Word: mize
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After his ordination in 1932 he was assigned to a mission in western Kansas. As an unmarried vicar he was often asked to board paroled reform-school boys. The boys' response to his decent treatment kept Minister Mize pondering the problems of "exceptional children," as he likes to call delinquents. In 1945, when he learned that the vacant Poor People's Home at Ellsworth could be rented cheaply, "Father Bob" seized the opportunity to put some pet theories into practice...
...Mize's bishop gave his blessing, but no salary; the county commissioners gave him a three-year lease on the poorhouse at $25 a month; the Kansas businessmen he buttonholed came across with $25,000. In September 1945, he opened St. Francis Home and brought in 22 tough kids, more than 75% of them with jail records...
...Boys. The cornerstone of Bob Mize's method is to give delinquents a chance to mingle with normal society. St. Francis boys go to regular public school, and are encouraged to date local girls on Friday or Saturday nights. At the beginning, Ellsworth's citizenry was skeptical of such freewheeling, and they soon had apparent cause. Father Bob's first bad boys practically took the town apart...
...Dreamer. Bob Mize sees it differently: "If I had to give up the spiritual side of the Home, I'd just as soon give it all up." For 15 minutes in the morning and 10 at night the boys attend compulsory chapel services. And the spiritual effort is far more than "bending marrow bones." Perhaps Mize's most revolutionary practice is his emphasis on forgiveness, rather than discipline...
...Mize is so sure that his methods are practical that he has just bought another poorhouse and hopes to open a second unit of St. Francis. He is now out raising money to pay for it and to meet St. Francis' $22,000 budget for next year. New contributors are sometimes surprised to discover that Mize's own salary is the smallest on the Home's full-time payroll ($25 a week, less withholding tax). Said a hardheaded admirer last week: "The man is a dreamer. He's raised $40,000 in the past two years...