Established on 03.05.2021 by Gary and Susan Heuer
Gary Heuer was born into a family that was destined for tragedy. His father’s family ran a 600-year-old dairy farm business in northern Germany and his mother’s family-owned and raised horses for over 350 years a short distance away. However, neither of his parents would inherit their family businesses. Life in Germany between World War I and World War II was difficult. The liability and tax burden on the German people for the damage from World War I was enormous, causing most Germans to struggle financially. When Hitler rose to power, he painted a picture of hope and restoration for a struggling nation. Many followed his call for loyalty and Gary’s father enlisted as a German Nazi soldier in 1938. During World War II, his father was shot in the left arm and wounded so severely they considered amputating. He was sent to Paris to recuperate where fate introduced his father to his mother.
Gary remembers being a young boy and asking his father how he became caught up in Nazism. His father explained the power of fear and how the people’s perceptions and thoughts were manipulated and controlled by propaganda in movies, newspapers, and radio at the time. Many Germans refused to believe that Hitler was really planning for death and destruction because it was packaged in a message of hope and change and prosperity for the German people. His father told him that if he had known the truth, that the Nazis were going to murder innocent lives in order to “purify” the race, he would have shot Hitler himself. It was a lesson Gary would always remember.
Due to his injuries, his father was honorably discharged from the military and returned to the family farm. His parents were married in 1947 and had their first child, Wilfred, shortly after. Starting their own farm in Germany was deemed too expensive at the time, so in April 1952, Gary’s parents followed an opportunity to move their family to America, where land was inexpensive and a German family was hiring immigrants who wanted a fresh start after the war.
The family settled in Nebraska and welcomed a second son, Henry, into their family in 1955. By 1957, his parents became U.S. citizens and saved enough to purchase a 250-acre dairy farm in Hebo, Oregon. The farm had forty-three dairy cows, many chickens, a small house, and a barn. They sold their milk to a local cheese factory. In the years that followed, they added two more children to their family - Mary-Ann in 1959 and little Gary in 1961. Life on the dairy farm was hard. Gary’s father developed back problems from the combination of years of hard labor and horseback riding. He eventually sold the dairy farm, against his mother’s wishes, and moved the family to New York City.
In 1963, the Heuer’s welcomed another child, Richard, into their family. However, tragedy happened one afternoon when Ricky was just learning how to walk. He awoke from a nap and attempted to wiggle out of the straps in his crib, which were designed to keep him from crawling out. The straps caused the death of Ricky and the family was devastated. The impact of the accident and the trauma of seeing the little casket had a profound effect on Gary. The family, of course, had no life insurance, because not many people insured their young children at the time. His father fell into a deep depression and couldn’t work for a month. Since there was no such thing as paid time off, the loss of income wiped out his parent’s savings.
Gary’s brother, Will, graduated from high school in 1967 and joined the Marine Corp. After a job change for his father, his parents worked towards rebuilding their lives, eventually saving enough money to buy a house in Queens, New York in 1969. His father worked at Memorial Hospital taking care of the greenhouse and sanctuary. Gary recalls he was very good at his job and had a natural “green thumb.” For a time, owing to the strict discipline from his father and the loving care from his mother, and the family’s hard work… life had begun to prosper once more.
But in 1970, the Heuer’s would live through a tragedy so great, it would affect them for the rest of their lives. During a car trip to Nebraska, his father fell asleep at the wheel, hit an embankment, and flipping the car multiple times. No one was wearing a seat belt. His father was ejected through the windshield and his mother out the sunroof. Gary and his sister, MaryAnn, were thrown through the back window. Gary’s jaw was broken and he remembers thinking his sister was dead. His father was also lying near him and in severe back pain. After being taken to the hospital, it would be days before Gary was wheeled into the room where his mother and sister were recovering. MaryAnn told him that their father had died. He was just 9 years old. They buried his father next to Ricky and the hope of a normal family life vanished.
It would be years before Gary learned that his family had no life insurance and no savings, and his mother had no plan for holding their lives together. The Heuer’s lack of financial planning forced the family to move back to New York City, and the death of his father also meant the end of a disciplined life. Henry dropped out of high school and became involved with drugs and rock-n-roll bands. Mary-Ann dropped out of the 10th grade. His mother found a job working long days as a cashier in a German restaurant to put food on the table. Gary was left to fend by himself from the age of ten to twelve.
