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My Loving Memory of George Sammis
A Great Soldier of the Circles
by Elisabeth Callahan
When George Sammis signed up for our first UUI class in the fall of 2014, he was still in Saipan with his beloved wife, Hilda. He was already in the process of building the house in Baguio. He immediately grasped what we were trying to build and often remarked that he thought it was the greatest project in the history of the Urantia movement.
George enrolled in our second UUI online class, Merritt Horn's "Perspectives On Study," in November 2014, and immediately committed his time, talents, and resources to helping UUI grow. He provided enormous classroom support to our UUI instructors from 2015-2016 by often serving as a discussion moderator until he became ill.
George's multi-level support and enthusiastic cheerleading for our efforts meant the world to me. It truly encouraged me and all of our volunteer staff to keep soldiering onward. His unswerving faith and efforts helped to establish UUI. His contributions are one of the cornerstones of our school. I will miss his enthusiastic support and brotherly love more than I can say.
George was a remarkable contributor to the Urantia movement. Along with Tim Young, George was the visionary co-creator of the Brotherhood of Man [Lending] Library back in the late 80's. This project was the first attempt to share both electronic and hard copy versions (as well as video and audio tapes) of secondary works related to The Urantia Book with the domestic and international community of UB readers and students.
This occurred before the Internet as we know it today, and reveals George as a great innovator and mass communicator. In the business arena George was the owner of a thermographic printing business in Mason City, Iowa, which he founded in the early 70s. The company had a large Asian customer base at one time, which gave George the opportunity to make frequent sales trips to China and other Asian countries over the years.
Among his other forms of service, George gave a great deal of personal time to being a UUI classroom moderator in 2015-2016. The UUI instructors marveled at his social skills and ability to reach out to other people and easily form friendly relationships. He was very successful in leading lively discussions on the classroom chat boards. We all loved him and valued his service to the nth degree.
In my experience of George, he was a humble man who never gave himself enough credit for his scholarship in Urantia Book studies. However, I will testify to the depth of his knowledge and his integrated understanding of the major parts of the book and the interconnections between science, religion and philosophy.
He had a deep, abiding faith in God and Jesus, in the eternal life of the soul, in the Mother Spirit and angels, and in the fact that he and all people are indwelt by a Spirit fragment of God that acts as a pilot leading us to our true eternal home. George's faith in God and enthusiastic embrace of the sublime teachings found in The Urantia Book were tremendously inspiring to me and others.
George studying at his home in Baguio, the Philippines
Several of George's grandsons diligently studying
The Urantia Book in the family study group
that George started in Baguio
From UUI Instructor & Trustee Andre Radatus:
"I can't help but be thrilled for George despite his family's loss. I'm grateful that his passing was relatively tranquil.
He was such a remarkable benefactor and friend. We were fortunate to have him with us on our UUI team. It is never fully possible to assess the aggregate affect on others' interest and support having just one supporter and "cheerleader" like George.
Godspeed George! See you on the other side before long!"
~April 22, 2017
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I have no doubt that George headed straight away to his new life in the mansion worlds. The Mansonia post-death training worlds were very real to him -- a destination he absolutely believed in as the next phase of his eternal career. I plan to look him up after I arrive there someday and report to him on the fruits of his labor!
George's son, T.R. Sammis, wrote that "through the years, the teachings of and studying the Urantia Book, and interacting with so many amazing people brought together by the book, gave my father great joy and satisfaction."
George was mentioned in John Roper's account of how he (John) found The Urantia Book in Saskia Raevouri's
How I Found The Urantia Book:
In 1970 we were living in the little town of Keego Harbor, Michigan. In September of that year I flew to San Francisco for a job interview. When I returned, my wife and a stranger named George Sammis picked me up at the airport. George was the friend of a neighbor in the apartment complex where we lived, and he was nice enough to drive my wife down to the airport. On the way home, George told me about a new book he had just gotten from his mother. The words he used to describe it were, “. . . and it is supposed to be written by people from outer space!” Whoa! The magic words: “outer space.” I was hooked.
That evening George came over and opened the box containing a brand-new copy of the Urantia Book, and we began reading, the first time for us all. We started with the first Adam and Eve paper, and by the time we finished it I knew that this book was the book with the answers. The next morning George returned home to Clear Lake, Iowa. The book went with him. No bookstores in our area carried the Urantia Book and we couldn’t find it in the library. I had no desire to read any of the four or five unread science fiction books sitting on my shelf. Then January came and George surprised us with a return visit and our very own copy of the Urantia Book. What an incredible gift!
One of George's grandsons and an ardent pupil of
The Urantia Book in the family study group
that George started in Baguio
From UUI Instructor David Glass:
"While I ... am quite reluctant to release George to the universal regime, I know he will thrive there and be as much of a helpful boon to them as he managed to be for over half a century of Urantia time here.
George always had a smile for you, as he, Jesus-like, was always interested in what you were doing and how you were doing. That smile emanated from a love-saturated soul which buoyed him up unconditionally as we witnessed him deal with an assortment of difficult health issues of recent years -- with cheerfulness, optimism, and self-application to the progress of all whom he influenced.
His leadership in the Philippines -- founding and supporting numerous study groups and providing other services -- touched many newly stimulated souls who benefited enormously by George's service.
He and Tim Young, as you stated, were and remained "ahead of the curve," at all times, by being so earnestly service-minded, generous with their time, talent and treasure, sharing their understanding of the revelation with all, and blessing all their acquaintances with the assurance that they live friendly universe.
I will personally miss George's personable ways, his loyal friendship and loving tones to his every remark."
~ April 23, 2017
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