Kurt Struckmeyer and Jean Ochonicky

1947 – Kurt Lee Struckmeyer

Kurt Lee Struckmeyer was born to LeRoy Elmer Struckmeyer and Betty Lee Sagner on February 11, 1947 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. The hospital was located at the corner of Grand Avenue and Arsenal. It has since been torn down and replaced by a shopping center. (See LeRoy Struckmeyer and Betty Sagner.)

The day Kurt was born, his father was fired from his job as a hod-carrier because he took the day off.

His parents lived at 2711 North Union Boulevard in St. Louis at the time. They shared the apartment with Betty’s mother, Alice Sagner, who was separated from her husband, Ernie.

Kurt’s parents soon moved to 3805 Humphrey Street in South St. Louis. Lee’s father had purchased the property and fixed up the two-flat for his son and son-in-law Robert Heurer and his wife Wanda Struckmeyer to live in after returning from World War II. Lee and Betty lived in the first-floor apartment. Bob and Wanda Heuer lived upstairs.

1947 – Jean Eileen Ochonicky

Jean Eileen Ochonicky was born to Emil Ochonicky and Viola Baer at Lutheran Hospital on May 29, 1947. She was the third and youngest of Viola’s and Emil’s children, born four years after her brother Larry, and six years after her sister Joyce. (See Emil Ochonicky and Viola Baer.)

Her parents lived in a second floor apartment at 1122A Sidney Street in the Soulard area of St. Louis in a four-flat with a grocery store occupying half of the ground floor. In 1939, Emil had bought the grocery business and named it “Emil’s Market.” In 1942, he bought the entire property.

Jean was baptized at Saint Lucas Slovak Lutheran Church (Svatý Lukáša Slovensky Luteranski Cerkvica.) in June 1947. At that time, Saint Lucas was located at 2006 South 13th Street at Allen Avenue in Soulard. The church was founded by 36 Slovak immigrant families in Soulard on January 29, 1905 and was the first Slovak Lutheran church west of the Mississippi.

All three Ochonicky children shared a large bedroom in their flat. A screened-in porch was attached to their bedroom, where they spent most of their time playing during the warm weather, because Viola thought the other children in the neighborhood were too rough for them to play with. In addition, the back yard of the house on Sidney Street was paved with concrete. Jean learned to roller skate in the basement.

1948 – 1949

Lee and Betty had a second child, Karen Leah Struckmeyer, who was born on March 8, 1948, thirteen months after Kurt’s birth.

1950-1959

Viola Ochonicky wanted the older children enrolled in a parochial school. Joyce and Larry attended the grade school at Emmaus Lutheran Church. Emil drove them to and from the school every day. The Emmaus congregation had been founded as the “Jefferson Avenue Mission” of Trinity Lutheran Church in 1889. In 1950, when Joyce was in third grade and Larry in first grade, Emmaus Lutheran Church raised the tuition at their school for non-members. Emil and Viola contacted St. John’s Lutheran School at Morganford and Chippewa and were told they could enroll their children there and could “pay whatever you can.” They quickly transferred the children to St. John’s. All the children attended the school there through the eighth grade.

Because her father drove them to school before going to work, Jean attended the school for a full day starting in Kindergarten in 1952, even though her classes were held only in the afternoon. Mornings were spent wandering around the school, visiting either her sister’s or her brother’s classroom whenever she liked.

In August 1950, Betty and Lee moved their young family to 5050A Easton Avenue in the upper flat next door to Betty’s parents, Alice and Ernie Sagner, who had by then ended the separation. Lee had decided that he needed to learn a skilled trade. His father-in-law offered him a job-in-training in radio and TV electronics at $210 a month for a six-day workweek. Lee had been making $110 for a five-day week carrying the hod. But he saw this as an investment in the future. It took Lee three years to get back to his previous salary level. 

The building in North St. Louis consisted of two upper flats over two connected storefronts. The flats were at 5048A and 5050A Easton. Ernie Sagner ran the Radio Hospital, a radio and TV repair shop, on the ground floor. The main shop on the east side consisted of a long counter in the front and repair benches in the rear. The attached ground floor shop to the west had garage doors on the front and rear and was used to repair car radios. Across the street was Sherman Park, which contained a public library branch.

From 1952 through 1954 Kurt attended Kindergarten through the second grade at Mount Calvary English Evangelical Lutheran Church, a congregation of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) on the north side of St. Louis. Lee’s mother, Sophia (Kelsch) Struckmeyer, was the daughter of a German Evangelical pastor who had emigrated to the United States in 1891 and had served at least seven German-speaking congregations throughout the country.

In the fall of 1952, as Kurt approached school age, his grandmother encouraged my parents to enroll him in a Lutheran parochial school. Mount Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church was just a few blocks from their upper flat. The small K–8 school had five teachers with two elementary grades per classroom and was nearby the church sanctuary and office. Students were required to be baptized, and contributing congregational members got a discount on tuition. So, they joined the church. Kurt entered Kindergarten that September. Then, on Sunday, October 5, 1952, his four-year-old sister, Karen, and five-year-old Kurt were baptized.

Jean recalls summers spent at “Ochy’s Fun House” in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In order to give the children a better play experience during the summer months, Emil and Viola rented a rustic cabin on the Meramec River from a farmer who owned the property. The so-called “club house” was soon christened “Ochy’s Fun House.” The sole indoor plumbing consisted of a hand pump at the kitchen sink. The toilet was an outhouse by day and a bucket by night.

Viola and the children would stay at the cabin during the week and Emil would drive out to join them on weekends.  Family friends Carmen and Jerry Solovitz rented a house nearby.  Viola’s friend Thelma and Fred Hemmen often visited with their daughters Carolyn and Marilyn, as did George and Dorothy Solovic and their children George Jr., Barbara, and Gary.

