Lester Mosebrook, Ontario CA, July 12, 2004.

Merle: Lester, you made a comment about Ernie a little while ago, and I said I’d like to

have it on tape.

Lester: Well, I remember Ernie real well; I was a student in his Sunday school class. I

took a class in public speaking with Ernie as a teacher, and I never remember

Ernie saying anything that wasn’t interesting.

Merle: Oh, that’s a beautiful statement, that’s just great. Say a little more about that -

why do you have that memory? - any feelings that you have, or - or if you

remember any specific things that he said - you were in his Sunday school class,

at the Upland Brethren in Christ church?

Lester: Well, I can’t remember any specifics, but...

Merle: But you remember that strong feeling that...

Lester: I remember that strong feeling that if Ernie was going to teach, or if we were

going to go anyplace where Ernie was speaking, it was going to be interesting,

because he really, as far as I know, in my presence, he never said anything that

wasn’t interesting.

Merle: (laughs) I love that sentence, I love that sentence. He never said anything that

wasn’t interesting.

Lester: It was true.

Merle: Yeah, he knew how to say it in a way that made sense to whoever he was talking

to. And if he was talking to ...

Lester: He was a communicator.... I mean, a communicator in the sense that he could get

your attention.

Merle: and hold it.

Lester: and hold it.

Merle: and say something that you understood.

Lester: and say something that you understood. And it was interesting too.

Merle: and he made it worth listening to.

Lester: Yeah, he made it worth listening to.

Merle: Well, that’s beautiful. Well, that helped to take him where he went. He became a

very significant communicator, and he communicated with anyone. Didn’t matter

how old or how young... or how educated or how uneducated.

Lester: Yeah, and he - he was just an all around likable guy. Like you say, it didn’t

matter who you were - he was your friend, a nice guy - just all around nice guy.

He just - he just died too young that’s all.

Merle: Yeah, yeah.

Lester: I ’ve had Bill, his brother, as a Sunday school teacher too. He was good too, and -

he was very interesting also, but he wasn’t quite as interesting as Ernie was.

(laughter) I don’t know that Ernie was more profound in his teaching, but he was

interesting.

Merle: Somehow - he somehow connected with you...

Lester: Yeah, you kind o f felt the same way, huh?

Merle: Yeah, yeah. Well, I think one o f the reasons he was interesting is because he was

interested. He was interested in who he was talking to, he cared about you, he

wanted to know about you, and he wanted to say something that was worth your

listening to. He valued your time, your listening.

Lester: yeah, - another friend of mine took a public speaking course with Ernie as our

teacher.

Merle: At Upland College?

Lester: At Upland College - we went up there in the evening, and...

Merle: Galen - Ila’s brother Galen Oakes remembers...

Lester: I remember him, yeah.

Merle: He remembers being in class, he was the only one in class, so apparently he was

the only one who signed up, but Ernie kept the class going...

Lester: He kept the class - that would be Ernie. That would be Ernie.

Merle: Isn’t that - that’s what I said - that sounds like him. Anybody else would have

canceled the class. That tells you something.

Lester: Yeah - That would be Ernie. (Laughs)

Merle: Why do you say that? Can you say any more about why you say that? That that

would be Ernie? He just cared about every single person that was part o f why he

was interesting.

Lester: Yeah, I think it was, yeah.

Merle: Thank you - thank you very m uch....

Lester: That was why he was so interesting - because he was genuine - there was no

pretense about the guy - just genuine a guy, real - real Christian, and., just great

guy.

Merle: Yeah - genuinely interested - he wasn’t just trying to impress...

Lester: I was sorry when we lost track of him - he went up in the higher education and all

that. He was lost to our area, and, o f course when the college closed down, he

wouldn’t be here for that purpose anymore.

Merle: Well, you know he became Chancellor of the State University of New York, with

64 campuses. Oh - one other story I have on him ...

Lester: He had a good touch with the little folks with like ourselves, and then how he

would then relate to the more educated and political, and so ... but knowing Ernie,

I certainly wouldn’t have expected him to be anything but a fit-in.

Merle: yeah, he fit in ... he knew how to adapt to whatever the audience w as...

And in a genuine way, not just to make them like him, but to help them

understand what they needed to understand...

Lester: It was a sound Christian family that really made him the person that he w as...

Merle: And I think the Upland Congregation - the Upland College community that

included all those people - there was something good going on there.

Lester: The church - it isn’t like Upland used to be, the church has changed so m uch...

Merle: Yeah - 1 remember Lorraine (break in tape) - you were talking about H.G.

Brubaker.

Lester: H.G. Brubaker was a man ahead of his time. He predicted the speed o f air travel

a year or two before it really happened.

Merle: He would do that every year - didn’t he have a sermon - was it baccalaureate

sermon that he would talk about what was going to happen in five or ten years...

Lester: He was always a man ahead o f the tim e...

Merle: That could be part of the influence too on Ernie - that here was somebody who

got him looking out ahead. And he might have had it before that some too, from

his dad and his grandpa. But he would have gotten it from H.G. Brubaker...

Lester: I understand that he can lay blocks, cement blocks.

Merle: Well, you know that he laid many of those walls around the athletic field. In fact,

I think he was up there when he had his last fall that led eventually to his death.5 o - i r e

Lester: Sylvanus Landis told me one time that HG Brubaker made him give a sermon...

and in this sermon he used a word that Sylvanus Landis thought was improper use

of the word, so he confronted HG Brubaker about this use of this word, and HG

said “Not so.” He said, “Some words are defined by the context in which they are

used, and this is one of them.” (Laughs)

Merle: And Sylvanus remembered that - but you don’t know what the word w as...

Lester: I don’t remember what the word was, no. But he said - HG said, “Some words

are defined by the context in which they are used.”

Merle: That’s good, that’s good - not all words, but some - that’s good.

Lester: Some words - some words, if you don’t know the context they’re used in, you

wouldn’t have any idea what they meant.

Merle: Thank you that helps - because HG still had influence when Ernie came, and that

may be part o f Ernie - never thought about that until right now. Thank you.

(tape ends)