In Memory of
Leonard Weis
June 23, 1923 - May 3, 2011
Ethical Society Without Walls
Memorial Service
May 15, 2011
2pm Central Time
Officiating Leader - Susan Rose
I am a grandson of two founding members of the
Ethical, son of a trustee who led the American Ethical
Union into being, through its Women’s group, among
the earliest to become an NGO group at the United
Nations in 1948. I grew up within the fold of the
Ethical, a graduate of the Ethical Culture
School system and of the Sunday Evening clubs.
My grade school was established in 1878 by Ethical
Culture as the Workingman’s Kindergarten in New
York City to keep young children off the streets. Each
year another grade was added as the kids grew and
teachers were trained. It became the best K-12 school
in the city, developed for people who couldn’t afford
to go to school.
Dr. Adler, founder of Ethical Culture, eventually
allowed Ethical Society Members to send their kids
there if they paid enough tuition to feed, clothe and
train the poorer kids so that nobody knew who was
rich or poor. In the 1920’s I remember Dr. Adler
patting my head in the corridors.
By second grade I was sitting at Dr. Elliott’s feet (he
was the second Ethical Culture Leader at the New
York Society for Ethical Culture), and looking up at
his face in our Ethics classes. That’s right; Ethics were
an integral part of the curriculum. I have carried all
the inspiration and ethical development with me as I
moved about the country and through my life.
- Leonard Weis
Program
Gathering - Introducing Ourselves
Introduction - Susan Rose
Sharing - by Len's family
Reading - Three Wishes at Death by
Algernon Black
Sharing - ESWoW members
Moment of Silence
Reading - The Human Heart by
John Lovejoy Elliott
Three Wishes At Death
Algernon Black
First, we would wish that those we love, those
close in family and friendship, the neighbor and
fellow worker, should understand what we lived
for, our values and intentions, what we meant by
our life at our best, seeing our faults and
mistakes with understanding and generosity. We
would want no eulogy or apology either.
Second, we would wish that our life had made a
difference. We recognize how little one
individual and one lifetime can mean in the
totality of the generations. But we wish that
because of us the world might be a bit different
and a better place for humanity -- with some
lessening of fear and hate, some increment of
good in humanity's struggle for a better life,
something enduring beyond the finality of
personal death.
Third, we would wish that those we love, whose
lives are close, should not be confused or lost or
depressed, unable to face the years ahead.
Rather would we wish them the courage and
faith to face the future with a clear sense of
direction and concern for each other. For our life
is tested in death by the way we prepared our
loved ones to live without us, liberated from
dependence upon us, free and strong to make a
life when we are no longer there beside them.
The Human Heart
The love of the human heart is the most real and
The most
Beautiful of all the realities we know.
It is the richest gift of our manhood and womanhood.
It is the love that joins us together as lovers as
husband and wife,
As father and mother, as parent and child,
And as friends and neighbors.
Whatever the length of time may be, to have known
something of this
Is to have experienced the supreme privilege of being
human.
The anguish of parting cannot destroy this most real
of all realities.
The love has been,
The affection has existed,
The ties have been woven.
Life has been shared, the joys and the sorrows.
This has been as real and strong as anything in life.
The love that once was born can never die
For it has become part of us, of our life,
Woven into the very texture of our being.
Each of us would wish to leave some part of ourselves,
Yes, every one of us, some memory, some influence
for good,
So here and now we bear witness to the one we
knew in life,
Who now in death bequeaths a subtle part,
precious and beloved.
Which will be with us in truth and beauty,
In dignity and courage and love
To the ends of our days.
-John Lovejoy Elliott
Cards may be sent to Donna Weis and family, 120
North Greenbay Rd, Appleton, WI 54911. The
family is requesting that in lieu of flowers that you
contribute to the Len Weis Memorial Fund or
organization of your choice, but of course, there is
no obligation.
If you do wish to contribute to the memorial fund,
please make the check out to Donna Weis with a
memo for donation and send to the above address.
The family requests that if you send a contribution
in memory of Len to another organization, to please
let them know.
The contact information for the Memorial Service
Community Call is 866-740-1260, access code
5766842#. The call will be at 2pm Central Time
(Len's time zone) which translates to 12m Pacific,
1pm Mountain and 3pm Eastern Time.