Joyce, Larry and Jean all had fond memories of summers at the club house. They would take turns giving one another rides along the dirt road that led to the nearby farmer’s house, using an old baby buggy. There was also a tree swing at the cottage next door, where they could swing out high over the road.

When the children were young, Joyce, Larry, and Jean bought a chicken at a dime store on Cherokee Street. When they brought the chicken home, their Aunt Girlie (Viola’s oldest sister Adele) predicted that Viola was going to “kill” them. Charlie, as they named the chicken, soon turned out to be a hen. She lived on the back porch of their flat. In the summer, they would take Charlie with them to the clubhouse and caught grasshoppers for her to eat. When she became too big to keep in their flat, she was given to the farmer who owned the clubhouse. Once there, Charlie would not remain with the other chickens, but instead preferred to follow the farmer’s wife around,. Eventually Charlie ended up being Sunday dinner for the farmer’s family. The farmer’s wife refused to eat any of Charlie’s remains.

Jean remembers going across the hall on Sidney Street to visit her Aunt Girlie and Uncle Vincent at their flat, especially when the smell of fresh-baked bread was in the air. Her Aunt Girlie always warned that they would get a stomach ache eating that bread before it cooled, but Jean couldn’t remember her ever actually stopping them from eating it.

Every year on the night before St. Nicholas’ Day (December 6), Joyce, Larry, and Jean would hang nylon stockings on a china cabinet in Aunt Girlie’s kitchen. The next morning they would be filled with goodies but the stockings were tied in tight knots. Their Aunt Girlie always threatened the children with finding coal in their stockings if they were not good. This was a real possibility, since an adequate supply was located in the basement for the coal-fired furnace.

Viola still wanted a better environment for the children than they had on Sidney Street and persuaded Emil that they needed to find a house that could provide a real back yard with grass. In 1954, Emil sold the building on Sidney Street to Viola’s brother Raymond Baer and her brother-in-law Vincent Heckman, and Emil and Viola built a new house at 6329 Myrlette Court in St. Louis (63116). Building a new house was very exciting for the children, and many trips were made to the site to see the progress. The backyard was bigger than anything they could have imagined. After moving to Myrlette Court, the children were finally allowed to play outside and could go anywhere within shouting distance and only had to be inside by the time the street lights went on in the evening. Summers were now spent in the yard, the neighborhood, and the adjacent cemetery which backed the property.

In 1953, the Saint Lucas Slovak Lutheran Church purchased 2.37 acres of property at Morganford and Blow. A building program was begun on May 29, 1955 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the congregation’s founding on January 29, 1905. The present church and educational wing at 7100 Morganford Road was dedicated on July 27, 1958, at a cost of $300,000.

In 1954, Lee and Betty and their children moved to 4928A Loughborough Avenue in St. Louis (63109). It was located about seven blocks from Myrlette Court.

Betty’s aunt Lena Bauer offered to rent them the second floor flat of the house she owned at 4928 Loughborough in South St. Louis. Her mother, Christine Bauer, had built the house in 1930. Lena and her sister Louise shared the first floor flat. Later, she offered to sell them the property, which they accepted.

After moving, Kurt and Karen attended Gardenville elementary school at Gravois and Kingshighway. Kurt went there from the third to the fifth grades.

In October 1957. Sputnik 1 was launched by the Soviet Union into an elliptical low Earth orbit as part of their space program. The satellite’s unanticipated success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological and scientific developments. As a result, there was a demand for scientists and engineers who could compete with the Soviets. The St. Louis public schools began testing the intelligence of selective students and launched an accelerated program to give certain students high school classes beginning in the 8th grade and college classes in the senior year of high school. They began a tracking program assigning students to one of three tracks: 2 (non-college), 1 (college prep), and 1A (accelerated). Kurt was placed in track 1A.

In 1958, in the sixth grade, Kurt was sent to the Susan R. Buder school for the accelerated educational program for “gifted children.” The school was named for Susan Rassieur Buder (1847–1909), a notable German immigrant who settled in St. Louis.

The following April, this article appeared in the Sunday St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the “Pictures” section, It was titled “Child Painters and the Masters.”

The controlled naivete of Paul Klee’s microcosms and creatures of fantasy is echoed in this carefully structured painting. It is by Kurt Struckmeyer, 12, in the sixth grade at Buder School, and looks like a couple of teapots undergoing transformation into some sort of weird little creatures. Klee’s “mask'” below is from “Modern German Painting,” by Hans Konrad Roethel, Reynal and Company, publishers.

The article was in fact announcing an exhibit of the Children’s Art Bazaar at the Famous Barr department store in downtown St. Louis. Paintings by area school children were displayed along with youngsters from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Kurt’s drawing was from a field trip to the St. Louis Art Museum where the children were encouraged to draw an object they found appealing. Kurt found a Chinese bronze mask from the tenth century BCE.

Kurt, who had no church home since 1954, decided to check out St. Lucas Slovak Lutheran Church where a classmate at Buder School, Steve Solovitz, went. Kurt’s parents had never joined another church since leaving Mount Calvary and they were uninterested in going the St. Lucas, so in 1959 Kurt went to church alone. Kurt attended Sunday School and was enrolled in catechism classes. Walking to the church was fairly easy since it was only about six to eight blocks from his house. In Sunday School, he met Jean Ochonicky. They were still in elementary school and neither made much of an impression on the other.

1960 – 1969

Jean was confirmed in 1960 at St. Lucas.

Kurt was confirmed on Palm Sunday 1961 at St. Lucas. He started catechism classes a year later than others of his age.

