Carl was a wonderful friend as well as husband. I can see how the Lord was overruling the various aspects of his life from the beginning and throughout his life. I am very grateful to our loving Heavenly Father and to our faithful Redeemer and Guide, Jesus, for the 53 blessed years I was privileged to be his wife. Carl was one whom any of the Brethren in need could call on at any hour of day or night, and he would quietly listen, calmly counsel, encourage with Scriptures and good, common sense suggestions in harmony with them, perhaps relating experiences he himself had had or observed. If it seemed necessary, he would meet the one in person at an appropriate location to discuss the problems with which the other would be seeking help — no matter what time of day or night. He was there for his Brethren. Carl’s parents and grandparents lived in Elkader, a small, friendly town in Iowa, where he grew up. Before he was born, his mother contracted a contagious illness that was going around at the time. I don’t know whether it was given a name, but all of the pregnant women in the area who got it died, as did their babies—with the one exception of Carl. His aunt and her unborn baby had died from it a half year before he was born. Martha, his mother, contracted a fever and died also, when Carl (her only child) was four days old; and the doctors fully expected him to die, too. But he didn’t. So his Dad (Milton Hagensick) moved in with his parents and brought Carl home there. They helped raise him for his first few years, while his Dad was working. Grandfather died when Carl was 5 years old. Then about three years later, when Carl came home from school, he found Grandmother lying on the floor with the telephone receiver beside her. She was unresponsive; so he went next door. The neighbor called his Dad, who came home and took care of the situation. After that Carl went to his friend’s house after school until his Dad would come home and take care of him. He and his Dad had a very close relationship, and of course Dad taught him Bible stories and an understanding of God’s wonderful plan for all mankind.

When summer vacation from school came, Carl’s Dad quit his job with the lumber company and got one driving a Standard Oil truck. The industry wasn’t so much regulated then, and he was able to take Carl with him in the truck. To keep him entertained they played Alphabet games, games guessing what Bible characters were being hinted at from events in their lives, etc. He had him memorize the states alphabetically and their capital cities; major rivers of the world; U.S. presidents in chronological order, etc. Not only was Dad keeping Carl entertained, but he was also developing that great memory that served him so well throughout his life in regard to the Scriptures. He also took him to conventions in Minneapolis and out east. Some of the sisters encouraged his interest in the Bible, especially Sr. Mary Sue Dolan (later Guzick), who challenged him to listen attentively to the discourses and write down more Scriptures and notes than she did. He may have been about twelve years old or so at that time.

Carl’s Dad and Dad’s two brothers, Amos and Lloyd, were elders in the small (mostly family) Elkader class. So Carl’s Dad had him take shorthand and typing in high school, had Carl organize and put into outline form the things Dad wanted to say in his discourses, then had him type them out for him. Yes, it was a help to his Dad, but primarily he was teaching Carl how to organize things well for studies and discourses, and of course he was thoroughly acquainting him with the Scriptures and an organized understanding of how they fit together with each other.

When Carl was in High School, his Dad fell in love with a very pretty and sweet widow from Wisconsin, Estelle, who had two sons — one older than Carl and one younger. She was a Bible Student also, and they had nearly 50 years together—first in Elkader, then in Illinois, later in Florida, and they spent their last few years at the Bible Student Retirement Center in Oregon.

After Carl graduated from High School, he went out to New Jersey to do volunteer work at the Dawn Bible Students publishing house, living in one of the two Dawn homes. It was a good experience for him. Then along came the military Draft for the Second World War. As Carl was a conscientious objector, he went around with another brother in Christ, looking for work in hospitals in various places, including Indianapolis, IN, and Chicago, IL. I had gotten a translating job in Indianapolis, and he and the other brother stopped in on the weekends and visited me, taking me out for ice cream and fellowship, then to breakfast the following morning. We three had very nice fellowship together. Carl was not able to get the job at the hospital in Indianapolis, but he did get one at a hospital in Chicago. So he took it. But we started dating, in spite of the distance, and after a while decided to walk the Christian Way together, getting married and starting out in Chicago. In all those years I don’t remember him ever putting me down. He wasn’t critical, was a fun kind of person, adventurous in a good way, looking for ways to be of service and encourage others. Even though he was paralyzed from the waist down for the last 16½ years of his life on earth, having considerable pain in his legs, he was not a complainer, looked for ways to serve others (and found plenty of them) even while in that condition. He also had fun taking children on his lap or older kids standing on the back of the electric wheel chair, and taking them for rides. They loved it, too!

