 |
Celebrating
A
Servant’s
Heart
We
Honor
the
Memory
of
Chester
P.
Yozwick,
Ph.D.
by
Mary
Grace
McCord
In
1991
Chester
Yozwick
founded
American
Institute
of
Holistic
Theology
and
served
as
its
president
until
2001.
Over
its
first
10
years,
the
school’s
abundance
of
spirit-led
degree
programs
were
lovingly
sculpted
one
course
at
a
time,
in
the
skillful
hands
of
a
wise
man
who
we
called
“Dr.
Y.”
To
know
Chester
Yozwick
was
to
know
a
humble
disciple
of
theology,
a
devoted
leader
with
a
servant’s
heart.
It
is
both
ironic
and
perfect
that
our
founder’s
nickname
was
“Dr.
Y.”
because
his
inquisitive
mind
seldom
rested.
A
constant
seeker
of
higher
truth
who,
refreshingly,
did
not
take
himself
too
seriously,
he
liked
to
joke
that
he
first
turned
his
face
heavenward
because
breathing
was
such
a
challenge.
 |
|
As
a
passionate
lover
of
the
great
outdoors,
the
young
Chester
endured
such
debilitating
childhood
asthma
that
he
occasionally
hallucinated
from
lack
of
oxygen.
Drawn
to
nature
and
ever
worshipful
of
her
lessons,
Chester
as
a
teenager
and
then
a
young
man
increasingly
followed
naturopathic
approaches
to
holistic
health.
Conventional
medicine
only
made
him
sicker,
without
easing
his
symptoms.
“Most
people
don’t
seek
out
a
holistic
health
counselor
because
they
already
feel
perfectly
well
and
somehow
want
to
learn
how
to
feel
even
‘weller.’
Most
people,
like
me,
are
looking
for
holistic
health
answers
that
give
the
hope
of
helping
to
improve
one’s
quality
of
life.”
“The
good
news,”
he
added,
“is
that
many
seekers
of
mind/body/spirit
health
are
surprised
to
discover
quantity
(of
life)
as
well
as
quality.
When
we
learn
to
think
peaceful
thoughts,
that
alone
will
help
to
regulate
our
breathing.
You
can’t
be
calm
while
gasping
for
air,
but
becoming
calmer
does
improve
the
breath.”
Dr.
Y.
was
living,
breathing
proof
of
a
life
well
lived.
Bloom
Where
You’re
Planted
Chester
Yozwick
was
serving
in
the
U.S.
Navy
when
he
met
his
future
wife,
Laura.
Throughout
their
courtship
she
heard
stories
about
the
ship
on
which
he
was
stationed,
but
never
laid
eyes
on
his
temporary
nautical
home
until
many
years
after
their
marriage.
“I
was
beyond
shocked,”
she
said,
describing
the
tiny,
windowless
berth
that
he
occupied
for
many
months.
It
was
so
small
that
a
person
with
breathing
problems
would
surely
develop
claustrophobia
while
living
miles
away
from
dry
land,
but
not
our
chipper
skipper.
“Chester
was
always
cheerful,
never
seeming
to
have
a
care
in
the
world,”
said
Laura.
“He
had
such
a
happy
heart,
such
love
and
appreciation
for
life.
To
know
him
then,
you’d
never,
ever
imagine
that
he
was
living
in
a
tin
can,
constantly
tossed
by
waves.
He
was
just
so
content
and
peaceful.”
Along
with
his
deep
reverence
for
the
miracles
of
life,
Dr.
Y.’s
sense
of
humor
often
came
out
to
play.
After
12
years
of
marriage,
40-something
Laura
and
Chester
received
some
amazing
news—that
they
were
going
to
have
a
baby!
The
father-to-be
was
beside
himself
and
offered
to
call
all
their
relatives
and
friends,
presumably
to
save
Laura’s
energy.
“I
thought
it was
cancer
but
it’s
a baaaaaaaby,”
he said
over
and
over,
each
time
shrieking
with
laughter.
And
never
was
there
a
prouder
father,
Laura
added.
Their
miracle
son,
Aaron,
grew
up
sharing
many
of
Chester’s
interests:
in
music
and
in
other-worldly
things
such
as
parapsychology.
He
is
now
a
graphic
artist
and
a
blues
musician.
All
the
Lives
He
Lived
After
serving
in
the
military
Chester
Yozwick’s
gift
of
gab
made
him
a
successful
salesman.
At
one
time
he
sold
granite,
and
for
many
years
he
sold
insurance.
So
while
battling
asthma,
working,
and
blissfully
enjoying
his
God-given
family,
the
young
salesman
continued
his
independent
study
of
natural
health
and
even
found
interesting
ways
to
incorporate
theological
teachings
into
his
work
life.
Dr.
Y.
told
me
to
leave
my
cares
in
God’s
hands,
and
envision
the
tide
sweeping
them
farther
and
farther
away.
For
instance,
the
granite
salesmen
spent
much
of
his
time
at
cemeteries,
selling
the
raw
materials
for
head
stones
and
grave
markers.
