Empire, Michigan 49630
March 1996
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GLENN C. FURST
Co-founder and past President of the South Manitou Memorial Society, Glenn C. Furst 82, of Zephyrhills, Florida and Ludington died December 12, 1995 at his home in Florida, following an extended illness. Glenn Clifton Furst was born July 26, 1913, in Empire, to Martin C. and Zella (Mabie) Furst. He grew up and attended school on both South and North Manitou Islands. On Feb. 24, 1936, in Traverse City he was married to Ethel R. Noonan who survives. Surviving, in addition to his wife, are two daughters, Glenda Schilhizzi of Bay Village Ohio, and Sherry (William) Shoup of Muskegon; two sons, Charles (Sharon) Furst of Grandville, and Gene (Patricia) Furst of Allegan; one sister, Ethel Stormer of Benzonia, two half-brothers, George (Gail) Hutzler and Dale (Ann) Hutzler, both of Boyne City; one half-sister, Leota (William) Goeman of Villa Park, Illinois; 12 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Glenn entered the United States Coast Guard in 1934 serving on South Manitou Island. In 1942 he participated in the first landing of Guadalcanal and served two years in that area. He was also stationed in Galveston, Texas; Mobile, Ala.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Ludington, where he did marine inspection work. He served in three wars, including World War II, Korea and Vietnam, retiring from the United States Coast Guard September 30, 1964, after thirty years of service. From 1965 until 1970 he was employed by the Ann Arbor Carferry Line. He authored the book, My Point of View in an attempt to relate what it was like for a young boy to live nine years of his early childhood at an isolated lighthouse station on North Manitou Island. (A station that washed into Lake Michigan many years ago.) Services were held December 17, 1995 at the Dorrell Funeral Home Chapel in Ludington. Burial services we planned for May 3, 1996 at 11:00 a.m. at Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington. |
GLENN FURST
I have had the privilege of having known Glenn for 20 years. When I first met Glenn he was already retired and a grandfather, and I was working on South Manitou Island, the mother of three teenage daughters. While politicians and television personalities are talking endlessly about family values pertaining only, as I understand it, to the care of children, Glenn Furst has defied this notion. Adults too need a role model, someone who shows us how to live right, how to dream and how to make these dreams come true.
Glenn was a humble man. He was raised on South and North Manitou Islands with few luxuries surrounding him. With minimal formal schooling, which he always regretted, he was largely a self—made man. As a young man he joined the U.S. Coast Guard and served in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. After retiring from the Coast Guard, he finished his sailing career as Chief Engineer on the Ludington Car Ferries.
However, Glenn still had dreams. He dreamed of, somehow, preserving the history of South Manitou Island. Although he had no idea of what this preservation would entail, he knew that to start a new project, you have to begin at the beginning.
He began by talking about the island to anyone who would listen, and he told stories, always pointing out how important it is that the stories be told and retold in order to keep the history alive. Whenever Glenn visited the island he also worked hard. He cleaned and repaired, restored and renewed the graves and fences in the cemetery as well as the gravesites in the outlying farm areas. With primitive tools he uncovered unmarked graves, and he made crosses for the deceased when little information on them was available. He also collected funds from relatives and friends to buy headstones for the graves of the deceased on which he had researched correct names and correct dates of births and deaths. With only bags of cement at his disposal and a few buckets of water, which he hauled to the cemetery in an old vehicle, he managed to install the headstones and crosses on the graves.
The project took many years but all the while Glenn encouraged others, including National Park Service personnel, to take an interest in the restoration and maintenance of the cemetery and gravesites on the farm properties. Every summer thousands of people visit South Manitou Island with many of them also visiting the cemetery where, because of Glenn, the story of those who lived and died on the island can now be told.
Glenn's dream did not end with the restoration of the cemetery however. In 1988, when money became available for possibly organizing a society to preserve the history of the Island, Glenn proposed at a reunion of former islanders and friends that the time had actually come to start such an organization. The proposal met with approval, and Glenn was elected President of the South Manitou Memorial Society.