We have been greatly blessed by our two daughters Cher-El and Joanna, although we were saddened, when our son Carl Austin was stillborn at full term — about half way between Cher-El and Joanna. I think, though, that the Lord in His loving mercy had him planned for Martha, Carl’s mother, to take the place of Carl for her to raise in the Kingdom. I trust that he will bring her lots of joy, and the thought has been of great comfort to us in our loss. We have also been very thankful for our dear son-in-law David. Carl was happy to have the privilege of marrying him and Joanna, even though he had to do it while in his wheel chair.

When he finished his earthly course, he appreciated having 17 of us around him, including his daughters, son-in-law, granddaughter, and brethren from near and far, and he continued his work of blessing his family and brethren and encouraging us all in the ways of peace, even on his death bed. –– Marge Hagensick

 As a child, I was convinced my Dad was the wisest man in all the world. He was my hero. He laughed a lot and enjoyed life with his family. He was very busy with various activities in the ecclesia: attending studies, writing discourses, working on various projects, and his favorite thing –– visiting brethren and talking with them. Yet he still managed to find time for his family. Many nights he would come home from work exhausted. He would lay on the living room floor and still manage to play games with my sister and me while he was resting. After dinner, he would leave again to go to a meeting, while Mom would put us girls to bed.

As an adult, I tend to think I was right about my Dad. I trusted him with all my growing-up problems and decisions. He never failed to give me good advice –– allowing me to fail and make mistakes, but never permanent ones. When I came to him with Scriptural questions, he would tell me the problems with both sides of the question, and then give me the reasons he had reached his conclusions.

Growing up in rural Iowa, my Dad learned to value people more than things. He loved to learn and he learned early that he could learn from people who were different than him: older people, younger people, people from other cultures, and people from different points of view. He had excellent communication skills, listening carefully, verbally agreeing with and even supporting aspects of the other’s argument that he agreed with –– while giving them things to think about from his point of view. He didn’t have to win an argument –– the goal was to find the truth in the argument.

Dad had a great sense of humor and was able to find joy in most aspects of life. He also had a keen appreciation for the absurdities of life and laughed frequently. He was very observant and it wasn’t unusual for him to be the first to discover a baby on the way or a romance between young people –– sometimes before they even knew it.

Dad loved words –– and it was very rare that anyone could beat him at Scrabble or any other word game. His ability to express himself made his discourses interesting.

As a young man, Dad found the time for in-depth Bible studies. He had an excellent memory and developed a filing system of ideas which he used in later life when the obligations of life left him with little free time to study. Like many other brethren, Dad “stood on the shoulders of giants.” He had studied with and learned from great men of God such as Br. Meggison, Br. Zahnow, Br. Morehouse, and others who had lived lives of full consecration. They inspired him and taught him with both their wisdom and the way they lived their lives. They filled him with zeal for the Word of God and for looking into the nuances of Greek and Hebrew words.

He also learned a lot from the gentle, kind man who was his father. When Dad’s mother died, his grandparents raised him. When they died, his father took on the role of both father and mother. He was a strong parent, but also a best friend. The bond between father and son was especially close and lasted until Br. Milton’s, death.

As his body began to weaken and his speech was no longer clear, Dad regretted one thing. He said that when his voice was stronger, he had spent time delving into prophetic Scriptures, loving the details provided by our Heavenly Father. He loved discovering new details of God’s Word. But as he saw problems creeping into the Bible Student Movement, he finally came to realize that discourses which unite brethren are more important than those which teach something new. He found a certain irony to the fact that his most important discourses would be given at a point hardest for him to be understood. His last two discourses, “Blessed are the Peacemakers” and “Two Aspects of Justification” were meant to bring brethren together.

Dad’s last lesson, given in the days before he died, was in bringing brethren together, encouraging brethren from various areas of the Bible Student Movement to love one another. Minutes before his death, a sister told him she loved the brethren who don’t meet with us. Dad squeezed her hand and passed from this life to the next. Within the discourses of this book there are many lessons.     There are interesting insights into God’s Word. There are lessons of character, and lessons in doctrine. With all these lessons, though, Dad’s greatest legacy was the legacy of love.

A legacy of loving His heavenly Father and all his Christian brothers and sisters. Just as with his Lord, Dad’s last lesson was his greatest: Love one another. –– Cher-El Hagensick