Both MaryAnn and his mother struggled for years from injuries related to the accident. His mother worked through the pain to pay the mortgage payments which allowed them to keep their house for a time, but it was difficult for her. Being a single mom with severe physical and emotional consequences from the accident took its toll, and she became an alcoholic and was deeply depressed in the years that followed. As the bills mounted, his mother borrowed into the equity of their house to pay bills.
The years that followed were filled with hardship. Gary’s oldest brother, Will, was the only father figure that remained to guide him and hold the family together. But in 1973, Will got married and moved his family to Connecticut. And although this move reinforced Gary’s fear of abandonment, Will joined a small life insurance company called Aid Association for Lutherans, an opportunity that Gary would be able to capitalize on later in life. Will’s great talent for sales and the life experience of his family led him to be very successful at his new job.
Back at home, Gary was surviving as a D-student, bullied daily at school, and had little motivation to get off of the couch. The temptation to drop out of school was great and gang violence and drugs were now flourishing at his high school. In hopes of providing a new direction for his little brother, Will and his mother arranged for 14-year-old Gary to enroll in St. Thomas Moore Prep School, an all-boys Catholic high school in southeastern Connecticut, in 1975. Although the decision was made in Gary’s best interest, it only furthered his feelings of abandonment by his family. He was a Lutheran living in a sea of Catholics with no transportation and few friends.
In spite of his new circumstances, Gary grew in his determination for a better life. The teachers at his school were very involved with their student's education, spending time with each of them focusing on their strengths and improving on their weaknesses. With a more disciplined approach to learning and a structured environment – Gary raised his D average to the range of a B student. After learning to stand up to the bullies, Gary began making friends. One unusual friendship that he gained was one from a Catholic priest at the school. They began playing chess together and became close.
While Gary’s life was gaining stability, things back in New York City were becoming more troubled. His mother sank further into alcoholism and depression. She would drink regularly at the corner bar. Then, nearing the end of Gary’s first year at St. Thomas, his mother sat him down to explain she could no longer afford the $4,000 per year tuition at his school. She explained she had used up the remaining equity in their home to pay her bills and there was nothing left. With this, she announced plans to marry a man she hardly knew named Walter and move the family, including Gary, upstate to Ellenville, New York. Gary was heartbroken being torn from the stability he had finally found.
Ellenville was a small community and his mother enrolled him right away in the local high school. Gary arrived first and was forced to live in a motel for months near the school until his mother and Walter could sell their house, settle their affairs and join him. Gary ate all of his meals at the local diner across the street which was a humiliating experience that seemed to go on without end. Gary was 15 years old starting 10th grade and living in a motel. Weeks continued to pass until the hotel manager finally evicted him. His mother and Walter never came.
Will continued his successful insurance career with AAL and MaryAnn brought happiness into her life by getting married after high school to escape their dysfunctional home. Henry, however, was still doing drugs and playing in a band that was going nowhere. Things were deteriorating quickly for his mother and Walter, who they found was stealing money from their mother. Finally, broke, broken, and living in constant pain, his mother reached the end of what she could take and made a decision that would affect Gary profoundly. She left Walter and moved Gary to Germany to live near her family and relatives.
Gary, age 15, was shocked. He could speak a little German but couldn’t meet the basic requirements needed to attend school at his grade level. Staying in Germany would mean he would fall two grade levels back. Seeing that his life was again going in the wrong direction, Gary made the bold decision to run away from home and move back to America when he was just 16-years-old.
Back in America, Gary began to mature and started planning for a better life. He worked various jobs in a variety of states, living mostly off of the kindness of family, friends, and acquaintances. By the time he was 18-years-old, he had settled down and purchased a house with his brother, Henry. By 1980, Gary found a new direction for his life and enlisted in the U.S. Army. With his background and ability to speak fluent German, he was stationed as a guard at a chemical weapons facility in southern Germany but was eventually transferred to a police unit in Karlsruhe where he worked side-by-side with the German police officers protecting Americans and other US military members. He remained in Germany until orders in 1982 transferred him back to New York, where he remained for the duration of his three-year active tour. It was during this time that his commanding officer encouraged Gary to finally obtain his GED.
After finally being released from active duty in 1983, Gary headed back to Oregon and looked to his future with optimism. He enrolled in Portland Community College and began to set goals and sort out the next stage of his life. He worked part-time as a security guard for Rams Security in Portland. While going to school he met and married his first wife, Louise, in 1985. He eventually graduated with two degrees from PCC, and the couple began planning for a family. During this time, Gary really struggled with what profession he should choose. By 1986, while taking classes at Portland State University, he took a career development course which suggested he consider a career as an insurance agent. This really resonated with Gary because of his background and life experiences up to this point.
