Joe Soucheray: For George Verley, Union Gospel Mission was his life

[Valin]

St Paul Pioneer Press:

Joe Soucheray

9/30/14

 

George Verley led the Union Gospel Mission in St. Paul for 25 years. In the background are portraits of Harold Mordh, left, director from 1957 to 1974 and Peter MacFarlane, director from 1910 to 1957. (Pioneer Press: Chris Polydoroff)

 

George Verley died Friday at 80. His death notice in Sunday's Pioneer Press was so modest that I either passed it by or didn't have it sink in immediately. It was only when Verley's niece, Julie Harms, emailed me with the news that I went back to the Sunday paper and found that impossibly short obit for such an impossibly large man.

 

George Verley died. He was the main man at the Union Gospel Mission for 30 years. But he spent virtually his entire life there, with the exception of his tour of duty in Korea.

 

George told me his story, back in 2002. It bears repeating, for this is a man who might have helped more people in this town than all the politicians and all the corporate executives you could glue together.

 

Verley was affiliated with the Mission since age 9. He was born in South Dakota but moved to St. Paul with his mother when he was 4. His stepfather seemed to love his wife but didn't appreciate that she came equipped with three boys. They lived in parts of St. Paul that are now gone or buried under freeway loops and interchanges. They moved often, as George's stepfather didn't get along well with landlords.

 

George discovered the Mission's boys club, the Arthur H. Savage Boy's Club, on Eighth Street. The Mission's hotel was above the club.

 

(Snip)