He had little experience in organizing such a society, but he contacted lawyers, National Park Service and State of Michigan officials as well as officials of the Internal Revenue Service. "One step at a time", Glenn would say. After the official business was taken care of he helped write the By—laws of the Society. In addition, he conducted meetings and wrote articles for the newsletter. In his spare time he wrote and published a book about his life as a child in the Lighthouse on North Manitou.
Shortly after Glenn was elected President of the Memorial Society he was diagnosed as having cancer. He was often fatigued and in pain; the treatments he received were no pleasure but he seldom complained, and his zeal for preserving the Island's history never faltered. If only we could follow in his footsteps
He had one more dream, to see the Lighthouse on South Manitou Island restored! It did not happen during his lifetime but, perhaps, it will during ours. Glenn had visions that members of the Memorial Society donate their time, efforts and monetary resources to help at least restore ONE room in the Lighthouse and install a plaque in dedication to ALL islanders who ever lived on the island.
Glenn has shown us that it is alright to dream, and he has shown us that dreams can be realized if we start at the beginning. His dream of preserving the history of the Island began by telling stories. If we want to preserve the Lighthouse, which is so much a part of South Manitou, we too must begin by telling stories to anyone who wants to listen. We must also take one step at a time, work hard and do what needs to be done, even if we have to use primitive tools.
Our first President has shown us the way. We cannot and must not disappoint him.
Johanna de Kok
We would like to welcome the following new members to the South Manitou Memorial Society:
Vincent Herried, of Holt, MI
Thank you and Welcome Aboard!
SWEATSHIRTS AND T-SHIRTS
STILL AVAILABLE
Please contact:
Pat Siegrist, Secretary
1981 Dean Ave.
Holt, Michigan 48842
Many sizes and styles are available for purchase. Why not "sport" one this summer!
Greetings to all members of the Memorial Society. We share your sorrow at the loss of Glenn Furst last December. Many of us knew Glenn from his visits to the park headquarters building. We fondly remember the many stories he related to us concerning the islands he knew so well. Island District Ranger Chris Johnson, noted that he had only met Glenn once, but felt he was a friend he could have had for life. We will all miss him.
Firm commitments to the staffing levels of both South and North Manitou Islands cannot be made because Congress has not yet given the National Park Service a budget. However, we are planning on approximately the same level of services on both islands as in 1995. We will have services provided on both islands by Memorial Day Weekend. We will close the SMI facilities after Columbus Day, and NMI facilities will be closed on November 9th, following the deer hunt.
The Ranger Division will have some more help from interns and volunteers this next summer. On SMI we will have a Volunteer In the Park (VIP) helping with lighthouse tours in May and early June. An intern from Grand Valley State University will help out from June through August. Fred and Mary Messerschmidt are planning on coming back in June.
A VIP with a biology degree will be helping out on North Manitou Island from May to early June. This VIP will assist with the piping plover study and help monitor the bald eagle nesting. We are also hoping to arrange for another student intern for NMI, as well.
The Sierra Club is scheduled to replace the two family plot fences in the NMI Cemetery over Memorial Weekend. Materials have been generously donated by the South Manitou Memorial Society for this work. VIP Dick Kishline will be making the picket fences for the Carlson plot, and the woven wire fencing has been purchased for replacement around the Anderson plot.
The Muskegon Hiking Club has scheduled another work project on SMI June 10—14. They will be cleaning up building debris on the island.
Additional volunteers are welcome to join in to help complete any of these projects. Contact Kim Mann at the park, (616)326—5134, if you are interested in joining.
The University of Wisconsin is completing the SMI Agricultural History report and will begin work on NMI this year. No site visits are planned for NMI this year. The University will begin with record and document searches and schedule site visits sometime in 1997.
The SMI Lighthouse Historic Structure Report is continuing. The contractor spent a few days at the National Archives reviewing files on the SMI Lighthouse to gather additional information for this report. We will review the document again at 75% completion later this year.
We are continuing to research the SMI Schoolhouse. Additional photographs, sketches, and stories can be provided to Kim Mann at the park.
We thank everyone who has been active as a volunteer, intern, or a member of the Friends Group and Memorial Society. The generous help that has been provided by these groups has assisted us in providing the level of interpretation and resource preservation that is important to us all. We hope to see you again this summer on the islands.
