The Lessons Gert Left Us

One of Carroll’s greatest instructors has passed into glory. Though she never taught in a classroom or published academic research, the legacy of her lessons is grafted into the very marrow of countless Pioneers.

Gertrude Helen Ullsperger came to Carroll in 1964 and served our campus for more than five decades. During those years Gert raised three children and welcomed grandchildren and great-grandchildren into the world. She danced and golfed with her husband Ron, and she conquered breast cancer. She knew more than half the people in 沃基肖, and she cared for friends, 服侍她的教会, 在唱诗班唱歌. She lived joyfully and loved extravagantly, and those of us who knew her were recipients of her generous spirit.

Gert was a great teacher. 通过例子, she charted out her own 先锋核心, a curriculum for life’s most foundational learning objective: loving-kindness. She reminded us that if we speak in the tongues of angels but do not have love, we are just noisemakers; if we understand and have all knowledge but do not have love, 我们的生活毫无意义. Gert knew that love is what makes life meaningful, and her life was meaningful beyond measure.

The Gert method is best documented in our souls, 而是用无力的语言, here are some of the most salient lessons I gleaned from her
教学.

爱的热情. 格特具体化欢迎. With just a smile, she conveyed belonging to every person who entered the MDR. 她的拥抱是传奇般的. She turned a greeting into a celebration, a cafeteria into a dining room, and a stranger into family. For any student feeling homesick, they needed go no further than Gert to find themselves embraced as kin.

真正的爱. 格特是货真价实的. I have met many kind people who outwardly exemplify Midwestern nice. For Gert, however, kindness was never put on; cheer was never false. Gert was just as likely to tear up with compassion as to twinkle with laughter. She was fervent in her faith, fierce in her prayer life, and attuned to God’s Presence in the simplest things.

爱动态. 格特是一个给予者, 一个领导者, 是引领潮流的人, and someone who modeled the Gospel message of putting others before yourself. A charter member of her Lutheran church, Gert was the first woman in the congregation to serve as a lay minister. She stepped into any role with her whole heart. And on those few occasions when we were able to say thank you to her—naming her Grand Marshall of the homecoming parade, or donning our Gert gear in buttons or t-shirts with her image—she humbly and cheerfully received our offerings.

爱有目的地. How many of us could remember names in our twenties as well as Gert remembered them in her nineties? 直到最后, she was sharp as a tack, and she used her intellect to make others feel seen and cared for. Students may hide in the back of a classroom or avoid being noticed in social settings, but they could not avoid Gert’s softhearted gaze. She knew each by name, by face,
通过故事. She used her position at Carroll and her place in the world to let others know they mattered. 这是她的职责.

Few of us love so well and so effortlessly as Gert. For Gert, I believe it was as simple as letting God’s light shine through. We may forget much of what we learn along the way. Dates and details will blur and be forgotten. But we will not forget the lessons in love we learned from Gert. May we honor her memory by passing those lessons on, for love endures all things.