GENIUS FATHER
A Tribute to My Extraordinary Father
Edgar W. Baxter on June 12, 1930
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"genius .... 5 b: extraordinary intellectual power esp. as manifested in creative activity."
My father, Edgar W. Baxter, born June 23, 1907,
died February 27, 2001, had these characteristics of
Webster's definition of GENIUS.
Since this is my web site, I thought it should include a brief mention of the many activities in which my dad excelled. I do not find many men who have had such a wide spectrum of interests. I have not pursued nearly as many different endeavors myself. I have tried to specialize and discipline myself to develope a few of the gifts the Lord gave me. I am amazed when I think back to all the activities that my dad did so well. My sisters commented on it when we were trying to write his obituary. They said, "He was a GENIUS." I had never realized that before, but now I do. This is my way of telling everyone who has any interest at all.
E. W. Baxter was good at electronics. He was a licensed amateur radio operator (W0ESS), a licensed amateur TV operator, a licensed commercial radio operator who ran a large radio station, and TV station, in Sioux City, Iowa.
His main work in life was Real Estate. He was Secretary of a private corporation in downtown Sioux City, the Fifth Street Company, for which he kept the double-entry financial records. The company was engaged in property management. He was a good bookkeeper and investor.
He was a musician. He played the tower bells at First Methodist Church, Sioux City, Iowa, for sixty years. He played trombone with the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra one season and English Horn with the Sioux City Symphony one season. He played piano, memorizing the entire second movemet of the Schumann Piano Concerto in a-minor.
He was a sportsman. He won many tennis and table-tennis tournaments, playing both until he was in his seventies. He won a race in speed ice-skating in his youth. Tennis was probably his major avocation. In his younger days he skied with my mother. They also learned archery, but he did not like to hunt. He was loathe to kill anything. He had a strong appreciation for life.
He was artistic. He painted a large oil painting of a ship at sea. It is 38 x 24 inches. | |
An artist gave me this evaluation of the oil painting. "Thank you very much for sending me a picture of your fathers painting. I must say, I like it, especially the choice of his colours and the movements on the water. He expressed it very well. I can tell you it is one of the most difficult things to paint. Water is a game between light and shadow that constantly changes. You have to catch them in one moment. It is very well done, you can feel the storm....It is easier to paint a lot of sky, but your father didn't. He took the challenge! About the composition, it is very unusual, I think. The horizon falls just a little beneath the half, he saw it right. Never put a horizon in the middle of a painting, no good). Your dad also cut the sail of the boat, and placed the boat rather on the right side. That's good. So the attention of the painting goes out to the boat and the water in front. The sky is of minor importance here. What also attracts my attention is "20". I think he wanted to give it a personal touch by doing this, a sort of signature. Although your father was 20 years old when he made this painting, it has something nostalgic and ominous. I like that very much... those sober colours... From here I can't see what his pencil or knife touch is. Therefore I have to see it in real or close-up. It is also interesting to see that. I think he used different touches (strokes) between the water and the sail, but I am not sure about that. I think your father had it in his fingers. You can see he enjoyed making this painting. Very nice."
I thank the artist, Tine Ingelaere, for these discerning comments and appreciative evaluation of my father's painting.
My father was a first-class commercial welder in a submarine plant during World War II. He worked on two submarines that had distinguished service in the war. He was pleased that one of them was particularly noted for saving many lives at sea.
He played excellent chess, bridge, checkers, and "500." He was an avid and competitive gamester. He taught me to play chess at the age of four or five, and I taught him to play bridge in his fifties. In his nineties, we would play about ten games a day of chess when I visited him.
He built a car with frame, motor, etc., but no body, which he would drive around the streets in our neighborhood. He called it "Henry."
One of my sisters reminded me that he was a good photographer. He made many 16mm movies of the family and took many other pictures, as most people do. However, he knew how to do it artistically. He told me the mistakes that amateurs make. I wondered how he learned all of these skills. Much of his learning came from letting people talk about what they knew best. If you were an artist, he would talk art. If you were a musician, music would be what he talked about. If you were a craftsman, he would not talk farming. He had many interests but he would focus on what you know best when talking to you.
One of his grandsons reminded me of his excellent craftsmanship with wood. I have the walnut bookshelves he made from trees on his farm and a giant chess set of Stanton design. He created most of the chessmen on a lathe. The white pieces were from birch, and the black from some other wood stained dark. Both were shellacked to a nice gloss. He carved the knights and the crenellated rooks (he always called them "castles") and tops of kings and queens. He put a cross on the tops of the kings and costume jewelry around the crowns of the queens. He made a nice bishop from cherry wood for my desk. Since Presbyterian preachers are also called "bishops" in the Presbyterian Book of Church Order, I would humorously point to that shining bishop on my desk as representing "Bishop Baxter."
My father memorized many literary quotations that he liked to quote from the Bible, Shakespeare, and others like Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas. Anytime he might rattle off Hamlet's Soliloquy or Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven." His favorite quotation was the First Psalm.
His most useful interest was his study of Scripture. He wasn't a trained theologian, but he kept reading through his Bible and took it seriously. He was always bold in explaining his diet to others and attributing his extraordinary health to his Biblical diet. He made it clear that the law is powerless to save anyone, but he believed that the moral law was still binding upon all and that the dietary law was still healthy for all, since the Creator knows what is best for our body. He would refer you to Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 if you were serious about wanting to build your body out of good materials. The meat, fish, and fowl that we ate was according to the principles laid down in those passages from the Bible. It served him well for almost 94 years, and my mother who started it after she married him lived to be 88. That is a part of the legacy he would want me to pass on to others. Although I do not preach it, for it is not a part of Gospel, I mention it as a part of what my dad taught and how he lived.
I have, no doubt, missed some important interests and accomplishments in the life of my father, but my sisters Jerri Christensen and Margery Truitt can probably supply more information which I can add in the future. If you have read this much, I thank you. And now, before I finish, I will do a little preaching!
What difference does it make that my dad had all these talents? God gave him an interesting life. He was always interested in learning, but what good did it do him or anyone else? The only thing that matters to him now is that he knew the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusted in Him alone for his salvation. The only thing that really matters to us his children is what he taught us about the Lord and believing in His Word. God's purpose is to gather to Himself a people who will live with Him forever. That my great grandfather went to Australia to mine gold in the 1800's doesn't matter much, and what we do in the 2000's won't matter any more, except to the extent that we please the Eternal God and bring glory to Him. The best way to please Him, is to receive His Beloved Son Jesus Christ as your own Lord and Savior. Then your life won't end with the date on your tombstone.
Read the page "HEAVEN OR HELL" on this web site to learn how to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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| My father was also interested in astronomy. He built the second largest telescope in the State of Iowa, the largest being at the University of Iowa. He built a fence around the roof of our home and a "tin deck" where the telescope was housed. He polished the mirror himself. I remember as a boy looking through the telescope at the moons of Jupiter. He taught me the names of the planets and some of the stars. | | |
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