On any given Sunday morning Dorwan Stoddard could be spotted cheerfully greeting visitors outside of the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ in Tucson Ariz. He could also be found voluntarily performing numerous repair projects to the church despite being 76 and having 17 stints in his heart.
Fellow church member and former Pepperdine student Zoe Nystrom recalled Stoddard’s giving nature.
“I will always remember Dorwan’s encouragement reminisced Nystrom. He was truly a ‘Barnabas’ of our congregation— he always asked about my studies and travels and would always greet me with a big hug and a warm smile.”
It was a normal Saturday morning on Jan. 8 when Stoddard and his wife Mavy were on their way to breakfast but decided to stop and see Rep. Gabrielle Giffords during a meet-and-greet at a local Safeway.
The husband and wife were high school sweethearts who reconnected and got married 15 years ago.
Mavy commented in a tearful interview with the Los Angeles Times about her relationship with her husband: “He made me a better person. He made me kinder. He made me know there are good men.”
As they were waiting in line to speak with Rep. Giffords shots rang out as 22-year-old Jared Loughner targeted the congresswoman and immediately Dorwan instinctively protected his wife lowering her to the ground and covering her. Both were shot in the chaos. Mavy was shot five times in the leg and Dorwan three times in the head.
Once the shooting ceased Mavy looked down to see that her husband was injured. It was a tearful 10 minutes as she held him until the end.
Despite not having known the shooter Mavy Stoddard told the Seattle radio station News Talk 97.3 KIRO FM that her husband would have been the first to reach out to help him.
“You know the ironic part of this whole thing is that if Dorwan had known that young man she said, talking about [Loughner], had seen his pain him being troubled? Dorwan would’ve been one of the first people to try to help him. He would’ve said let’s sit down and talk. Let’s pray together. I mean that’s just the kind of person he was.”
Dean Rick Marrs friend and hometown member of Mountain Avenue Church of Christ said in an email that his father led the congregation in prayer the next morning.
“I was told he included the troubled young man in his prayer Marrs said. After church several members thanked him for that saying they could not have done that but knew God would want them to do the same and hoped they could eventually.”
Many church members jokingly believed that Dorwan Stoddard would have passed a more clumsy way. Pastor Mike Nowak recalled the church member’s many accidents while working on construction projects at the church.
“He fell through the roof of the children’s training room he was building in our auditorium last spring. We hung up a plaque that says Dory’s Room Nowak said. He fell off a 20-foot ladder while trying to fix a screen for our power point just two weeks prior to his death. He had many accidents and most of us were prepared for one of them to take his life.”
But fate had different plans for Dorwan Stoddard. His tragic death left many asking “Why him?” though his courageous act was not out of character.
“Dorwan would have dove in front of anyone to save them just as he did for Mavy last week Nystrom said. Not only did his courage and service parallel his nature it almost encapsulates how he lived his life for others.”
Nowak agreed. “He loved to tell stories of all the work he had done around the state while working as a road grader and in construction he said. He loved fishing. He really enjoyed taking charge of our building maintenance.”
At Dorwan Stoddard’s funeral Sunday grieving friends and family members gathered to remember him. Even Nowak honored him by wearing black cowboy boots to the church just like Dorwan Stoddard used to.
Though Mavy Stoddard has just been released from the hospital she already knows that her husband’s bravery will lead her throughout her life as she told the LA Times. “He died for me she said, her tone unyielding as she continued, and I have to live for him.”