Jean graduated from St. John’s Lutheran School in June 1961 and Kurt graduated from Buder School.

In the summer of 1961, before entering high school, Kurt attended the Mark Twain Summer Institute after winning scholarship aid. (Tuition was $50.) Launched in 1959 and located in Clayton High School in suburban St. Louis, the institute enabled approximately 360 “gifted” students from 75 schools to have studies they could not get in regular schools. Most students were juniors or seniors in high school. Kurt traveled there by bus and street car. His curriculum for the six-hour day was drawing and painting. His teacher, Edward G. Menges, firmly believed that “talent” did not exist; only hard work and practice mattered.

Jean attended Lutheran High School South at 9515 Tesson Ferry Road from September 1961 to June 1965.

Kurt attended Grover Cleveland High School at 4352 Louisiana Avenue. He took art classes all four years with teacher James Elliott.

During high school each year he was awarded with at least a gold key in the Scholastic Art Awards (1961, 1962, 1963, and 1964). Over those four years, he won an honorable mention in the National Art Awards, and in the Regional Art Awards he received a Hallmark Honor award (1963). In addition, he won two blue ribbons, five gold keys, and three place awards.

In December 1961, Kurt was a finalist in a St. Louis Christmas Carols Association poster contest.

In May 1962, Kurt was awarded second place in a high school fine arts competition at Kiel Opera House.

In January 1963, he was awarded first place in a YMCA poster contest. Clarissa Start, a columnist in the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper, was asked to be a judge for the competition. She reported:

Next thing I knew I was standing in a room surrounded by posters. The Y.M.C.A. had sponsored a poster contest and 83 entries from, nine schools were to be narrowed down to first, second and third prize winners. “Maybe you’d like a cup of coffee first,” suggested Lorraine Remmers, who got me into this. Fortunately, the other three judges were experts Rudolf Czufin, executive art director of Gardner Advertising Co., cartoonist Don Hesse, and architect George Kassabaum. As they patrolled the improvised gallery, commenting learnedly on balance, design and movement. I trailed behind, admiring the ones painted in my favorite color, blue. One poster seemed like a knockout to me but I was too timid to say so. Instead I feebly joked that it would be easier if I knew which ones came from my alma mater, Cleveland High School. The posters were identified only by numbers. To my unpracticed eye, all looked good. The students were restricted to the use of the same slogan, “Youth the Y’s Investment,” but they exhibited great variety of interpretation. One chose a stock market ticker tape for illustration, another an athletic pyramid, another a silhouette of the city. Two had punned on “Y’s” as “wise,” with pictures of owls. We narrowed the 82 to 20, the 20 to six. Then It really got tough. We narrowed the six to four, then reluctantly eliminated one, then listed the remaining three in order. The winner was the one I’d thought was a knockout. “Number 4,” I said, consulting the list to see who was the first place winner. “From McKinley High. Thank goodness it didn’t turn out to be Cleveland.” “No,” said Lorraine. “That’s really number 45; the five fell off. It’s, let’s see, Kurt Struckmeyer of Cleveland High.”

In his senior year graduating class, Kurt was voted “most artistic.” A mostly middling student, he was however a Nation Merit Scholarship semifinalist, one of seven from his school out of a graduating class of 300.

The following article appeared in the Post-Dispatch announcing the semifinalists. Kurt’s cousin Steve Spehr was also among the winners.

October 1, 1964 –  St. Louis Post-Dispatch

182 STUDENTS OF AREA QUALIFY IN MERIT TESTS.

One hundred eighty-two students from 51 St Louis metropolitan area high schools have been named semifinalists in the 1964-65 National Merit Scholarship competition. They are among 14,000 high school seniors who ranked highest in the country in qualifying examination given in March at more than 17,000 high schools. Finalists will be selected on the basis of scores in the semifinal examination. Also, they must be endorsed by their schools and meet certain requirements. In past years, about 98 per cent of the semifinalists have qualified as finalists. The finalists will be eligible for scholarship awards sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corp and about 230 corporations, foundations, colleges, unions, trusts, professional association and individuals. Winners are selected on the basis of high school grades, creative accomplishments, leadership qualities, extracurricular activities, school citizenship and test scores . . .

Cleveland High School – Bruce E. Crellin, Edwin W. Joern, James W. Peterson, Susan H. Rothweiler, Michael R. Steffan, Kurt L. Struckmeyer, and Edwin L. Yorty . . .

St Thomas Aquinas High School, Florissant – Lynda R. Lederman and Steve M. Spehr.

In February 1964, Kurt presented a painting of the old cathedral in St. Louis to Nicole Alphand, wife the French ambassador to the United States, Hervé Alphand. They came to St. Louis that year to help the city celebrate its bicentennial as a French settlement.

In high school, Kurt and two other members of the St. Lucas Luther League, Jerry Vajda and Steve Solovitz, formed a folk trio named the Couriers. It consisted of two guitars and a banjo, one baritone (Kurt) and two tenor voices. Jerry, a talented musician with some musical training, was the driving force behind the group. They were inspired by the music of the Kingston Trio, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. They called themselves the Couriers, because as members of the same church they thought they could convey a Christian message in our songs without being overtly religious. However, Kurt said, “As I recall, songs like the ‘MTA’ had little to do with a religious viewpoint.” At one point, in deference to the Serendipity Singers, they were briefly known as the Mercitippityhoppityhoppity Singers (pronounced Merci-tippity-hoppity-hoppity).

The following article appeared in the Orange and Blue, Cleveland High School’s newspaper, probably written by Steve Solovitz who was on the newspaper staff.

