yeah--my comment about knorr soup was satire--but someone gave it a negative--?
as an aside--i named my first son Nathan--1976, having survived armageddon ( satire again folks ). i was gone from the cult before then.
Knorr Family
by vienne 55 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Diogenesister
New boy some people cant take a joke. Oh brother.
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Diogenesister
When we came to the kitchen, she asked to go inside. I politely declined, informing them that it was against New York health codes to have tours examine the kitchen and food preparation area. Whereupon, Knorr's secretary took me aside and asked, 'Do you know who you are talking to?' I replied that I was well aware of who he was and who Isabel was. However, I said that if I broke the rules for them that it would be unfair for the 'rank and file' witnesses who may also wish to enter the kitchen area during a tour and I didn't feel that I could show favoritism. The secretary barged into the kitchen and asked who the overseer was.
PS Sparky I would have thought even the most egotistical Bethel ladder climber would have understood the need to prevent people from going into food preparation areas. Quite selfish of them, not very "loving" to the brothers who have to eat from there nevermind equality!
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OrphanCrow
vienne: I use them as a base for other things ... but still no relation to N. H. Knorr.
I think that if you go back far enough, you will find that the founder of Knorr Foods in Germany, Carl Heinrich Knorr, and Nathan Knorr had a common ancestor.
Johann Christian Knorr, born in Germany in 1746 and buried in Wernersville, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA in 1836, was Carl Knorr's father. Johann was Nathan Knorr's great-great-great-grandfather. Nathan's great-great grandfather was a brother to the founder of Knorr Foods.
Nathan Knorr's family tree connects to the Knorr Food family.
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vienne
If so, it is so distant that it did not affect Nathan Knorr, and while I can trace his father's financial interests, I can find no connection to Knorr foods. On the American side of my family I share a connection to Rockefeller's father. But that's back in the early days of the American republic. I do not know any of the living Rockefellers, I do not have their money [alas]; and I am in no way swayed by or influenced by their opinions.
A connection that distant is meaningless.
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OrphanCrow
A connection that distant is meaningless.
It may be a meaningless connection...but it is still there.
Nathan Knorr did have a family connection to the founder of Knorr Foods.
Family is family.
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vienne
family is family?
That's a really broad definition. I don't know any of my 'family' beyond my grandparents' [both sides] cousins and I do not consider more distant relations as 'family', though we are genetically related. As a historian, I'm interested in the connections that molded personality and events. Some connections, especially with ideas, are ages long. In forthcoming volume 2 of our Separate Identity, we connect Russellite beliefs with a trail of ideas back to the 17th Century. But what Russell's great great great grandparents did has no traceable effect on him.
On the Austro-German side of my family you can find people who ruled most of Europe. But that's so distant that if it affects my thinking I would not know how. Interestingly though, there is a long line of writers among my ancestors. These include my dad, my great grandfather who was also an artist, back to a 17th Century man who wrote on religious topics. Did my genetics impel me to become a writer? Did the fact that my mom, a grand aunt and others were teachers turn me into an educator? How would one prove that?
N.H. Knorr did not made soup. He became a manager, an executive of a religious publishing house and head of a minor religion. Did his distant relations' ability to form a food company translate into Nathan Knorr's administrative ability? There's no way to prove that. Any conclusion would be mere speculation.
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sparky1
Thank you OrphanCrow for posting that interesting historical tidbit. I had heard at Bethel that Nathan was a distant relative to the founder of Knorr food products but never have I heard it out of the Bethel context. I am not a historian nor do I play one on television and so your post had meaning for me as an ex-Bethelite. As an interesting anecdote: One of the old 'old timers' that I knew at Bethel said that Rutherford thought more of Nathan Knorr than he did of his own son Malcolm. On one of their 'service trips' to Europe they went and visited the Swiss Alps. It was reported (but not actually written down for posterity) that on seeing the Alps, Nathan was speechless and cried like a baby at their beauty. Purely third hand gossip, but it possibly shows a more human side to the businesslike Knorr.
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vienne
Sparky,
Your comment is useful to me. Would you please tell me what years you were at Bethel so I can put this in context? If you do not want to put that in a public post you can PM me. thanks
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sparky1
I was a Bethelite in the mid 70's. 1974, 1975 and 1976. I was somewhat friendly with Sam Van Sipma who was one of the assistant editors of Consolation and Golden Age. I did not know Knorr personally but ran into him on occasion. I picked up bits and pieces of gossip from friends of his wife, too.