Nauvoo History and Other Things

Eulogy for Dad (1/1/1938-4/24/2007)

In Luke it says that a good man out of the treasure of his heart brings forth good fruit. In my patriarchal blessing it states that I have been born of goodly parents who are of the believing blood of Israel and I think it is appropriate at this time to discuss what that has meant in my life and in the lives of my family.

When I first heard the news that Dad had a stroke and death was imminent, I was stricken with sadness for myself because it meant the end of opportunites to mingle with my parents and I thought that the best was still yet to be. I had always been making plans and preparations and never bringing them to pass. Well, then I thought about my brothers and sisters and how they were probably feeling exactly the same way. And then I thought about my mother, and how it would be hard for her because she knew this man longer and better than any of us. And I know that their meeting and their marriage was divinely appointed.

And I remember as a very young child, being taken to Salt Lake City after we were converted to the Gospel and being sealed to my parents with some of my brothers, and I can't remember if Ginny was part of it then, but I remember that Joseph Douglas was sealed in proxy to us. And of course the ones that followed were born under the covenant, but my mind was vividly impressed with the importance of that ordinance.

My parents were the cause of much good in spreading the Gospel amongst our friends and family. Some of the things Dad was most proud of in his life was when the missionaries knocked on the door in Evansville, Indiana, he knew immediately who they were, and invited them in, and knew the challenges he would face would be drinking and smoking. And I don't think he drank very much if at all, but he smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, and he didn't know that he would be able to break that habit.

And the missionaries said, "Brother Trapp, if you will fast and pray with us for a period of two days and give us all of your cigarettes we are convinced that you can beat this." And my father, willing as alway to try, said from that day forth, he never had a desire for another cigarette.

They sacrificed a lot to move to Utah. Dad was very proud to become a tour guide on Temple Square, and he looked forward to Saturday evenings when he could go up and present the Gospel and the message of the Visitor's Center to people who were experiencing it for the first time. We who were touched by his life and example knew that the new religion that Dad embraced first and prepared the way for his family and others to receive, is the very cause today that we are comforted in his transition to the next life.

When I was 18 and living in Utah on my own and my parents had moved to Colorado, Dad became worried that I was becoming disinterested in the church and I remember that he came to me and talked and took the occasion to take me to a film and out to eat, and we discussed the importance of the church, and just the concern and his sincerity in his near grief as a parent were very touching and inspiring to me and he need not have worried about my faith in the Gospel, but he did, and he worried about that on behalf of all of his children.

I always looked to my Dad as an example for all the things I would choose to do and I am proud to be like my fahter, and I know that the Trapp family, each and all of us, is proud to know him and follow his example. Dad was not overly concerned with death, because as he said to me one time, that Death must not be as bad as we make it out to be, because of the things he had studied and what we knew about the transition to the next life. So he did not spend a lot of unnecessary concern with nutrition of the body but he was very concerned about nutrition of the soul, and his family was like a garden, as Dave mentioned. And you could even say it was a fruitful garden. And we will miss Dad, but not for long. He was part of each of us and we will be reunited as an eternal family by the power of the priesthood.

Dad was relatively young after a manner of speaking, but I remember some of the people we grew up with who lost their fathers at a young age and I feel priveleged that we knew him for an additional four decades. We are truly blessed.

We are destined to feel robbed and cheated by our own mortality. But as we know, Dad is in a higher realm. A realm earned through earthly obedience and sacrifice to carry on some of the work that he began here; his life will go on.

Often I've thought recently of the many friends we've met and made by virtue of the simple acceptance and commitment to the gospel displayed by my honored parents. I've thought of the sacrifices my parents have made in order that spiritual goals may be brought to pass. My father's enthusiasm and spirit is our inheritance. He has created an unforgettable impression on the very fabric of our lives, and has become a part of the personality of each of his children and his extended family.

He and mom were the cause of bringing many investigators to accept the gospel. In Ohio for many years was a constant stream of investigators to meet at the Trapp house, in a small town called Maud, Ohio. And there were always discussions being held there to present the good news to friends and neighbors, some of whom accepted the Gospel and joined us in the weekly caravan to church meetings and to Primary and to travel the distance of 32 miles so that we could attend our church meetings. Now living our religion may not always have been the most practical in terms of convenience to our lives but we are grateful, eternally grateful, for the heartfelt love, devotion, and sacrifice, our father demonstrated.

A city on a hill cannot be hid. My father's strengths and weaknesses were readily apparent to us all. Yet despite earthly limitations Dad tried to bring to pass as much righteousness as he could, and poured his whole soul into every endeavor.

So Dad, thanks for raising us as you did. Thanks for being such an exemplary husband and father. Thanks for sending us on missions. Thanks for sacrificing so that your family could have bread on the table. Thanks for putting up with our teasing and our often failure to grasp your whole vision. Thanks for providing shelter, clothing, and food, through hardships. Thank you for moving your family to Utah where you took all your possessions you could pack into your truck; and leaving your work, and, being not immediately able to find employment in your field, you took a job as a milkman, waking early every morning to drive all over Salt Lake Valley to cover your route.

Thanks for opening your own secondhand furniture store, and teaching us to work in it. Thanks for teaching us to love good music and to treasure the works of Rogers and Hammerstein, and Beethoven, and Gershwin. Thanks for taking us all in the Colony Park station wagon on several trips between Salt Lake and Cincinnatti, and for teaching us how the poor sardines felt, being packed in those little cans.