Mostly they performed at church, annual Luther League conventions, a fashion show, a bar, and at the Jewish Community Center. On several occasions, they played at a coffeehouse called “The Exit” in the Gaslight Square neighborhood in the Central West End of St. Louis. Gaslight Square was an entertainment district centered along a two block strip of Olive Street near the intersection of North Boyle Avenue that began in the late-1950s and flourished in the 1960s. It became St. Louis’ equivalent of Greenwich Village and Haight-Ashbury. At its height, Gaslight Square was home to approximately fifty businesses, including taverns, cabarets, restaurants, sidewalk cafes, and antique shops. The district was popular for music, poetry, comedy, dining, and dancing. It served the Beat generation, jazz lovers, and folk-revival fans. Many entertainers such as The Smothers Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand, Jackie Mason, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Woody Allen, Jerry Stiller, and Dick Gregory gained exposure at the start of their careers in the clubs of Gaslight Square. (In fact, an 18-year-old Barbra Streisand opened for The Smothers Brothers.)

In 1961, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen renamed two blocks of Olive Street as Gaslight Square and the Laclede Gas Company installed 121 gas streetlights to enhance the charm. It received national notice.

According to a newspaper report, The Exit coffeehouse, which was located in an old Victorian house at 444 North Boyle Avenue on the corner at Westminster Place, had its start when a group of “earnest ministers opened the Exit, a coffee shop promising meaningful discussion and ‘jazz liturgy.’” However, most of the entertainment revolved around folk music and offered a place for aspiring folkies and young poets to perform in public for free. Students could also display paintings and photography. The Couriers would often be allowed to do a set of three or four songs, and then another performer or group would take the stage.

The Exit catered to a crowd too young to go to a bar and hear professional musicians. If you didn’t like coffee, hot chocolate, and cider were served. It was mostly run by volunteers. The coffeehouse was located about two blocks south of Olive Street, and away from most of the action, but was still considered part of the Gaslight Square district.

A Roman Catholic newspaper, The Clarion Herald, reported in January 1965:

“The Exit” has been packing in customers on St. Louis’ Gaslight square. A meeting place for artists and beatniks—and clergymen and laymen—it is sponsored by a non-profit corporation of Protestant and Catholic clergymen and laymen. Housed in an old two-story town house that was once a saloon, the coffee house offers folk music, jazz, poetry, drama and unfettered discussion—all focused on man’s search for God. It serves as a common ground tor two kinds of people, according to Mrs. Lewis A. McDonald, a housewife who originated the idea and received Metropolitan Church Federation aid in the planning. “On the one hand are students, beatniks, artists, drifters, the cautious and the curious, who are largely uncommitted to the church,” Mrs. McDonald said. “On the other hand are church people who have glimpsed some of the joy of life under God’s love, and they want to communicate the Gospel in meaningful new symbols. ’The Exit’ is a place for these people to meet and talk over a cup of coffee, and that is the reason for its success.” she said.

By May 1969, The Exit had finally closed. A news article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said, “The Exit gave up the spirit in 1969, about when cultural pathologists pronounced the end of Gaslight.” By 1972, Gaslight Square had all but disappeared when city aldermen abolished the name of Gaslight Square and restored the strip as part of Olive Street. The building that housed The Exit at 444 North Boyle has since been torn down.

Meanwhile, Jean and Kurt started dating shortly before they graduated from high school in the late spring or early summer of 1965. Their first real date occurred while traveling with members of their church’s Luther League on a city bus to a Cardinal’s ballgame. As the bus approached the Fox theater on Grand Boulevard, Kurt and Jean decided to hop off. The movie showing at the Fox was “In Harm’s Way,” a war film  directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Patricia Neal. Neither Kurt nor Jean were very interested in going to a baseball game.

Trip to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.

Kurt enrolled at the School of Fine Arts at Washington University in St, Louis in September 1965. He studied painting and sculpture, but eventually majored in sculpture. In the summer of 1965, he had been awarded the Susan R. Buder four-year, full tuition ($1,700) scholarship reserved for graduates of the Susan R. Buder elementary school in St. Louis. In 1968, he received the Edmund Henry Wuerpel Junior Honors Scholarship ($267).

Jean attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, leaving after one year. She felt a bit lost at the university and was unsure of her major. When she announced her decision to quit, neither of her parent’s encouraged her to stay.

She then took a Civil Service examination and got a job working at the main Post Office in downtown St. Louis, working the afternoon shift. She sorted mail going to Oklahoma towns and cities by ZIP code.

After spending about a year feeling like she spent all of her time either working or sleeping, she left the Post Office and took a job working as a secretary to the Assistant Administrator at Children’s Hospital on Kingshighway Boulevard. She worked at this job until moving to Detroit in July, 1969. Jean was making about $5,000 a year, while Kurt was making $15 a week mixing clay for the pottery studio at school until he was fired.

Kurt was employed for three summers (1966, 1967, 1968) building parade floats for the Veiled Prophet Organization. In a large warehouse, over huge wooden armatures, he would use clay to model the enormous figures based on artist’s sketches. He then applied paper maché over the clay. When the paper maché dried, other workers would cut it in half, recycle the clay, and reattach the paper maché to the armatures. Then it was the painters turn. The annual parade and associated ball were organized and funded by the Veiled Prophet Organization, an all-male, secret society founded in 1878 by prominent St. Louisans. Kurt remembered that during the hottest days of summer, they would open huge doors at one end of the non-air-conditioned warehouse to let air in, but it inadvertently also let in the odors from a nearby packing house.

Kurt and Jean were married on August 24, 1968 after dating for three years. This was just before Kurt’s senior year at Washington University. They were each 21 years old.

