SHAD KRANTZ SAY ..ADIOS''

By Jack Dionne

'fo the rest of us on The California Lumber Meriha.nt, it doesn't seem possible even yet that Shad Krantz is gone. Just a few days ago he was here, unusually full of life and enthusiasm, mental and physical energy, kindly good humor, and goodwill to all men, and we just can't adjust our perspective to feel that he isn't really coming back.

We don't feel that Shad Krantz is really dead. We are grateful because we know that isn't true. Like a fine ship putting out to sea on a, long voyage, .he has just dr,opped over the horizon, and our human eyes see him no longer. But we know that he is proceeding on his way, fulfilling his mission, strong and indestructible, bigger and better and happier than ever before, and meeting his objectives on that bigger plane just as he met them here free and unafraid.

On February the 3rd, after a hurried operation. had failed to save him, with the simple faith of a little child, he placed his hand in the nail-pierced hand of the Crucified, and went smiling upon his way, leaving behind him a memory and a heritage "as stainless as the Scimetar of Eden's sentinel."

Shad Krantz stood four-square to every wind that blew; inside and out; up one side and down the other; from every viewpoint and in every way that you can measure a human, he was a real man.

He made an indelible impression on those who knew him well, and it is fine to know that we will never get beyond the reach of that influence.

Mr. Krantz was just 38 years old. He had been Managing Editor of The California Lumber Merchant since it was started last year, and was tremendously proud of the publication, its work, its development, and its great promise. He was a wonderful worker, a fine writer, and a "born" journalist. He possessed many of the attributes of greatness-the larger ones at least. His integrity was beyond question. lIe rvas dependable to the most remarkable degree. He was unusrrally energetic, an admirable enthusiast, and a forceful go-getter.

It could truthfully be said of Shad Krantz "He never spoke ill of any man or woman."

We will make no effort to reproduce the many beautiJul thoughts that have come to this office by mail and wire concerning our departed friend. It would require the entire paper. We are going to simply quote part of a full colttmn obituary from his old paper The Portland Oregonian, of Portland, Oregon, where they knew him long and loved him well, to show what they thought of him at "home" as he called Portland.

His brother Carl Krantz came from the old familv home at l)over, Ohio, where Shad was born 38 years ago, and took the body home. There was a short ceremoni at the undertaking parlors in Los Angeles on Feb. 7th.'and, the funeral at Dover was February l2th. He is survived bv his mother, one brother and three sisters. Beautiful floral 5fferings .from his California friends covered him in profusion, both in Los Angeles and Dover.

The obituary from The Oregonian, was in part, as follows:

By Clark H. Williams

"Members of The Oregonian staff who had worked for years with Shad Krantz were not the same yesterday after news came of his death.' Mr. Krantz died it Los Anseles following an operation for appendicitis. The dav was dilarv after that; there was something appalling about'life that had not been felt before. The thing was hard to believe, somehow. Krantz was so alert and active only a short time ago when he was last here, and his "stuff" had been coming in o-ccasionally.

"Fine and clean in every way, it seemed Shad should have lived many years longer. He was only 38 when he died. The intensive work he did seemed to leave him scathless, just as the contacts of a calling difficult in some phases left hij hanrts and heart clean. When '30' came so unheralded, there could have been no qualm in the mind of this man. He looked. one knows, clear eyed upon the face of death. sleep's darker sister, and was unafraid.

"Shad came to The Oregonian from lradville, Colorado. in 1911. He had also worked on the Denver Post and other Colorado papers. There followed years of active work in the local room, his assignments being chiefly on the railroad, lumbering and financial beats. Outsanding events in other lines engaged his attention and politics became his general duty during the last few years he was on the paper.

"Early in the war he was offered the post of Dean of the School of Commerce at the University of Oregon, a position he held with credit for some time, resigning to become pub- licity director of The West Coast Lumbermen's Association at Seattle, Washington.

"This work led to his appointment as Pacific Coast Manager for The Gulf Coast Lumberman, published at Houston, Texas. His work attracted attention, and Jack Dionne, when he decicled to start another tracle paper at l-os Angeles, chose Shad as his business associate.

"As a news writer Shacl had many successes. None was more alert, intelligent and accurate than he in getting the facts and in telling them in clear, incisive fashion. There were many things Shad did exceedingly well. His associates knew him and loved him, and although the sun was shining yesterday, today was a dark and dreary day to his former associates on this nervspaper."