HUTHMACHER, Gladen B.

The Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, AZ April 26, 1984, p. 18 Gladen B. Huthmacher, 76, died April 17 at the Wickenburg Community Hospital. He was born in Canton, Ohio, on Mary 28, 1907, was a retired Church of Christ minister, established a restaurant and motel at Gladen, which he ran from 1949 to 1970. he moved to Wickenburg to operate Huth Rock Shop and served as president of the Wickenburg Gem and Mineral Society. He lived a total of 43 years here in Arizona. Survivors include his wife Myrtle, of Wickenburg; daughter Eileen Kempton, of Eloy; brothers Herbert, of Ohio and Lester, of Wenden; sister Helen Conley, of Michigan, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Services were conducted at the Wickenburg Chapel on April 20 at 10 a.m. Visitation were at the Wickenburg Funeral Home on April 19 from 7 p.m. To 9 p.m. Memorial contributions should be made to the Wickenburg Hospital Building Fund. The Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, AZ April 26, 1984, p. 18 Gladen to mourn passing of special preacher Gladen Huthmacher died April 17. He will be missed by his family and many friends, but if we could ask and if he could reply, I feel certain he would say that his last moral experience was also a blessing. He did not have long to linger in illness nor to feel he might become a burden to others. Like each of us, Huthmacher had his own personal hill to climb during his life. A humble and grateful man, his way lay close to the beauty of nature and an ever growing faith in God. Largely self-educated, he hardly completed grammar school, yet he became as astute businessman. He set up his first rock shop on his back porch to serve an apprenticeship which eventually blossomed into Huth's Rock Shop at 128 N. Frontier St. in Wickenburg. He did not attend school to qualify as a clergyman; he became a preacher “by heart.” Huthmacher became active in church regularly when he and his wife, Myrtle, live din Mesa to allow their daughter to continue her education. He was becoming increasingly aware of the power of faith. The more he learned, the more he yearned to known. When their daughter was married in 1949, he was ready to return to the desert, to the land he loved. The family purchased the 40 acre plot 10 miles West of Aguila, which today, is known as Gladen, a monument to its builder. While he was there, after his day's work was done, and often far into the night, he read and re-read the Holy Bible. It was while he was at Gladen that he honed the wisdom he found in the Good Book into sermons and began driving from Gladen to Tolleson to preach each Sunday. He returned through Wickenburg to preach another sermon on his way home in the evening. It was a monumental task, but was one he never doubted he could accomplish for the Church of Christ. From 1949 until 1980 when he reluctantly retired as their minister, due to ill health, Huthmacher pastored the Wickenburg Church of Christ, following it in and out of several temporary buildings until the present church, located at 150 S. Mariposa St. was completed in 1964. That permanent site was the peak of his personal hill, for his many endeavors, most important to him was a deep and abiding desire to give others the faith in God that he found so rewarding. Perhaps one of his greatest disappointments was that he could not give faith; he could only offer it. And this he continued to do, with enthusiasm, until the end of his time.