Golf memorial for slain JW...

TresHappy

Memorial to a father: Golf outing for family of shooting victim

Thursday, June 23, 2005By M. Ferguson Tinsley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

John Garth Jr. missed Father's Day on Sunday.

On a night in mid-October, a petty thief who didn't care that Garth, 24, would leave behind a toddler and an infant daughter pointed a pistol at his head and pulled the trigger.

Garth died almost immediately.

Next month, to remember the slain father and to help his girls, his brother-in-law, Ryan Potts, is organizing a memorial golf outing named after him.

Potts, of Clairton, said the event will be held July 8 at the Grandview Golf Course in Braddock. The proceeds are meant to offset future college costs for Garth's daughters, Messina, 3, and Chalina, 7 months.

Both live in Homestead with their mother, Jessica Monroe.

"I thought of the idea during the funeral," said Potts, 28, and a long-time a golfer. "I just wanted to be able to do something to help."

Garth was just starting to build a life to support Messina and Chalina, said his family.

Had he lived another six months, he would have graduated from the ITT Technical Institute in Monroeville. While matriculating, Garth worked nights as a telemarketer.

Just a few weeks before the shooting he had moved from Forest Hills to Munhall to be closer to Messina, said his sister, Joanna Potts, 29.

"At the time he was just interested in seeing [Chalina] be born," she said. "That's what pretty much kept him going on the right path."

Some months before the move, Garth had qualified for a general educational development diploma.

Another piece of life he was hoping to put in place was his relationship with God.

"He had wanted to get into life the spiritual way and to bring his kids into that," Joanna Potts said, adding that her family members are Jehovah's Witnesses.

"We were brought up pretty strict," she added, recalling an upbringing centered on worship, Bible study and family rules.

Still, as a teenager at Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, Garth briefly entered the world of street drugs and ended up on the wrong side of the law. But Messina's birth hit him, and from that day he was determined to be an attentive father; a man of worth, said John Garth Sr., 47, of Wilkins.

"He used to call me every day," said his mother, Marta, 45. "I'm not going to hear that phone call anymore; I'm not going to be able to hold him. I'm leaning on Jehovah for strength."

Garth Sr. said God has provided some peace from the pain.

"I don't know that we have total peace. We will have peace when we see him again," he said, recalling a teaching of the Kingdom Hall church that says death brings rest in the grave until the Resurrection. "[John] is sleeping, not suffering."

John Garth Jr. lost his life when three men, whom his father says he did not know, approached him outside a Homestead convenience store as he pumped air into his car tires at 12:30 a.m. Oct. 17.

One of the men pulled a .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun, demanded booty, snatched away the cell phone that Garth drew from his pocket -- it was the only valuable on him -- and then shot him.

A Sept. 12 trial date is set for the accused shooter, Clarence Butler, of McKeesport, who was 20 at the time; West Homestead resident Christopher Thomas, who was 18; and Thomas Smith, then 19, of Homestead.

The elder Garth said police tracked the crew after one of them used the cell phone.

Tee time for the John Garth Jr. Memorial Golf Outing is 9 a.m., July 8. The cost for a round of golf and a meal is $85, meal only $30. Deadline to register is June 30. For information call: 412-596-7627 or e-mail [email protected].

fleaman uk

What a terribly sad story.....i hope the Family get over this.

Tigerman

A golf outing as a memorial, where people keep track of their scores by the " shots " that are made, for a man that was shot to death ! Sounds real STUPID to me.

undercover

It's a sad story, but...

I'm a little confused...who is sponsering the golf tourney? A non-JW relative? I can't see a JW getting away with this. The elders would be all over that. And the proceeds go to a college fund for the kids? What if they don't go to college? What if they pioneer?

I see some inconsistancies here.

It's great that people want to help, but you can't help people that don't want any part of your world. If the wife and kids are JWs, I see this as a wasted effort for people who will not really appreciate it anyway.