A Reflection on the LIfe of Bert Zug

                                    A Reflection and Celebration of the Life of Albert E. R. Zug

                                                                        The Reverend James R. Squire

                                                                                          May 10, 2025

Words…I knew the text would be coming from Kathy, but I didn’t know when. She wrote that Bert’s time here on earth would end soon. In my text back I thanked her for loving him. She got back to me by writing “he has made a difference in my life.” When I met with Bert when he was home, I asked him what I should pray for, he said redemption, salvation, and family.

Six words that defined Bert’s life…redemption, salvation, and family, making a difference.

Wicked is the Broadway Musical that has been released to be experienced on the silver screen. The musical is the story of positive change and making a difference. It contains a song, For Good, which has a lyric that proclaims, “Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” That line is what we experienced in our relationship with Bert Zug as family, former colleagues, and friends.

“Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” Isn’t that what we experience when we encounter a deeply Christian soul? As expressed in the second book of Genesis I think that one day God looked down and said, “I think I will create the ideal Christian and Middle School Chaplain.”, and he threw down some clay and that was molded into Bert.

My journey with Bert was an interesting one. When I applied for the position of Chaplain at EA, Bert was a student who interviewed me. Later in his life he became a priest and was part of a group, Focus, which had a ministry in schools and colleges. He applied for the position of Middle School Chaplain among a long list of people, and the shoe was on the other foot so to speak.

We were very different in so many ways. When the faculty learned that I recommended that he be the new Middle School Chaplain, they indicated that it would never work because of our political and theological differences. But even then, I knew that he was different. For one, he reflected the school motto, Essen Quam Videri, to be rather than to seem to be.

After we both retired, we would joke about that initial reaction from others for we served together for twenty-one years. Schools are intense and tense places where diverse points of view are the order of the day. Schools can bring out the best and the worst in people. It wasn’t until I saw the musical Wicked and heard that lyric that I could find words to define our relationship which never wavered in support of one another.

It was, “Because I knew you, I have been changed for (adding a word) the good.” I repeated that line to him many times in our conversations after his diagnosis of a rare cancer. What I learned was that many people in our school community, most especially kids, felt the same way about Bert, and kids can evaluate our authenticity better than anyone.

Writing comments home for every student was not Bert’s forte but Steve Morris, Middle School Head, was a patient man, and Bert felt that writing comments on his second form students on their Faith Class essays about their beliefs was pure joy. He would show some of the essays to me as there seemed to be as many comments as possible by him written on the essays. He was their spiritual leader in many faith perspectives. He drew, shaped, and focused the students’ faith development by honoring their differences. He had students in his New Testament course act out scenes of passages in the Bible in chapel. He memorized speeches of Dr. King and gave them in chapel. He was a thespian. He always was one of the favorites in EA’s Scrooge Chapel. His costumes were over the top and drew gasps and applause from the congregation as he took on his role with flare. My favorite was Elvis. He dressed up like a coal miner with soot on his face to describe Ash Wednesday. His chapel performances were so visual that his students remember them for many years with that opening acclamation, “Do you remember when Reverend Zug_______.”  The freedom of lived theater was one of his ways of sharing the Gospel. Vicki and I saw many performances he was in at another venue, Swarthmore’s Players Club. He connected to others, family and friends because he was filled with God’s love, Agape, the unconditional love of others.

Bert was complex and had multiple interests that were not usually associated with a priest. He loved poker and played it with pros at Lake Tahoe where he had a home. He would send me emails of how a game would go using poker expressions that I didn’t understand, like “the river”, so he sent me a glossary of terms for the game helping me to understand his emails, always the teacher. Bert’s son, Graham, picked up his dad’s passion for the game. Bert loved to play this game with his EA friends as well such as Chuck Bryant, Kim Piersall, and Marc Mandeville. Marc died too young of cancer and Bert’s ministry to him and his family is noteworthy.

“Because I knew you, I have been changed for the good.”

How many priests do you know who have a huge eagle tattooed on their back (I am talking huge) or an answering message on his phone that has a real sports broadcaster describing an exciting play by the Eagles with Bert crossing the goal line, then instructing the caller to leave a message for Bert? The Phillies were his other sports passion which he followed religiously. How many clergy have an Eagles or Phillies winter Jacket proclaiming their passion for the game which was his seasonal attire?

But let’s speak to his faith and family including his brothers and sisters as well as Kathy’s family who were at his core. Bert was diagnosed with a difficult to treat cancer just weeks before he would be married to the love of his life, Kathy. Bert was the kind of guy who brought out the best in others. In turn, everyone wished the best for him. He received that best from his wife, Kathy, who stood by him through every aspect of the good times and those times of struggle with his cancer. She was always there asking those hard questions through his fight for his life. She is a CEO of a company and a fulltime care giver; no complaints just love. He didn’t tell me about Kathy when he first met her, but there was something about the change in him as he went through some tough times. He was more than happy. He was joyful. Because I knew you, I have been changed for the good. We were thrilled to see him in such a state during the time they were courting.

Courting was his word. He was old school. He was like a teenager again experiencing that all-encompassing love of Kathy, and he of him. The words “Because I knew him, I have been changed for the good.” Those words bound them both together. He could say them about Kathy, and she about him.

The Zug family represents the Larva Dei, the Latin for Mask of God. God revealed himself in family life in their words and actions. Bert’s life covered his family with love and acceptance supporting them with sacred conversations. I would frequently ask how each was doing. His response was given in detail of their marriages and what they were doing. The details were shared in such a way that his pride shined through. Despite a painful right hand from the chemotherapy, he remained a troubadour of faith, emotion, and fun with his guitar and voice.

Family was a constant support of him. He always called his whole family first for their support and concerns about the latest twist and turn of his treatment. Kathy, siblings, and children and extended family and friends were the underpinnings of his life. His children are all different in their life journeys.

Bert and Kathy ‘s wedding occurred as scheduled one day in late May just weeks after his diagnosis, but it foretold a season of the most rigorous treatments for cancer including the risky Cart T cell therapy.

Bert’s faith can be described by his prayer request to me…salvation, redemption and family.  “Because he knew Jesus, he was changed for the good.” That was his source of life, and he never wavered from it.

Finally, Sharon McMahon in her recently released book, The Small and the Mighty, describes where we are in the aftermath of Bert’s death. “Nothing can prepare you for the moment when a loved one departs this life when you realize you must continue to exist, even though they are gone. Why do the birds go on singing as though nothing has changed here on earth? Why doesn’t time stop instead of making us aware of the ordinary events of life which continue?  We must not cease loving and working, we who sorrow for our beloved are pressing on in a bright new path of service and it will never do for us to be left too far behind in these trying times.”

We can be guided by the words applied to Bert. “Because we knew him, he has changed me, you, and many for the good.” No greater accolade describes the culmination of his life than the last line of a hymn sung often in EA’s chapel, Come Labor On “And a great sound comes with the setting sun! Servant well done!”