Gary turned to his brother Will, who by then had been working in the insurance industry for over ten years. He was in the process of transferring to a company called Lutheran Brotherhood, one of the top fraternal insurance companies in the nation. With Will’s encouragement, Gary joined the company in 1988 and began a successful career in the insurance industry. He had lived through the devastation that his mother experienced when his father died unexpectedly, and these hardships made him uniquely qualified to give testimony to the importance of the products he sold. He intimately knew the impact that death can have on an unprepared family and the financial losses that can unfold as a result.
Gary’s excitement was short-lived. His wife, Louise, was adamantly opposed to his decision to become an insurance agent, likening it to being “…a bad used-car salesman.” The more the idea appealed to Gary, the more Louise disapproved, until one day came home to find his house cleared out of furniture and his bank accounts emptied out. Their 22-month marriage was over. Louise was divorcing him because of his dream to sell life insurance.
A short time later Gary married his second wife, Elizabeth, and welcomed two boys, Sean and Timothy, into their family. He continued to find success selling life insurance at his company, rising to the different levels of success at his Lutheran Brotherhood: Leader’s Level, Executive Club Level, President’s Level, and the highest level called Top Club. Gary was so successful at selling life and health insurance that after only two years, he had reached the Executive Club Level and produced sales that qualified him to be a member of the Million Dollar Round Table. Within a few more years, Gary had passed all of the tests needed to be a life and health insurance agent as well as an official fraternal insurance consultant.
Unfortunately, his marriage to Elizabeth ended in 1992, shortly after the unexpected death of his mother in Germany. But instead of sinking into depression, Gary’s determined spirit kept pushing him forward. He qualified for the President Level’s and then reached Top Club that same year, levels he would remain at for most of his professional career. Gary had become one of the most successful insurance agents in the country and done so by providing his clients with the security and protection they needed to shelter themselves from the devastation which can accompany an untimely death. By 2007, Gary achieved the highest rank in the insurance industry, Top of the Table. It certainly was a long way from the 17-year-old kid who arrived from Germany with $5 in his pocket in 1978!
By 1995, Gary was pleased with the direction his professional career was moving but longed for the companionship and support needed to complete his life. Gary’s friend offered to put a personal ad in a local newspaper for him. Many responded to his ad, but it was the third message from a woman named Susan that ultimately piqued his interest. The two began dating and soon were married. But this time, Gary rejoiced in finding a loving partner & supportive friend... the kind of spouse that his mother promised he would someday find.
Gary Heuer has retired as one of the most successful insurance agents in the United States. He was inducted into the Insurance Hall of Fame in 2009, and in 2014, into the insurance Hall of Fame with Lutheran Community Foundation, which would later become InFaith Community Foundation. Gary, Susan, his brother Will, and sister Mary-Ann, all worked selling life insurance. It is to honor this Heuer family legacy, that they are creating this endowed scholarship at Concordia, and it is their sincere hope that the students who receive it will be encouraged by the support they are receiving, realize their inner strengths, live their lives to the fullest, work hard for their accomplishments, and develop the perseverance and the determined spirit needed to handle all of life’s challenges that come what may. He hopes they too will find their life’s purpose!
Throughout his life, Gary has been impacted by a number of nurses and health professionals. His step-daughter, Angela Moretti, is trained as a physician’s assistant, and his cousin, Annegret “Anne” Meyer, is a nurse in Germany. But it was his sister, MaryAnn’s, nurse who touched his heart the deepest.
Gary and MaryAnn had always been the closest of his siblings, and he was devastated when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2001. Eventually, MaryAnn became ill enough to require Hospice. It was during that time, that she was also cared for by Leonora Gerspach-Siegel, a middle school classmate of MaryAnn’s, who also happened to be the ex-wife of her fiancé, Steve. Leonora would come every weekday after her regular shift was over to care for MaryAnn in months prior to her death. Gary was profoundly struck by the level of compassion and kindness that Leonora showed to MaryAnn. He wondered, “How many people would volunteer to joyfully and lovingly care for their ex-husband’s fiancé?” Gary feels that nurses are blessed with the ability to overlook circumstances and that their hearts are embedded with the desire to serve others.
The Heuer Family Endowed Nursing Scholarship is awarded by the Office of Financial Aid to students of any class who are accepted into one of the accredited nursing programs at Concordia College. Selection is also be based on financial need.