Kurt recalled, “Earlier, Jean said that she had been thinking: why should we wait until after college to marry? I couldn’t think of any good reason why not, so we got married.”

Kurt designed the logo for their service. Friend and Vicar John D. Schmidt gave the homily.

1968 was a tumultuous year. One author called it “the year that rocked the world.” In January, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet offensive and North Koreans captured the USS Pueblo. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated in April. Bobby Kennedy was killed in June, and the Poor People’s March arrived in Washington, DC. In August, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, putting an end to the “Prague Spring.” In July, Arlo Guthrie performed “Alice’s Restaurant” at the Newport Folk Festival. The Beatles released the White Album in 1968 and “the Graduate” was shown in theaters. Boeing introduced the 747 “Jumbo Jet” and Apollo 8 orbited the moon.

They honeymooned at the Hendrix Haven “resort” in the Missouri Ozarks. While there, they had to park their 1963 VW Beetle at the top of a hill because the starter motor was malfunctioning. They would start the car by Kurt pushing it down the hill and Jean popping the clutch while it was moving.

The honeymoon was pretty much a disaster. There was a large spider outside the kitchen window, the bathroom vanity was not attached to the wall and was only supported by the plumbing, and their bed was next to a window whose screen had big holes in it allowing crickets into the bed. They watched Yippie demonstrators beaten on the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. They were anxious to get back to their townhouse apartment.

Their first home was a townhouse apartment which they rented at 219 University Court in the Laclede Town development in St. Louis (63103) where they lived until July of 1969. They were at home one day when some children came to the door with a puppy they had found hiding under a mailbox. “Is this puppy yours?” they asked. Jean and Kurt took the puppy in and named him Zeke.

In November of 1968, Richard Nixon was elected president. Jean and Kurt voted for the first time. They each cast their votes for Hubert Humphrey, although they had a Gene McCarthy sunflower sticker on their VW Beetle.

Divinity student and good friend John Schmidt visited frequently for home cooked meals. He taught Kurt and Jean to appreciate fine California wine. John and Kurt designed four different Christmas cards for the 1968 holidays. They juxtaposed biblical messages with clippings from magazines and newspapers. John had them printed at the seminary print shop.

During Kurt’s senior year at Washington University, recruiters from the Styling Staff at General Motors Technical Center visited the art school, looking for sculptors who wanted to work for GM in suburban Detroit. Having no other prospects, and thinking the idea of moving to another city was very exciting, Kurt submitted a portfolio of his work and got an immediate invitation for an interview.

General Motors flew Kurt and Jean to Detroit where they stayed at a hotel in Birmingham, Michigan. After being interviewed at the Technical Center in Warren, Kurt was offered a position, which he immediately accepted. Kurt graduated from the School of Fine Arts with a BFA in sculpture on June 9, 1969 and started work for General Motors Design Staff on July 1, 1969. (He remained there for almost 37 years, going from 5th, 6th, and 7th levels in 15 years, and then the last 21 years as an 8th level manager.)

Up until his graduation from college, Kurt had a draft status with a 2-S deferment for post-secondary education. Once he graduated, it would automatically changed to 1-A status. On February 14, 1969, Kurt applied for 1-O status, a conscientious objector to war. 1969 was the high point of the war in Viet Nam.

Over ten handwritten pages, Kurt described his religious training and beliefs. He attached letters of support from his two pastors, John Kovak and Jeroslav Vajda, as well as five students at Concordia Seminary—John Schmidt, David Betzner, Alan Piotter, Larry Memming, and Richard Hopf. In June 1969, he was called to appear before his draft board, and was summarily denied CO status. It was clear that the board members had read nothing he wrote. They stated that unless he was a member of a peace church like the Mennonites or the Quakers, he would be denied CO status. Kurt decided to appeal the decision to a appeal board in Michigan.

In late June, Kurt and Jean left for Detroit, thinking they would be in Michigan one or two years while Kurt got a master’s degree in Art History at Wayne State University and he got a job teaching at a small college.

Kurt was hired by General Motors Styling Staff in Warren, Michigan as a Junior Clay Modeler (5E21) on July 1, 1969. His monthly income was $670 which equated to an annual income of $8,040. He was assigned to the Design Development studio, where he made a set of modeling tools and learned the techniques of industrial clay modeling. After several months, he was assigned to the Advanced Pontiac Studio where he remained until 1975.

Kurt’s and Jean’s first home in Detroit was a small duplex on 19330 Moross Road (48236) on Detroit’s east side, where they moved with their dog, Zeke. They weren’t there too long, when Jean decided to look for a job, both to keep her busy and also to provide them with extra income so they could travel back to St. Louis for Christmas.

Jean applied for a job as secretary at Calvary Lutheran Church at the corner of Gateshead and Mack. She didn’t get the job, but Kurt and Jean decided to join the congregation, which was a member of the American Lutheran Church (ALC). Ken Roberts was the pastor, recently graduated from seminary, and he and his wife, Marilyn, soon became good friends.

Jean soon found a job with the Visiting Nurse Association, doing office work and updating patient orders. Jean worked at the Visiting Nurse Association from August of 1969 until May of 1971, when she quit because she was pregnant with their first child, Amy.

Kurt was required to take a physical for the draft. He decided to go back to St. Louis for the physical exam. He passed with flying colors until he came to the very last desk where he was asked by a doctor, “Is there any reason why you cannot serve in the army?” Kurt said yes, he believed there was. He handed the doctor a letter from his pediatrician, Dr. Dorothy Jones, testifying they he had been treated by her at the age of thirteen of childhood asthma. The doctor read the letter and told Kurt that Dr. Jones had trained him in pediatrics, “If she says you had asthma, then you had asthma. And any asthma after age 12 disqualifies you from service.” When Kurt got back to Detroit, he learned that the Michigan appeals board had voted unanimously in his favor and granted him 1-O status. But by now he was 4-F and was unfit to serve in any capacity.

