Walter Hoops—longtime rationalist activist and stalwart supporter of The American Rationalist (AR)—left instructions that he did not want a memorial service of any kind after his death. But, after all, services are really for us, the living.
His service was held during Labor Day weekend 1999, a few months after his death, at the end of a freethought family and cultural campout held by the members of the Rationalist Society of St. Louis and the Kansas City Eupraxophy Center in Hermann, Missouri.
Hermann was settled in the 1830s by Germans who chose the site because of its beauty, similar to that of the Rhine Valley, and its potential for wine production. In the following decades, many freethinkers and abolitionists found a home in Hermann. Walter came to the United States in 1932. Settling in St. Louis, he became a member of the Freie Geminde (a freethinking German social organization) and was one of the first members of the Rationalist Society. Walter had accompanied us on previous outings to Hermann and was fond of the place because of its German heritage.
After a weekend of seeing the sights, biking, and cooking out, on Sunday afternoon we gathered in the old Hermann cemetery around the grave of Eduard Muehl to remember Walter. It was a warm, sunny day, typical of Missouri in early autumn. We chose Muehl’s grave because of his freethought opinions. Eduard Muehl edited and published the German-language newspaper Licht Freund (Friend of Light). Beginning in 1843, Licht Freund vehemently opposed slavery (years before antislavery became a popular cause) and became known as an important radical and anticlerical journal. Muehl stood firm against any form of arbitrary authority, whether civil or religious. He is quoted as saying, “We hold ourselves as free men, who did not escape slavery in our old home lands to support it here in America.”
We think Walter would have approved of the Muehl gravesite location for his memorial.
As we gathered, we reminisced about Walter. The participants from Kansas City—including freethought activists Verle Muhrer and Fred Whitehead—recalled the many years Walter ran AR’s mail-order book service from his St. Louis home and worked to help make AR a success. Everything he earned from selling books he donated back to AR. Walter also attended many freethought events in Kansas City and helped to bring the two sides of the state together. After Walter’s wife, Eleanor, died, it seemed better that Walter not live alone. He moved in with a freethinking friend, Earl Meyers. Earl recalled that he had to “hire” Walter as a librarian because of an old law that two unrelated adult men could not live together unless they were employer and employee. Walter got along very well in Earl’s home—though Earl was a bit jealous that Walter paid no attention to eating a healthful diet, enjoying German sausages and other fatty foods without gaining weight.
I remembered driving Walter to an event in Kansas City. He was an amazing storyteller. He kept me listening for the whole four-hour trip with tales about Germany and his days in the Socialist Party.
Walter lived life to the fullest and enjoyed it to the end. He enjoyed dancing at neighborhood festivals and continued dating into his advanced years. If each of us could choose the way we must die, most of us would choose Walter’s path. He lived to the age of ninety-seven in very good health. The evening he died, he had attended a philosophy discussion-group meeting. He came home, didn’t feel well, sat down, and lost consciousness. He died that evening.
Whether Walter Hoops would have approved of our informal remembrance, we don’t know. But we, the living, thought it was appropriate.
At Herrmann, Missouri’s Carl Strehly House (now a museum) freethinker Edward Muehl edited the reform paper Licht Freund.
CFI SUMMIT
OCTOBER 24-27 2013
TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Joint Conference of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The transnational secular humanist magazine
Renew your FREE INQUIRY subscription