‘He had a love for everyone’

THAWVILLE — Hard-working, crazy uncle, listener, intellectual, silly grandpa, open, complex, a bon vivant, his own person, quiet, timid, sweet with a kind heart. All those words were used to describe one person recently: Morris Tammen.

Tammen passed away on Feb. 19 of this year. What started out as gallbladder problems in late January turned out to be pancreatic cancer, which quickly took his life. His passing was a blow to friends and family alike.

You’ve probably met Tammen if you’ve ever been to Artesia Brewing in rural Thawville. Tammen was the person who walked around the property with a beer in hand and would randomly sit down at a table and talk to people. According to his son, Evan, he enjoyed coming up to people and talking to them.

“He’d sometimes say some unexpected or wild things — people loved to talk to him,” Evan Tammen said. “Some of the best friends he made in life he made in the last couple years at Artesia.”

Recently, a celebration of Tammen’s life was held at Artesia. There were laughs and tears as stories were shared over a beer and at a public ceremony where friends and family shared memories for two hours.

Those who knew Tammen when he was younger might have had some different words to describe him. In fact, one of his nephews said people around the area might have thought of him as a sociopathic trouble-maker. Tammen always seemed to find ways to get himself into trouble. His friend Mark Stiegman shared a long list of things Tammen got away with — and those he didn’t.

“One of the things he didn’t get away with had to deal with Morris’ love of explosives,” said Stiegman. “Nothing dangerous — just things that made noise. One time he took a firecracker fuse and attached it to the end of a deodorant can. If you know firecracker fuses, they don’t last very long. Then he had to figure out what to do with it. He decided to put it in the mailbox of a friend. He lit the fuse, put it in the mailbox, and it quickly went off. It mangled the mailbox pretty good.

“Word got back to the high school principal of the prank and he lined up the boys at school and asked them if they’d blown the mailbox up. He got to Morris, who shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I tried.’”

Tammen married his wife, the former Linda Brown, in 1976. He soon became close with members of Linda’s family.

“Morris was the farmer boy we’d come to visit,” said Robert Sherman, Tammen’s brother-in-law. “He was the best friend I knew for many years. His interest in philosophy and religion and just living was far greater them most other people I knew.”

Sherman’s son Steve agreed.

“People tend to think of the serious side of farmers,” he said. “Morris was definitely a well-read, serious person. He was a worldly person even though he never lived more than 100 yards from where he grew up.”

“Morris was so complicated as an individual,” said Michael Sherman, Steve’s brother. “I knew him as a very responsible adult, into reading philosophy. He understood farm economics very well and was successful as a farmer as he was so astute at that aspect of it. You don’t meet a lot of unpretentious teenagers who grow up to read Erich Fromm. I’ve never really met anyone who pulled together so many contradictory aspects of personality. It made him so fascinating. He knew so many different things to a depth that most people never reach.

“He could be diligent in taking care of his combine or checking out how to fix things by reading the manual and then he’d just go and go and go for 16 or 17 hours during harvest. Part of his element was also in a book club in Chicago (Center for the Study of the Great Ideas) with a room of intellectuals talking about philosophy, but another part of his element was that he was so skilled in the day-to-day rigor of farming. He was so complicated and knew so many things.”

A large display of Tammen’s books on philosophy, religion and other topics was made available to anyone at the celebration to take home in order to share some of the topics Tammen read about. People were seen selecting two or three books to take with them as they left.

Tammen’s daughters said he was not only a kind person but a thoughtful father.

“Dad had an incredible work ethic,” said Alison Lirette, Tammen’s oldest daughter. “Despite all the endless tasks he completed without complaint, he still made time to simply be with you. He was truly a man for others. He had this unwavering confidence in the people around him that made us all aspire to improve ourselves and to be more than we were.”

“Dad was quietly wise, and when I wanted to talk to him about life or to have him help me analyze an interesting dream, he acted like he had all the time in the world,” said daughter Katrina Reber. “He saw the best in everyone and was tremendously proud of his family. He was the kind of guy who would wait by the front door, sometimes for hours, just to open it up for us when we got home after a hard day. When visiting home during my college years, I would see that the gas tank was full and the windows were washed on my car as I drove back to school. Those quiet kindnesses — the actions done out of love and not for praise — made him so special to all of us. We noticed them and felt his love.”

Tammen was devoted to keeping the family farm running. So much so, it came first before everything else, sometimes even his wife.

“Linda’s car had broken down and she needed a ride, so she called Morris,” said Charlie Brown, Linda’s father. “Tammen told her he needed to finish planting the bean field. If it rained, he come pick her up. If it didn’t, he’d come get her when he finished planting. She called me to come get her.”

Linda Tammen shared what she learned from her late husband.

