of the big guys celebrating their b/day? One Bethelite I knew said he witnessed this first hand. That was in the 1980's.

It's amazing isn't it after you get away from the org. and get your head cleared how once you viewed this as God's org. now is just a farce with a bunch of self righteous, foolish people involved?

Juni PS Did you know any Bethelites from Wisconsin? You can PM me if you wish. Thanks.

cabasilas

I remember in the old days (before the GB took over) and the President's Office was on the top floor of the 124 building. If you wanted to go up to the roof you had to take the elevator up to the 10th floor (Knorr's office was just across from the elevator) and then take the stairs up to the roof.

I was working nights so one day I had gone up to the roof to take some pictures of lower Manhattan. I came back down the stairs and was waiting for the elevator to go back downstairs. (I was following the rules...you had to be going more than 5 floors down to use the elevator.) The door to Knorr's office was open and he was really upset about something and was barking orders at Robert Wallen, his secretary. What sticks in my mind is not Knorr's tirade. It was Wallen's response. "Yes, sir," he said more than once. We called him "Brother Knorr" but his secretary was much more formal! I never heard any other Bethelites call him "sir" when he was out of his office.

A lighter story. A year or two later I was up at Watchtower Farms near Wallkill. A friend of mine by the name of North got a letter that was addressed to "Brother Noah" sent by some Bethelite in Brooklyn. The Bethel mail room did not know who to deliver this to but they wrote: "xxxxx North--WT Farm?" Turns out it was some guy's 30 day notice telling Knorr he was leaving Bethel but the guy did not know how to spell Knorr's name and had put "Noah" instead. My friend named "North" quickly sent it back to the Bethel mail room who I presume forwarded it on to Knorr.

Any of the Bethelites from the 60s and 70s remember Knorr's "Newboy" talk? You didn't sleep through that one!

compound complex

Howdy Cabasilas,

Thank you for those great stories. You had to be there to correctly recount such specific details. You made me recall a few things: the newboy talk. I now remember hearing it but don't recall the content. I sure can guess, though. And my thirty-day notice. In all fairness to Brother Knorr, I must say that he was very kind and compassionate in his response to me. I was mentally and physically exhausted with the Bethel assignment and huge involvement in a newly-developing foreign language field. I'm sure it was all a big misunderstanding, however, when I was immediately sent from proofreading to the shrink-wrap department. And on one ocassion when I was talking with him in his office, he seemed a thoughtful and "down home" sort of fellow.

7) Ministry Section, revisited: those four fellows who followed us out in service--- I seem to remember they were helping us find other French-speaking folk. Unbaptized-publisher-pre-registration-approval-before-ecclesiastical-judiciary-body-requirements........? Nah!

Once a Bethelite,

CoCo

cabasilas

When were you there, CoCo? Perhaps we knew some of the same folks? I wanted to join one of the French-speaking congregations but ended up staying in Brooklyn Heights. At one time I lived on the 9th floor of the 107 building. Sometimes I'd meet new Bethelites who would tell me about their subway rides to their meetings in some congregation in Queens and then they'd ask me: "How long does it take you to get to your congregation?" I'd answer: "Well, it depends if I take the elevator or the stairs." (For those who don't know...the Brooklyn Heights Congregation used to meet on the first floor of the 107 building!)

I was in Brooklyn from Sept of 73 to Feb of 75 and then went to the Farm for a year. Knorr's "Newboy talk" at that time was basically a telling of the "birds and the bees." He started off by saying: "You should know this by now but in case you don't..." Funny what you remember from a lecture like that. I remember him making the point that semen contain millions of sperm and emphasizing the "milions" part. His point was something to the effect of the largesse of God in designing sexual reproduction in providing so many sperm. "Jehovah is not stingy..." I think is an exact quote from the lecture.

Nathan Knorr Holding "Brother Knorr": Memory Lane

Share this