Finding
himself
far
busier
in
the
fall
and
winter
and
less
busy
in
the
spring
and
summer,
his
after-hours
research
indicated
that
people’s
energy,
and
indeed
their
life
force,
do
ebb
and
flow
by
the
seasons.
The
sick
would
often
regather
their
energies
after
a
long,
gray
winter;
those
whose
health
was
faltering
often
gave
in
when
the
cold
autumn
winds
signaled
months
of
severe
weather
ahead.
As
for
his
budding
holistic
health
education,
it
therefore
seemed
like
great
advice
to
tell
people
to
stop
making
News
Year’s
resolutions.
Not
to
stop
trying
to
make
lifestyle
improvements,
he
would
explain,
but
to
make
lasting
changes
by
embracing
new
habits
in
the
newness
of
springtime,
when
the
world
is
refreshed—not
in
the
dead
of
winter,
when
the
world
is
resting,
hibernating.
Likewise,
his
years
as
an
insurance
salesman
taught
him
quite
a
lot
about
people’s
lifestyle
habits,
especially
which
choices
were
best
and
which
were
worst.
As
always,
he
freely
shared
this
knowledge
with
clients
and
thus
liked
to
believe
that
perhaps
he
even
played
a
role
in
improving
actuarial
statistics!
Over
the
years
his
persistent
calling
to
teach
others
how
to
get
healthier
grew
too
loud
to
ignore.
So
first
he
bolstered
his
own
deepening
knowledge
base
of
mind/body/spirit
health
through
intensive
home
studies
with
a
West
Coast
natural
health
school.
Then
he
collaborated
with
fellow
students,
gathering
the
theological
truths
that
inform
all
of
the
world’s
great
religions.
On
a
wing
and
a
prayer—and
always
with
a
servant’s
heart—Chester
Yozwick
swung
open
the
virtual
doors
of
AIHT.
Our
Way-shower
Dr. Yozwick’s
own
graduate
studies
had
provided
ample
reminders
that
the
philosophies
of
holistic
health,
gratitude
and
abundance,
faith
and
spirituality
are
sometimes
challenging
to
translate.
In
some
states
the
laws
view
conventional
healthcare—which
Dr.
Y.
called
“conventional
sick
care”—and
care
of
the
mind/body/
spirit
as
mutually
exclusive
terms.
Our
founder’s
lifelong
appreciation
of
life’s
perfect
flow
enabled
his
school
to
form
strong
bridges
that
are
inclusive
rather
than
exclusive.
Laura
Yozwick
recalls
that
her
husband’s
encyclopedic,
analytical
mind
“understood
legislature.
He
was
able
to
gain
grassroots
support
of
nutrition
education
and
present
it
in
a
way
that
didn’t
threaten
medical
doctors
because
it
was
very
clear
that
AIHT
could
add
a
missing
component,
warm
and
kind,
spirit-led,
amidst
a
technocratic
world
of
cause
and
effect
that
sometimes
seemed
to
leave
one’s
noble
human
spirit
outside
the
equation.”
Dr.
Y.
loved
to
quote
scripture
and
loved
Biblical
debate.
He
designed
curricula
in
divinity,
holistic
ministries,
metaphysics,
holistic
childcare
and
more.
He
often
quoted
A
Course
in
Miracles,
and
he
painstakingly
created
an
academic
haven
that
clearly
resonates
with
each
of
the
world’s
religions
and
with
students
from
all
parts
of
the
world.
AIHT
adjunct
faculty
member
Josephene
Johnsey,
Ph.D.
remembers
an
oceanfront
visit
they
shared,
near
the
Edgar
Cayce
Institute
in
Virginia
Beach.
“I
told
him
I
came
to
the
school’s
mind/body/spirit
conference
for
a
spiritual
cleaning
that
would
culminate
in
a
rechristening
with
sea
water.
Dr.
Y.
told
me
to
leave
my
cares
in
God’s
hands,
and
envision
the
tide
sweeping
them
farther
and
farther
away.”
It
was
an
other-worldly
conversation
that
later
touched
on
the
healing,
intuitive
powers
of
dreams.
“With
Dr.
and
Mrs.
Yozwick
I
felt
kindred
spirits
of
deep
faith,”
Johnsey
recalled.
“He
lived
with
an
unrelenting
desire
to
share
universal
truths
with
other
seekers
throughout
the
world,
with
those
of
widely
varying
ethno-theological
beliefs.
He
sought
to
help
the
world’s
collective
mind
become
calmer
and
more
peaceful.”
Laura
Yozwick
feels
certain
that
Dr.
Yozwick’s
servant’s
heart
lives
on,
warming
her
daily
life
with
his
eternal
light.
“The
winters
in
Ohio
are
cold
and
snowy,”
she
said.
“My
husband’s
body
was
cremated
and
he
asked
me
to
keep
his
ashes
in
the
trunk
of
my
car.
“He
said
maybe
he
could
still
help
me
out
in
a
ice
storm.”
|