“Author Eckhart Tolle emphasizes the power and importance of the present moment in his teachings,” she said. “He encourages focusing on the now, rather than getting caught up in the past or future. Tolle also highlights that true happiness and ease in life arise from accepting and being present in the current moment.

Morris lived by this. He often quoted Eckhart Tolle to me when he was giving advice. Other things I tried to emulate from Morris are be grateful, refrain from criticizing others, listen and watch for opportunities to help others. I’m trying to follow these guidelines as closely as possible, but I feel like I’m still a work in progress.”

As Tammen got older, his wife was concerned with him farming by himself and being out late at night in the fields alone. He finally retired from farming and sold his farm equipment, which meant he’d have a large amount of capital gains to pay. His astute tax lady said if he reinvested it, he wouldn’t have to pay those taxes.

Ryan Reber, Tammen’s son-in-law, and his son, Evan, had started doing some home brewing. They had discussed the possibility of opening a brewery later in life when they retired.

“Morris approached us to start the brewery five years ago as a way to help keep his capital gains down,” said Ryan Reber. “It was quite the opportunity to jumpstart a dream we’d had for quite a while. It was a little stressful trying to figure everything out — but a lot of fun, too.”

Ryan Reber, Evan Tammen and Morris Tammen decided to do most of the construction work themselves.

“We thought we could put the insulation up ourselves,” said Ryan Reber. “However, It wasn’t working. Morris and I looked at each other and said, ‘Well, it looks as if we need to hire someone to get this done.’ That was after one day.”

Sindralynn Gerdes is who Morris and Linda Tammen called their “bonus daughter.”

“I was introduced to Linda Tammen through the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program when I was in second grade at (Clara Peterson Elementary School in Paxton),” said Gerdes. “Linda was my Big Sister coordinator and mentor, and we were a perfect match. The relationship has fostered into what it is today.

“Morris has always been the guy in the corner with the hearing aids. He acted like he wasn’t paying attention, but he was and would follow up with whoever he was listening to. He made people feel welcome. He was an open person. He had his rules that he stuck to, but he had a love for everyone.”

Gerdes said Tammen was also the person behind all the cats at Artesia.

“He loved the cats, and they loved him. All of them are feral cats that hang around Artesia except for a couple little black kittens we rescued. There are three that are scared of people and stay at the house. We currently have 15 cats and more keep coming. All of them get spayed, neutered and get their shots.”

Evan Tammen said his father might not identify himself as a cat person, but he definitely liked cats.

“He had a cat in the house, and it had some of the most insane privileges a cat could have,” he said. “He had a soft spot for cats.”

There’s still a lot of Morris Tammen at Artesia even though he is no longer physically there.

“He was just his own person and had a warmth about him,” said Evan Tammen. “The warmth is still here. I think a lot of people focus on his wild-man stories — and if you didn’t know him well, you might think he was some sort of extrovert — but he was a quiet, timid person in his own way. He was a very sweet person with a kind heart.”

Ryan Reber agreed about Tammen’s kindness.

“From the moment I met Morris when I was dating Katrina, his daughter, he never said a cross word to me,” said Reber. “I knew I was part of the gang as Morris said, ‘If you’re good enough for Katrina, you’re good enough for me.’ I felt instantly accepted. I admired his tenacity, his sensibility, and he never complained. Never. Hardly ever.”

Louise Hogan, Linda’s aunt, loved doing things with Tammen and the family.

“We’d go on trips with Morris, and he’d always come up with things to do. He’d say, ‘Come on. It will be fun.’ And it usually was,” Hogan said. “We’d also sit outside on the western end of the pig shed (one of the converted seating locations at Artesia) and watch the sunset. We’d talk about different things, experiences he’d had. I miss those talks so much.”

Gerdes also misses talking to Tammen.

“I’m a big believer in intergenerational speaking.” Gerdes said. “I’m 24, and Morris was 71. I miss our evening talks together the most. We would talk every night with our gin and tonics about anything and everything. We had the most amazing conversations at night, just the two of us. It might start with, ‘What do you think about this?’ — and we’d just talk.

“We all know a Morris. Someone who has been that rock in your life through the years. We should all be a little more like that person.”

Linda Tammen reflected back on the celebration day that she had been dreading,

“I admit, I was dreading it,” she said. “I thought it might be an overly emotional day, but the outpouring of love from family and friends was just so overwhelming and heartwarming. Incredibly reassuring. I know I’ll get through this now.”

So the next time you are in the Thawville area, stop by Artesia, raise your glass, and thank Morris Tammen for having the foresight to create a place that provides a spirit of community for people from all over who stop by. And don’t forget to say hello to the cats. I’m sure they miss Tammen as much as we all do.

Diane Perkins is a Sibley resident. She can be reached via email at eiu8019@gmail.com.