1970 – 1979

In March 1970, Kurt was accepted to admittance to Wayne State University in Detroit. At first he had tried to get into a program toward an MFA in sculpture, but was turned down after submitting a portfolio. The university said that his work did not show a consistent direction of at least ten finished pieces. His undergraduate program consisted mostly of figure studies and was not centered on finished pieces of art. So he decided to get a MA in art history instead, figuring the market for art history professors was larger than sculpture professors. Since art history was part of the Liberal Arts College, he was enrolled there. He completed two semesters, taking “Art History Pedagogy” and “Art of the Renaissance” in the evening. It soon became clear that evening classes were limited and he would have to go to school full time to get a degree. He decided that he liked a regular income better.

In September or October of 1970, Jean and Kurt flew to Billings, Montana to visit John Schmidt at his first call. He served a dual parish—Hardin (Redeemer) and St. Xavier (St. John), both in Big Horn County. Kurt later wrote about the trip, “We introduced John to the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, which became our background music as we toured Montana and the Rockies. I also remember finishing off a one-gallon bottle of wine so John could fashion a lamp base for his apartment. When we got home, Jean realized she was pregnant.”

In the spring of 1971, Kurt and Ken Roberts went to a weekend retreat at Tecumseh Woods Lutheran Camp led by John Schramm who, with his wife Mary, had written a book called Things That Make for Peace. During the weekend, participants were encouraged to think about one thing they’d like to accomplish. Kurt said he’d always wanted to own a creative Christian book shop that spoke to artists, but developed a plan to work on his church’s library instead. At the final session on Sunday morning a half a dozen people gave him $20 each to get him started with the bookshop idea. That was the impetus that led to development of a proposal for “The Good Book,” which would be fleshed out over a period of years.

Since the duplex they were living in was very small, Jean and Kurt started looking for a larger place. They found an 1870’s era farmhouse at 15980 32 Mile Road in Romeo, Michigan (48065), that they rented from a farmer who lived across the road. In the back of the house were 88 acres where the farmer grew corn to feed his herd of cattle which were raised across the road. A small barn stood to the east of the house where he kept his calves. They had complete freedom to paint and decorate the interior.

Kurt and Jean’s first child, Amy Rebecca Struckmeyer was born on June 2, 1971 at South Macomb Hospital, in Warren, Michigan.

They had many visits from family while they lived in Romeo. Emil and Viola visited. Joyce and Bill Kolnik visited often with Will, Christine, and David. During those visits, many hours were spent roasting marshmallows outside, visiting Metro Beach, and shooting Will’s BB gun behind the house.

Kurt volunteered for a task force of the Michigan District of the ALC that was addressing freedom for the people of Namibia where the Lutheran Church had a presence. The task force was led by staff member Rev. Al Hagen and met on Saturdays. It was here that Kurt first observed effective leadership, group brainstorming, and goal setting. That led to another task force also led by Al Hagan for an effort called “Project Neighbor.” Kurt designed several posters and a button for these task forces.

After spending many hours on the road between Romeo and the east side of Detroit, where Jean and Kurt still attended Calvary Lutheran Church, they decided to move back to the city. In 1973, they rented an upper flat at 5962 Dickerson Avenue in Detroit (48213).

In the summer of 1975, they bought their first home at 4119 Haverhill (48224), on the east side of Detroit for $18,700.  This was a neighborhood filled with young families with children, so Amy had lots of playmates, most importantly her best friend Kristin, who lived right across the street.

On June 1, 1974, Kurt was promoted to a Senior Clay Modeler (6E19). He was now making $14,880 a year. Sometime in 1975, he was assigned to the Pontiac 1 Production Studio. He was told that the only way to get ahead in clay modeling was to work in a production studio. He worked there for a year, but eventually grew tired of the tedium.

He applied for a position as a Systems Technician in the Systems Application group, which was looking to expand their operations. They operated the first generation of automated N/C machines used in the design process and Kurt saw it as an opportunity. He was soon on a two-week rotation schedule training on the three DCR-3 point-takers, the two clay milling machines, the two drafting machines, and the IBM 1800 computer, which filled an entire room. He took detailed notes which he eventually turned into operating manuals for each piece of equipment. He was on his way as a writer, albeit technical writing.

On August 1, 1976, after Kurt and Jean had resigned themselves to the fact that Amy would be an only child, Sara Elizabeth Struckmeyer was born, also at South Macomb Hospital. Kurt and Jean were delighted, even though it took Amy a little longer to get excited about having a little sister. One month after Sara was born, Amy started kindergarten at the Detroit Waldorf School, where she attended school through eighth grade.

In 1975, Kurt and Jean joined St. Olaf Lutheran Church (ALC), and making some life-long friends there, Kurt and Jean decided to move to the west side of Detroit. They bought a small house at 15765 Oakfield (48227) in 1978 for $18,000.

For one year, in 1975, Kurt picked up the editorship of “The Leaven” a newsletter of the Detroit Conference of the ALC.

Kurt was promoted to a Senior Layout Drafter (7E02) on July 1, 1978. He was now earning $23,760 annually. He was put on a special assignment for one year learning, documenting, and training other employees in the operation of a new HP3000 computer system. The computer boasted 128 K memory which could be expanded to 512 K.

In 1979, Jean started working as program director for the Michigan District of the American Lutheran Church, at Pleasant Hill Family Camp. Summers were spent living at Pleasant Hill with Sara and Amy (three and eight years old in 1979), while Kurt came up each weekend and vacation time. It was a wonderful place for Amy and Sara to spend their summers, surrounded by a caring staff of about ten people ranging in age from high school and college students to adults.

