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Deacon Dan, 'The Garden Man'
By Ellen Javernick
When parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Church in Loveland read their bulletins, they find winter gardening tips from Deacon Dan “The Garden Man.” Deacon Dan Marthe embodies the old adage “Bloom where you are planted”—and now at 82 he’s just been repotted.
A native of North Dakota, Dan was still young when he began to suspect he might have a religious calling, so after high school he headed off to Assumption Abby in nearby Richardton. He thought maybe he was meant to be a Benedictine monk.
It wasn’t long before he decided God had other plans for him. He enrolled at St. Martin’s University and graduated with a triple major in philosophy, English and horticulture. In those days in small North Dakota schools, teachers were expected to teach a bit of everything. Dan had his share of eclectic assignments. In addition to teaching English and social studies, he taught Latin and directed school plays. He set an example of integrity and responsibility for his students. Many of them returned to thank him years later.
While teaching in Wing, N.D., he was injured playing basketball. A friend drove him to the local hospital where a pretty student nurse caught his eye. He and Fran were married in 1958. Dan took a job selling maps and globes and they moved to Colorado.
In 1972 he launched Dan’s Garden and Lawn Service. He put Fran and their four girls on the payroll. His customers continually asked Dan for advice, so he took master gardener classes to find the answers to their questions. The city of Loveland hired him as the “flower tech” for all three golf courses.
Dan didn’t just care for plants. He cared for people. He worked as an orderly at two of the local nursing homes. He was so generous with his time that one elderly man wrote the archbishop to beg him to convince Dan to become a deacon. He wrote that he “could die in peace at last because he’d met a truly Christian man.”
Other people thought Dan was deacon material too. Father Roger Mollison put out a call for parishioners to nominate men they thought would be good candidates. For three weeks in a row, ushers passed baskets for names. Dan Marthe’s name was dropped in over and over again. Father Mollison approached him about going through diaconate formation.
“I dragged my heels,” Deacon Dan recalled, “but Fran convinced me that God was indeed calling me.”
He became a deacon in 1984. He was assigned to several churches but served much of his time at St. John’s prior to his retirement. He assumed responsibility for the plantings around the church and always had gardening hints in the bulletin.
He served the community in other ways as well. When fear of AIDS was prevalent even in the church, Deacon Dan invited interested extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist to a meeting and reassured them they wouldn’t risk getting AIDS just by visiting or giving HIV/AIDS parishioners Communion. He commented that just as they should care for all their plants, they should also care about all of God’s people.
Recently one of St. John’s deacons died, and a second will be unable to return to the altar. Octogenarian Deacon Dan stepped in to fill the void.
“We are so blessed to have Deacon Dan Marthe back out of retirement,” said Father Frank Garcia, pastor of St. John’s. “His love of the Lord remains as strong as ever. Not only is Deacon Dan a wonderful gardener, he also cultivates the richness of the soil of the Catholic faith with each homily he preaches.”
Once again there are gardening tips in the bulletin. But even better, the parish has Deacon Dan’s example of service to others.
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