Kim Mann, Historic Architect
Sleeping Bear Dunes N.L.
**Below is a copy of the letter and Certificate awarded to the South Manitou Memorial Society, in 1995, for our Volunteer Contributions.**
P94 (SLBE)
South Manitou Island Memorial Society
317 North Lavinia
Ludington, Michigan 49431
Dear South Manitou Island Memorial Society:
We would like to thank you for donating your time to assist us
through the Volunteer In Park (VIP) program in 1995. Enclosed is
a certificate of appreciation to serve as a lasting memento of
your help.
A total of 163 volunteers working as individuals or with
organizations donated 15,789 hours. This is the highest average
of hours per volunteer since the program began in 1985, something
we can all be proud of.
The time donated is the equivalent of more than seven full time
paid employees. However, as we are fond of saying, seven
employees could not be everywhere at once, but 163 volunteers
can!
We look forward to another year full of challenges and
satisfactions in 1996, and invite you to join us again in meeting
our mandate of public service.
Sincerely,
Ivan D. Miller
Superintendent
"WE REMEMBER GLENN FURST.........."
Glenn Furst wanted to make a difference. He had seen the cemetery on South Manitou when it was cared for by those who lived on the island. He was disappointed to later see it neglected and overgrown with juniper bushes and weeds. He remembered seeing and hearing about graves on some of the farms, and he wanted them to be fenced and marked to identify those buried there. He asked questions of people. He then would use a rod to identify where he had been told graves might be. Quite often he asked more questions of other people just to make sure he had correct information. With help from anyone willing, brush and weeds were cut down, cement crosses were made and put on unmarked graves, and now a new fence surrounds the cemetery.
Glenn wanted to preserve the cultural history of the island, as did many others. He often told me he could not have created the South Manitou Memorial Society all by himself and he appreciated everyone who helped in any way.
I think Glenn Furst has made a very large difference. His stories of his experiences on both islands have made me and others aware of what a child's life might be like on an island. In his way he has helped to preserve "our history in order that we may pass the light of our symbol to the future generation."
Joanna Stormer Smith, Niece
When I first visited South Manitou Island, I knew it was a special place. I fell in love with the beauty of the island ... and it's remoteness. I became very intrigued and curious about who had lived in the remnant farms ... and what it may have been
like to "keep the light"...."attend school in the one—room schoolhouse" or "walk the beach on patrol with the wind blowing a gale on the lake."
It was on the island where I met Glenn. Glenn taught me so much about the Manitou Islands. He put faces out in the empty farm fields. He put a light back in the lighthouse, and a "head of steam" in the whistle shed boiler. He brought to life island characters such as Benth Johnson, Bill Haas, Ernest Hutzler, Bertha Peth, among many many others ... people he knew, and I only dreamt of knowing. He brought to life South and North Manitou Islands!
Glenn and I spent many, many visits talking about the islands. I could never hear any one of his stories too many times ... (especially the "chicken in the outhouse" story). Glenn is a gifted story—teller, as evidenced by his writings in the SMMS Newsletter, his book My Point of View and the many "notebooks" he kept of his writings. (and has often shared with me ... "how lucky I was ...")
I am grateful for having a close friendship with Glenn. He shared his life experiences with me, which have enriched my life. We shared a common bond — the love of the islands — which is an amazing attachment — very strong, very spiritual, very emotional.
Of the many gifts Glenn gave to all of us, the greatest gift — and a labor of love — is the South Manitou Memorial Society. I thank him for his vision and dedication to memorialize the spirited lives of South and North Manitou Islanders. He is admired by many people, young and old alike. Let us keep his project — Glenn's labor of love — alive as long as we are able — in his honor.
During my visits with Glenn and Ethel on the island, and in their home in
Ludington, we would often read aloud stories to one another — or share favorite poems or verses we had written or enjoyed. I would like to share two poems. The first was a favorite of Glenns' ... and has become a favorite of mine. The second will make you smile, as Glenn is doing in heaven, right now.
Kathy Bietau