Each summer, they were visited by Emil and Viola Ochonicky, Jean’s godmother Thelma Hemmen, and often cousins Michael and Melisa Ochonicky. Joyce and Bill Kolnik also visited each summer with Will, Christine, and David. Days were spent swimming in Bass Lake, making things at the art shack, campfires and sleepovers at night and making friends from different parts of Michigan who visited each summer. Sara sometimes spent the entire day in her swim suit.

Jean worked at Pleasant Hill for six summers, the last three working part-time September through May, planning the summer and hiring and training the staff, and then full time as Program Manager from June through August. It was the best and most fulfilling job she ever had, and sometimes the most frustrating.

On May 28, 1984, the Detroit Free Press printed an article titled “The Family Goes to Camp.”

The article is by Nancy Solak, Free Press special writer.

Ask nine-year-old Peter Gillespie what his favorite thing about Pleasant Hill family camp is, and he will say the Eagle Swoop, a crude playground contraption that simulates the freedom of flight from a child’s point of view. Ask Peter’s mother, Sandy, what her favorite thing about family camp is, and she’ll say it’s the atmosphere of acceptance that allows everyone to thoroughly relax. There are hundreds of camps in Michigan, but family camps are as rare as the doctor who makes house calls. Of about a dozen family camps in Michigan, Pleasant Hill Lutheran Camp is the only one that has family camping all summer.

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY is the main difference between family camps and other facilities. Marie Zeller, of Grosse Pointe, who along with her husband and two children has been to Pleasant Hill three times, says “family camp isn’t just fishing and lying around on a beach, although that’s certainly a part of it. Its uniqueness comes from the fact that you aren’t only fed the sun’s rays, but you’re fed intellectually and spiritually as well. “This food for both the mind and soul is shared with the kind of people who will trek off to camp, willing to live with other people and get to know them, take the experience however it comes, and are generally very, open, loving, interesting, people.”

Jean Struckmeyer, Pleasant Hill’s program director, says the main goal is “to make people feel included, a part of the community.” Meeting that goal, she says, begins with training her young adult staff to be sensitive to each camper’s needs. While one person may need a week of doing absolutely nothing, another may require recreation. Campers may participate as little or as much as they wish. The staff is trained to listen with “non-judgmental ears,” as Struckmeyer puts it. Family camp can become a healing place as it was for Sherrie Rushman, of Pontiac, who was suffering from a separation from her husband when she went to camp last summer with her two sons. Rushman says she found support from the staff and from her fellow campers.

CAMPERS REPORT other aspects of family camp that contribute to the community spirit: meals in the dining hall, informal worship services at sunset, a community coffee pot plugged in day and night, a non-denominational Sunday service, and the opportunity for campers to combine their talents, such as the man who gave an impromptu fishing lesson to a group of youngsters. In Struckmeyer’s years on staff at Pleasant Hill, she has discovered there are misconceptions about family camps, church-sponsored ones in particular. “Some people fear a heavy religious experience will be forced on them, and later they will come back to me and express relief and surprise when that fear didn’t materialize.” Another misconception is that campers must be of the same religious faith as the church group sponsoring the camp. “Everyone is welcome here,” says the Rev. Paul Christ, director of Michigan Family Camps, which oversees Pleasant Hill. “We assume that people probably wouldn’t be interested in coming unless they had some belief in a supreme being or at least were in the search process.”

A THIRD MISCONCEPTION arises from the word “family.” The Rev. Christ says that the “family is defined as not only the traditional nuclear family of mom and dad and kids, but also as parents without partners, whether they be widowed or divorced, and retired, married couples.” Last summer, Janet Wingo, a single mother from Detroit, brought her teenage son and her four-year-old nephew to camp, saying she “liked being together as a family unit.” And Carla Mercer brought her three youngsters while her husband was serving duty as a National Guardsman. Sandy Gillespie points out yet another misconception about family camp. “Many people, when they hear the word ‘camp,’ immediately think of tents and cooking outdoors. Though these options are available at Pleasant Hill, their preconceived notion of actually camping makes them unaware that lodging is available and meals are prepared and served without camper assistance. It’s not the Carlton-Ritz,” she hastens to add, “but it is comfortable and the food is tasty and nutritious.” Although vacations often mean constant togetherness that can lead to squabbling and complaining, parents at family camp do not have to be with their children all of the time. In addition to children’s programming morning and afternoon, there are plenty of activities the children can do on their own.

MARIE ZELLER says that one of the nicest things about family camp is that “you don’t have to go around chasing after your children every minute. You can relax knowing that there are caring people around, sort of watching over your kids just like you’re watching over theirs.” Janet Wingo adds that “the campground was small enough that he (her pre-school nephew) was able to go to things without me taking him.” This freedom to relax for parents translates into freedom for the children. Children make friends quickly, shy children gain confidence, and curious children are given free rein to explore in a safe setting. Ask the Rev. Christ what his favorite thing about Pleasant Hill is, and he won’t say the Eagle Swoop. At 6 feet 6, he is too big to take a swoop. And as director of the camp, he won’t say it’s the relaxation. His favorite thing “is the satisfaction in seeing people of different races and economic backgrounds actively participating with each other and finding out that they really aren’t that different. As a result of that, they go back home with a renewed sense of their own values as to who they are, and a renewed sense of being open people, who on the surface, appear to be different.”

In 1979, Kurt was asked to serve on a Quality of Work Life (QWL) Coordinating Group by Ken Pickering, the Director of Engineering at Design Staff. Kurt had written a paper on effective communication and it had come to Ken’s attention.

