Tom,
It's been a joy to read your posts in this thread for the past month, and those of Randy and others too. What great memories have been revived!
Since the topic includes "Kline," I'll share a little something about him.
I was the "office supervisor" at Gilead when Karl Klein decided that he wanted a personal pioneer friend of his to get my job. I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes until Ulysses Glass sat me down and said the governing body was making some changes in the school and that my job would be affected. He seemed disappointed that he wasn't given more of a say about the changes. Up until then, my wife and I had been helping him for several years with Gilead graduation activity, and I thought maybe they had in mind giving me more to do in that area, putting me with Drew Wasko and Bob Jankowski. But it looked like my days of correcting student papers and doing other things in and for the classes were coming to an end. The new man Karl had in mind for my job had just arrived at Bethel that week, and right from the start they had me training him to take over my job. Some days later I met Leo Greenlees in the hallway, and he asked me how things were going. When I told him I was puzzled about some things that were going on in the office, he asked me a few times, "Are you sure no one told you why a change is being made?" He seemed disappointed that I was uninformed, and he ended our discussion. Then he made a dash down the hallway. Later that day and for the next several days, Karl kept showing up in our office and each time found something critical to say about my work. He was acting like a real screwball. Finally, I got upset and reported him to Carey Barber on the Personnel Committee. Among other things, Barber said "You're not the only one they're kicking around, Frank. Here I am on the governing body, and they don't think my text comments at the breakfast table are good enough. They want to take me off the schedule altogether. And, instead of sending me out to speak at special assemblies, they're picking these young green-behind-the-ears whippersnappers in the Service Department."
Well, weeks went by and nothing changed. I was handing over more and more stuff to the new man, and I had very little to do. My wife Dianne worked with Sister C (who is still there and who was a good friend of Grant and Edith Suiter), and Dianne confided to her that this situation was getting me down. Sister C came to me and said, "Frank, if you really want to get something done about Karl, the one you should talk to is Grant Suiter. He's the one with the real power around here." So I went to Suiter, and he was very cordial. He asked me, "What seems to be the trouble?," and he inquired and probed for about 45 minutes, getting me to repeat the answers to some questions. For example, "Would you mind telling me again what Brother Klein told you?" and "So your saying Brother Barber told you such-and-such?" I should have known by the sort of questioning that Grant wasn't really interested in helping me with my problem. His main concern was to get some goods on other members of the GB.
Well, the next two days the GB members all seemed to have disappeared. They didn't show up at meals and we didn't see them anywhere in the halls.
Finally, when they reappeared, I was walking by Carey's office and said good morning. He called to me and asked me to come in and sit down. I'll never forget his next words: "Frank, how could you? How could you? The conversation we had was private -- between you and me alone -- but you went and told Brother Suiter everything I told you. How could you, Frank? Do you realize that for the past two days I've been raked over the coals again and again by nearly every member of the governing body? You put me through the worst experience of my life!"
I really felt bad about what I had done to the old man and for the way things were turning out. I apologized and went to my job -- what was left of it -- in the Gilead Office. That evening I was climbing the stairs in the 124 building and met Karl on the 8th floor. He was coming down and I was going up, and we met at the door to the library. Karl said in a very drawn-out and bitter tone, "So, you told the governing body that I've been harassing you!" I said, "Maybe we should talk about it, Brother Klein." He replied, "There is NOTHING to talk about," and he opened the door to the library and slammed it behind him right in my face. I decided not to follow him, but I'm sure that others in the library must have jumped a mile when the door slammed. While I continued to work there, Karl never came into the Gilead Office again. The situation being what it was, I told Leo that I wanted a job change, and in a few weeks I was transferred back to the Shipping Department where I had been before. Thus ended my "career" in the Gilead Office.
Frank
PS: Here's a picture of the infamous Karl Klein copied from Randy's website:
