Brother Lee. He was a pioneer for as long as I knew him and for decades before that.
He always carried the same brown, worn bookbag and wore the same shiny, navy blue suit.
He was out in field service in the rain, in the snow, in the buring heat of summer.
He never missed a meeting. He came if he was sick, if his wife was sick, he came with injuries, with terribly swollen ankels, in fact, nothing would keep him from the meetings. He was usally the first one there and the last one the leave.
Brother Lee was appointed a Ministerial Servant but he was never appointed an elder. He was the kind of Ministerial Servant that they used for mikes and chores and menial duties. He did not conduct a book study nor was he assigned parts on the service meeting and he never gave talks other than those in the Ministry School.
Many people questioned this. Why were so many younger men being appointed elder when poor Brother Lee, who spent so many hours in field service and had been baptized for so long, not appointed an elder?
Brother Lee knew his Bible backwards and forwards and also gave many (perhaps too many?) comments at the meetings.
However, Brother Lee, had a good heart and would do absolutely anything for the brothers. Anything, even loan money. Brother Lee was taken advantage of many times and because he was so old and never became an elder so he did not garner the respect of many of he brothers.
I think the reason that he never became an elder was because he was a little silly. He told jokes and laughed at them himself. Loudly. He had boring gatherings and though he was a first class elder "ass kisser" for want of a better word, the elders found him annoying.
I loved Brother Lee. He died recently and I went to his funeral which, thankfully, was held at a funeral home.