1980 – 1989

In February of 1981, Kurt was thanked for his service on the QWL committee. In 1982, General Motors conducted another Quality of Work Life (QWL) survey and the results for Kurt’s work group were not pretty. Employees were encouraged to flesh out the findings with some specific details. Kurt facilitated the group in producing a report which ran to 18 pages. For every problem identified, they recommended solutions. When the management of the Systems Applications group saw it, they called it the “18-wheeler.” They felt like they were hit by a truck. They promptly buried the report. 

In 1981, a larger house became available at 15848 Oakfield (48227). It was a brick home and just a half a block away from their current house. They purchased it for $48,000 and lived there for 11 years.

This was also the year that Sara began kindergarten, joining Amy at the Detroit Waldorf School.

In early 1983, Kurt was feeling like he was going nowhere, and was stuck in a job that would lead nowhere. So he applied for a MBA program at University of Michigan. He was told that because his undergraduate degree was in art rather than business, he would have to complete some prerequisite courses before admission. He would be required to complete course work in economics, computer programming, and calculus. So he enrolled at Henry Ford Community College and took data processing, programming in Fortran and Basic, as well as Macro and Micro Economics.

On July 1, 1983, Kurt was promoted to Senior Designer (7E07) with an annual salary of $36,300. That year was another QWL survey and the work group began exploring creating a salaried union.

Salaried union was defeated.

Kurt was soon appointed as the manager of Systems Application. On September 1, 1984, Kurt was promoted to Drafting Group Supervisor (8E17) with an annual salary of $39,456. Also on September 1, 1984 he was reclassified to Staff Project Engineer (8E01).

He was quickly made manager of Operational Planning, which at first consisted of scheduling drafting room releases of body panels. This involved making presentations to senior management. He would be manager of Operational Planning from 1984 to 1990.

4-phase process.

Amy graduated from Waldorf in June of 1984, then attended Mercy High School (an all-girls prep school) in Farmington Hills, Michigan until June of  1988. Sara attended Waldorf until sixth grade (1987), when she transferred to Upland Hills School in Oxford, Michigan. 

On June 1, 1988, Kurt was promoted to 8A, the highest classification he would receive, first as a Development Engineer (8E03).

In September of 1988, Amy entered the Washington University School of Architecture.

1990 – 1999

On January 16, 1990, Kurt was reclassified to Senior Administrator (8E92) and was made a Resource Manager for engineering. He would hold that position until 1991.

In 1991, Jean and Kurt moved to 25537 Arden Park Drive (48336) in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where they lived for fifteen years.

In 1991, Kurt was made manager of Strategic Technology Planning. This involved being a representative to the corporate C-4 committee. He would remain in this position until 1995.

Then he was made manager of Strategic Organizational Planning from 1995 to 1996.

Finally he was made manager of Strategic Communication in 1996, a position he held until he retired in 2005.

Amy received her undergraduate degree in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis in June 1992, lived for one year in New York City, then started graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1994, where she received her graduate degree in Architecture in June of 1996 or 1997.

Sara graduated from Uplands Hills in 1990 and went to Mercy High School, graduating in 1994. Sara then entered Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, where she received a BFA in photography and women’s studies. She graduated in June 1998.

Amy and Jim’s wedding on September 5, 1999 at Good Shepard Lutheran Church in Oak Park, Illinois. Reception at the Cheney Mansion.

2000 – 2009

Sara and Chris’ wedding on May 25, 2002 at Weller’s in Saline, Michigan.

Sara and Chris attended the Savanah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savanah, Georgia for two years. Sara earned an MFA in photography.

In 2004, Kurt registered the web site “FollowingJesus.org” and created the fictitious Mustard Seed School of Theology. Some time later, he also registered the web site “StruckmeyerFamily.com.”

In 2005, Kurt retired from General Motors. He was just 58. He had at least 30 years of service, and attained 85 combined points in age and years of service by age 55 to qualify him for a full pension. But the pension was reduced by 7% a year for every year under the age of 62. Retiring at 55 meant a 49% reduction. However, when he was 58, General Motors was attempting to rid themselves of 8th level employees with small departments as well as PEP cars by offering a special package. They offered to add 4 years to the employee’s age, a financial bridge equal to Social Security until age 62, continuation of health insurance until 65, and $2.000 in retraining funding. Kurt jumped at the chance.

He quickly took courses in Adobe Dreamweaver web design software and Adobe Flash animation software.

In 2006, Kurt and Jean moved to 1200 Clayton Court (60134) in Geneva, Illinois to be near Amy, Jim, and Henry.

Kurt still had some training funds to spend, so he enrolled at the Fine Line Creative Arts Center and took classes in using both oil pastels and soft pastels.

In early 2007, he was asked by Ed Welburn, the Vice President of Design Center to rescue a book project on the history of the Design Center. That resulted in Driving Style: GM Design’s First Century, published in 2008.

In November of 2008, Kurt had surgery to remove his gallbladder, followed by a TURP procedure soon after.

On June 1, 2009, GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2010 – 2019

In 2010, Kurt and Jean returned to Michigan. They moved into 32972 Thorndyke Court (48334) in Farmington Hills.

In 2016, Kurt published A Conspiracy of Love: Following Jesus in a Postmodern World.

In 2017, Kurt published An Unorthodox Faith: A New reformation for a Postmodern World.

2020 – 2029

On the morning of February 6, 2020, Kurt suffered a massive stroke, which paralyzed his entire right side from head to foot.

In 2021, Kurt and Jean put a first floor addition an the side of their house, which contained a master bedroom suite.

In 2023, Kurt published People of the Way: Passion and Resistance in a Postmodern World.