Before going to press with these stories, the editor talked to his wife Mary to clarify some details in the stories and help write the short biography above. She related a couple of anecdotes that fill in important gaps in the biography and are characteristic of the Lester that many people knew. For example, Lester had written many letters to then-Bishop Roy Sider suggesting ways that the Canadian Conference’s finances could be improved. Sider came to him with and stack of all those letters and suggested he should take the job of director of stewardship and fix all the problems. Also, for a time Lester served on the board of the Meridian Credit Union which put him in touch with financial people. It was a paid position, but since he was already being paid by the church, he put all that money in a fund that he used to pay for functions for Brethren in Christ pastors as he traveled throughout the church providing stewardship education and other financial services.
The Sum of My Memories
How far back can I remember? I’m not really sure, but I remember my brother Hubert as an infant being nursed by his mother. I was about two and a half when he was born. This experience gave me one of the first incorrect generalizations in life, because I had assumed women had only one breast as that’s all I ever saw my mother using. I also assumed that babies came out of their mother in that same general location since they were fed from that area.
The Howard Fretz family. From left to right: Howard, Leroy (on lap), Miriam, Howard Jr. Lester, Lamar, Kathryn, Elva (mother), Hubert (on Elva’s lap). Kenny was not yet born.
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