A Man's Reach -- A Transforming Life, 3: Arnold, Elmer, and Marvin Andersen at Lake Michigan Park in Muskegon, about 1916

Elmer's mother, Jennie, died in 1925 with Elmer at her bedside. Within a year his father, Arne, was gone as well, from a sudden heart attack in Chicago. The children were alone. "But my two older brothers were reliable and resourceful and a stabilizing influence on the two younger children. Arnold was nine years older that I was. He was a father figure to Caroline and me. He had our father's determination to work hard and get ahead. What he decided, we accepted, because we trusted his judgment…. Marvin was more of a brother and a companion to me. He was seven years my senior. He was gentle, kind, a very humane person."

Image courtesy H. B. Fuller Company