We learned that even if you were like a sardine in a can, we could still enjoy a good song or two, or we could play Riddly Diddly, I - Dee - Dee, I see something that you don't see. And I think that's what Dad was doing when he uncovered some of the historical insights in this area, was just a more sophisticated version of that game.

We know that your fervent wish and desire would be to go on a mission and we are assured that you have been so called, to be a forerunner as you have always been, and that you will prepare for, and assist the work of the Lord on the other side of the veil.



Dad, if we did not listen to you as closely as we could have during your long and useful life, may we resolve to do so now.



Many descendants are being greatly blessed to come through your lineage. And though you never shied away from teaching us the difficult lessons, this one may be the hardest one of all. But when we next see you, you will be certain to show us the wonderful things you are now learning. And as for today, we can continue in faith until we are united again in a fulness of joy.

My Dad was far from perfect, but he was the perfect Dad. A few short years ago he came to Green River, Utah, for a family reunion and there were many in our family who refused to take the three and a half mile trek to Delicate Arch. Dad hiked the entire way.

On the final day as many of the family were departing for their homes, Dad was yet with us, rafting down the Green River. And those were some memories that we'll not soon forget. We who remain behind gathered here now, will grieve our loss and treasure the happy moments that we had. We are unable to express in this short hour, the many fond recollections that come to our minds. Nor can we express but the smallest part of that which we feel. It is impossible to estimate the numerous lives that Dad touched.



...But we know that his influence can still be seen and felt. Dad did his level best to, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell expressed it, "to waste and wear out" his life in the service of the Lord.

And how often did we see the film, "Man's Search for Happiness?"   As the poet Wordsworth once declared:


Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:


We know that Dad is now returning to that home. We would like to thank him for being our inspiration and the light that shines on our path. I thank the Lord for the privelege of being in the Trapp family.   Dad loved each and every one of us, with all of his heart and soul. As we lay him to rest today, we are assured that we will see him again in the morning of the first resurrection as an honored leader and father in Israel.

Dad, we love you, we will ever be grateful for your example and your life. The tears may yet flow for a season, an indication of our great love for you. We bid you a fond farewell, with our everlasting love - but for a short time, as we look forward to a joyful reunion through the merits of Jesus Christ.

This eulogy, like Dad's work, is not complete. Dad's life was always a work in progress. His enthusiasm and passion for constant and never ending improvement made it difficult for him to say about any of his projects, "It is finished."   But we declare today that though Dad's earthly life may be finished for now, his work and his mission is not finished - that it will continue to grow and expand. The many seeds that have been planted........will continue to bear fruit and we will yet obtain a beautiful harvest. Dad's heart was not on earthly treasures but it was on the things of God........

Dad's treasure was spending the final moments of his life not far from the Martyrdom Trail. It was being able to discourse about the history of Nauvoo and Carthage. It was learning as much as possible about the restoration of the Gospel, through details of the lives of the men and women who shaped the events of this area those many years ago. It was sharing the excitement of those events with all who expressed an interest. Sometimes, you didn't even have to express an interest, you would still get the benefit of Dad's considerable knowledge on the subject. We are sure that Dad is greatly treasured in his new sphere of activities. Our doctrine allows us to hope that he is now in a position to actually meet the spirits of historical figures whose lives he studied so diligently during his mortality.

And we are certain that though we mourn our loss on this side of the veil, the spirits of many, including Dad, are rejoicing at this occasion on the other side. ........We will see our beloved father, husband, friend, and patriarch, again.

My final words are from the words of a hymn that I think was the first one we learned when we converted to the Church:



Come, come, ye saints,
No toil nor labor fear
But with joy
Wend your way
Though hard to you
This journey may appear
Grace shall be
As your day
Tis better far
For us to strive
Our useless cares
From us to drive
Do this and joy
Your hearts will swell
All is well
All is well

And should we die
Before our journey's through    
Happy day
All is well    
We then are free
From toil and sorrow too
With the just
We shall dwell
But we whose lives
Are spared for now
Will put our shoulders to the plow
And how we'll make
This chorus swell    
All is well
All is well!

And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The above eulogy was delivered April 28, 2007 in the Nauvoo chapel. Dad was laid to rest in the Nauvoo Cemetary. His casket was drawn by horse and wagon down Mulholland Street to the Cemetary.

Your simple life
Had too few pleasures
Your wife, your books,
Your farmhouse too

They are ours now
Our greatest treasures
God preserve them till
They return to you

You always gave
But not with money
And life was hard
For all of us

You handled life
By being funny
And didn't see
A need to cuss

Fresh wounds must bleed
But while they're hurting
They're healing too
They're mending you

We feel the pain
The re-conversion
Of all you've left
Us here to do

We see you now
Asleep and smiling
And love you so
Despite the grief

O how we loved you
You may not know
Death came so fast
The wretched thief

You cannot hear
Your wife and children
They're sobbing loud
For loving you

Death can't be stopped
We lost you to it
That cannot be
The last of you

Thought you'd be here
A little longer
And you could tell
A joke or two

We'll have to be
A little stronger
Till again we meet
With you

This is the time
And now the hour
We can't delay
You from the veil

We'll reunite
By God's Good Power
Down by the
Martyr's Trail.

Copyright - Mike Trapp 27 December 2007