HS #73 2021.8.12
Memories of Elliot
Nine years ago after my folks had died and I left Hope College, I made a Pro and Con sheet about whether to begin new adventures elsewhere or stay in Holland, my home of 25 years. In the “Holland Pro” column I included, “Be able to attend the funerals of old friends - especially Elliot Tanis.”
Having recently died at the age of 87 – just two months after discontinuing tennis with his friends of fifty years – I want to dedicate this column to Elliot – a remarkable person.
My relationship with Elliot is just over 100 years old. That is when, as I understand, his father and my grandfather became friends when attending Western Theological Seminary. Forty years later, Elliot and Elaine were members of Hope Reformed Church in Lincoln Nebraska where my father was the pastor. That is my only memory of Elliot with other than snowy white hair. He once told me of a returning student who complimented him, “You haven’t changed in twenty years.” Elliot retorted, “You mean I looked this old twenty years ago!?”
Then I met Elliot almost thirty years later as a candidate for a math faculty position at Hope College. Elliot confided to me that he recommended that they hire, “That fellow who is so engaging with the students.” Six years later, after I had gotten a reputation as the most difficult prof in the department, he had to defend that decision as interim Dean of Natural Sciences by arguing my case for tenure.
So I owe Elliot much - especially since in those early years I wrankled him from time to time by clowning around - sometimes at his expense. However, he was often a clown himself. I still remember him and Elaine inviting the math students and faculty to their home for a “Brass Rubbing Party.” When everyone arrived, Elliot innocently asked if we would like to “rub my brasses.” He was referring to three-dimensional brass figurines which produced neat impressions when overlaid with paper and rubbed with chalk.
He also had everyone nervous that he was going to reveal M.C. Escher boxer shorts during a math talk when he showed all of his clothing items with Escher tiling designs. Explaining he had one more item to show, Elliot began removing his belt. We all braced ourselves – until he showed us the belt itself – tiled with interwoven fish and birds.
Those antics sprang effortlessly from a lively mind that produced a best-selling and widely acclaimed Probability and Statistics textbook. How many Saturday mornings did I arrive at my Hope office to find him with his coffee hard at work on the newest edition. He made some interesting discoveries en route – such as the infinite sum of volumes of even dimensional unit spheres converges to e to the power of pi. Pretty cool.
But perhaps most remarkable is that Elliot did all of that while being just as engaged as a husband and father and grandfather and church member and sports enthusiast and community member and, indeed, citizen of the world. Traveling with him to various math conferences, he seemed to know everyone.
Part of the reason for his fruitful life is that his life partner was another E.T. with similar energy.
At a Christmas math party, Elliot and Elaine had baked scores of sugar cut-out cookies for everyone to frost and eat and to take home. As a 30-year old hungry bachelor, I took full advantage of the offer – building up a sizeable pile before Elaine gently suggested I stop. Apologizing profusely, I continued my mock apology each time I saw her. That began their still-ongoing tradition of bringing me plates of holiday frosted cookies several times a year. What fun!
Elliot was a person of faith in the truest sense of the word. I remember a catechism class that described the proper place of faith in a person’s life. Instead of faith being one “pie wedge” among many others such as family, career, and hobbies, one’s faith should be the center of the circle intersecting and influencing all of those others.
Consequently, only once did I hear Elliot speak openly of his faith. I had asked the whereabouts of a neighbor I hadn’t seen in a while, and Elliot replied, “He’s gone to be with our Lord.” Simple and sincere. Indeed, Elliot’s faith undergirded and colored all that he did and was. And now he has gone to be with his Lord.
