wfn.org | Presbyterian missionary is killed in climbing accident

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6156 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

17-August-2000
00293

Presbyterian missionary is killed in climbing accident

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A memorial service for a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
missionary who was killed in a mountain climbing accident will be held
tomorrow at Lake Nojiri, Japan.
	An experienced climber, Harry Edwin Altman Jr., 58, died Aug. 16, after a
fall in the mountains near Lake Nojiri, while he was accompanying another
climber.
	Altman spent 28 years in mission service in Korea and Japan and was
currently working as a professor of physics at Shikoku Gakuin University in
Zentsuji, Japan.  His wife, Yokiku, teaches part-time at the university and
works in social welfare ministries.
	 A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow at Lake Nojiri.
	 A letter to Altman's widow was released today by Worldwide Ministries
Director (WMD), the Rev. Marian McClure. It said that Altman's passion for
"justice and mercy" was evident in his solidarity with minorities.  McClure
noted that, in Japan, Altman's commitment was visible when he refused to be
fingerprinted by the Japanese government to show his solidarity with Koreans
who were being selectively singled out for harassment by Japan's alien
registration law.
	"In a 1989 letter to a minister of justice in Tokyo, Cliff ( Kirkpatrick,
McClure's predecessor as WMD director), wrote of Harry's motivation, ‘He
loves Japan and its people.  Out of love he decided to dedicate himself to
be a missionary teacher in Japan.'  Poignantly," McClure's letter said,
"that love included not only the people, all people, but the mountains and
the hills also.  In a mission support letter dated Feb. 8, 1993, Harry
wrote, ‘I continue to enjoy climbing mountains with Korean and Chinese
students here.'  I am told that on the day of his death, atop one of many
splendid ridges he overcame through the years, Harry was heard to say, ‘Be
still, and know that I am God.'
	"Perhaps these are the words we are called to heed for ourselves today, on
this most difficult precipice of life -- the death of one of God's and our
own dear sons."
	Altman was accompanying a retired U.S. military medical doctor on a climb
when he died. He apparently slipped on a narrow ridge, falling approximately
150 meters.
	PC(USA) mission co-worker Tom Hastings, who is on interpretation assignment
in Princeton, N.J., describes Altman as  "Lincoln-esque," tall with a dry
sense of humor and as a man who loved to tell stories and play the piano.
	Altman is survived by his spouse and by two grown daughters, Erin and
Kristin.
	Insik Kim, WMD's coordinator for Asia, will arrive in Osaka, Japan,
tomorrow morning and will go to be with the Altman family.
	Other PC(USA) mission personnel in Japan are gathering at Lake Nojiri now. 

_______________________________________________
pcusaNews mailing list
pcusaNews@pcusa.org

To unsubscribe, go to this web address:
http://pcusa01.pcusa.org/mailman/listinfo/pcusanews