Published: February 12, 1987, page 43 and 25 of The Pantagraph
John Clayton Tidemann, 44 of Minneapolis, Minn., formerly of Bloomington, died Monday morning (Feb 9, 1987) at Methodist Hospital, Minneapolis. He had leukemia.
A memorial service will be at 7:30 tonight at St. Paul-Reformation Church, with his brother, Rev. Paul A. Tidemann, officiating. Burial will be in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
There will be no visitation. Listoe-Wold-Johnston-Dampier Funeral Chapel, St. Paul , had charge of arrangements.
Mr. Tidemann was born Sept. 8, 1942, at Albert Lea, Minn., a son of Warner C. and Bernice Hayek Tidemann.
Survivors include his mother, Eureka Springs, Ark.; and brother, St. Paul. His father and his twin brother, James, preceded him in death.
Mr. Tidemann came to Bloomington with his family in October 1950, when his father was named manager of radio station WJBC. The family homes were at 1415 E. Olive and 203 Hillside Lane in Bloomington. He graduated from Bloomington High School and Gustavus Adolphus University, St. Peter, Minn., and also attended Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University.
In 1964, Mr. Tidemann was commissioned at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Bloomington as a Lutheran educational missionary. He taught English and Bible study in Kyushu, Japan for the next three years.
He was director of ambulatory care at Mount Sinai Hospital, Minneapolis, when he became ill.
He was a member of the Twin Cities Men’s Chorus and St. Paul Reformation Lutheran Church. Memorials may be made to the church, 100 N. Oxford St., St. Paul, Minn., 55104
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The following was written by classmates for our 50th Reunion Booklet. Led by a dedicated team of local classmates, the project was titled:
"BHS CLASS OF '60 FOOTPRINTS"
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It is hard for me to find the right words to describe our classmate, John Tidemann. During our
friendship his kindness and sensitivity helped me to focus on the goodness of humankind -- especially during those times when goodness is not so easy to find. It was when we were in the fourth grade, I believe, that the Tidemann brothers, Paul, James, and John, moved into our neighborhood. They lived around the corner and down the street about six houses.
This was the early 1950s and children in our neighborhood should have had a Beaver Cleaver kind of childhood. That was true for many, but there was one of our classmates who had a rough time. Children can be cruel, and this particular boy, who lived across the street from the Tidemanns, was at the bottom of the pecking order. Only James and John befriended him and were kind to him. I admired the Tidemann twins because of their kindness and, as a result, reconsidered my own behavior.
Off and on throughout our grade school years John and I used to sit on my familyʼs front porch steps and ponder profound topics like human nature and what was God doing about all of this. Naturally, we thought we were very astute thinkers. Perhaps we were.
At some point the Tidemanns moved from our neighborhood, we both got caught up in school activities, and our front porch philosophy sessions came to an end. In high school, both John and I were involved in school publications so our paths crossed now and then, but I do not remember our taking the time to ponder much that was very profound during our BHS years.
During college, we both ended up in the same anthropology class at Illinois State University. We were both working and trying to earn as many credits as we could so we did not see each other much outside of class. Our relationship might have ended there except for an odd circumstance. In 1964 we both accepted teaching jobs at schools that were affiliated with Christian missions. I went to work in South Carolina for the American Baptists, and John taught at a Japanese school that I believe was sponsored by the Evangelical Lutherans.
Even though we were very busy with our jobs, we were either lonely or homesick or both so that somehow or other we started corresponding between South Carolina and Japan. In no time at all we were back to pondering profound topics involving God and humankind. Johnʼs assignment was for three years, but after two years I went back to school and no longer held up my end of the correspondence. I regret this.
John wanted to be a Lutheran minister like his older brother Paul, so when he arrived back in the states he set out to fulfill those requirements. Unfortunately when he was close to that goal, he ran into a wall of prejudice and was blocked from achieving his dream. He tried to make the best of a career in hospital administration, but that job had a lot of frustration and he was very unhappy. At some point, around the time he was diagnosed with leukemia, he owned an antique shop which he liked very much, and as he said, “It paid the bills.”
Because of prejudice, the Lutherans missed out on a great minister who was gifted with a large amount of kindness and sensitivity. Even today, John is my inspiration to counter prejudice in whatever small way I can. I also try to live up to his standard of kindness. Sometimes at home I will pick up a small ebony music box that John had sent me from Japan, and I reflect once again on the importance of good friends and how they influence our lives. John left us way too soon, but he gave us memories of a life well lived. We are lucky to have been blessed with his friendship.
(Thanny Clark)
Anyone who worked on the Aegis will remember, even fifty years later, the scramble to meet writing deadlines on Friday, then start the next week proofreading the galleys, composing the paste ups of each page of the paper, and writing scads of headlines that counted perfectly and still somehow made sense. On Wednesday evening there was the race to Gummermanʼs so the paper could be printed and handed out after school every Thursday. All this at a time when copies were made with carbon paper and “cut and paste” was a manual operation done with scissors and paste in a jar.
Things got pretty hectic, but there was always one person whose acerbic wit and dry sense of humor could get a room full of teen journalists laughing and back on task. John Tidemann was an Associate Editor that made such a difference in life in the Aegis Room. He was bright, articulate, full of fun and brimming with great ideas.
John enjoyed college and then life in Minneapolis. Things were not always easy for him, but he always followed his own heart and did his best to encourage everyone around him. When he found out that he was ill and there would be no cure, he reached out to a lot of people from his past. I was lucky enough to be one of those people and enjoyed corresponding with him that last year. There were lighthearted letters about silly, happy memories from fifth grade on. There were serious letters about lifestyles, philosophies, the meaning of life, and the belief that death is not so final.
John was a much deeper thinker than I imagine most of us realized in high school. I feel privileged
to have enjoyed the funny, enthusiastic high school John and then to have also known the still witty, still
optimistic, but resigned, full of faith, and grateful for friendship John at the end of his life. –30--
(Peg Rust)