Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Vern Witten: Remembering a workhorse

Retired math professor led a remarkable life

Seven years ago - on a February evening in 2013 - the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce surprised Vern Witten by naming him Workhorse of the Year.

"To be honest," he told the Portales News-Tribune that evening, "I wasn't sure they were talking about me until they got down to the peanut brittle."

To anyone else in the room - and frankly, anyone who ever met Witten - the only surprise that evening was that he hadn't already been named Workhorse of the Year at least a dozen other times.

When it came to working hard, good luck finding someone who could keep up with Vern Witten.

Witten, a retired mathematics professor at Eastern New Mexico University and a highly visible member of the Portales community since 1964, died July 22 at the age of 96, less than a month after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

His remarkable life will be celebrated in a memorial service at 11 a.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church in Portales.

Like many in eastern New Mexico, I got to know Vern Witten when I was in junior high. He was a regular visitor to public schools all over our region, keeping tabs on ENMU education majors who were completing student teaching assignments.

Besides having a keen mind for mathematics, he also had an admirable memory for names and people. Once you met him, there was a good chance you would be his friend for life.

It's hard to think of anyone who has been involved in more good causes or attended more community events over the past several decades than Witten and his dear wife, Ida Lou.

They have been pillars in their church, tireless volunteers for multiple organizations, and cheered on generations of local students at college and high school sporting events and fine arts performances.

And how about that legendary peanut brittle?

Witten told me once that peanut brittle was his lone culinary specialty. He made it by the vat, donating countless bags of it to be sold at fundraisers like the FUMC Turkey Day Bazaar and Habit for Humanity's annual Oktoberfeast.

In the almost nine years I've written this column, Witten made numerous appearances. I wrote about his peanut brittle, his military service, his work with Habit for Humanity, and his multiple appearances as Simon the Zealot in FUMC's regular productions of "The Living Last Supper."

Witten wore his faith with the same comfort that he wore his old jeans and suspenders.

When he donned a robe, strapped on his leather sandals, and took up his gnarled walking stick to become Simon - as he did at least 10 times over a 20-year period - there was no doubt in my mind that even 2,000 years later, Vern Witten would have been on Jesus' short list to be a disciple.

He told me that he knew Simon's words as "well as I know the Lord's Prayer."

When Witten - as - Simon said he had "unconditionally and completely surrendered myself to Jesus ... to think his thoughts, to love as he loves and whom he loves, to obey as he obeys, to serve as he serves," well, you believed him.

But let's get back to that Workhorse award for a moment. If you've ever toiled on any kind of project with Vern Witten or been by his side for any event, you already know what I'm about to say: even into his 90s, he could outdo you.

When those of us who were decades younger would start slowing down and pulling up chairs for an iced tea break, we'd look up and find Witten washing a roaster, or heaving a sack of trash over his shoulder to carry to the dumpster, or stacking chairs so he could vacuum the carpet.

The afternoon he came home from the hospital after that last diagnosis, he told me he spent a few hours cutting firewood, for goodness sakes.

Somewhere in all this, there must be a final equation for my favorite mathematician.

Here's my offering. Keen intellect + a servant's heart + the faith of a disciple + the endurance of an Olympic marathoner + a heart of gold = a life well lived.

Godspeed, Vern Witten. You will be loved into infinity.

Betty Williamson expects that heaven has already ordered more sugar and peanuts. Reach her at:

[email protected]

 
 
Rendered 02/22/2024 03:11