United Church of God

Volunteers Vital in Getting God's Work Done: Wally Pate, Tomorrow's Unsung Hero

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Volunteers Vital in Getting God's Work Done

Wally Pate, Tomorrow's Unsung Hero

Sometimes in the last two years, Wally Pate's eyes would water when I asked him about a Tomorrow program we were working on. His voice would choke up and his face quiver a bit as he would say, "It's God's work. It's great."

I miss Wally. When he died last December at 78 of cancer, he had become indispensable as our manager at the Portland office of Tomorrow, the weekly one-hour television program seen in over 50 cities and online (tomorrowonline.org).

Wally worked 20 to 30 hours a week as a volunteer. Elsie, Wally's wife who volunteers full-time at an elementary school, says that Wally would sometimes leave at 8 a.m. and would still be at the office at 8 p.m. He drove 45 miles each way three to five days a week for three years.

Wally was brilliant. He had several careers in electronics. One was West Coast service manager for Quasar, once a huge supplier of home electronics. He became an electronics instructor at a nearby technical college.

At the office, Wally engineered a complex system that put our postproduction editing system together with our duplication system. Working with Chip Chuprinko, our Web master and computerized labeling system manager for labeling of videotape and mailers, Wally would duplicate and mail everything, buy the supplies, keep the office clean, set up all the equipment for production shoots at the studio, communicate with the 50 cities etc., etc., etc.

He had the respect of all the other unsung Tomorrow volunteers—the 20 or so members in Portland and Olympia, as well as the 50 sponsors across the country.

Most of all, Wally was dedicated to God. I am sure his greatest wish was fulfilled. Wally died doing God's work.