Though he called himself a “suffering pastor’s spouse,” Tem Taylor always tried to do the best thing at the church where his wife, Dusty, was a co-pastor.
But once he got burned by a freeloader. It never happened again to Taylor, whose wife was a co-pastor at Montview Presbyterian Church.
Taylor, who was a railroad consultant, died at his Denver home Aug. 29 of heart ailments. He was 78.
Taylor, who loved to tell stories, laughed at himself after being “taken” by a stranger, who called the Taylor home about midnight one night asking for $40 and saying he was a nearby United Methodist minister and needed money for a cab ride to DIA.
“I was trying to be the good guy,” Taylor told a Denver Post reporter. “I didn’t want any problems with ecumenical relations.”
Taylor gave him the $40.
Several hours later, the man called back saying he needed more money. But Taylor wasn’t to be bitten again. He called the police, and the man was arrested.
Taylor himself was an unrepentant practical joker. Before he married, he drove his bride by a “dinky little motel” in Atlanta and told her that was where they’d spend their honeymoon.
“I thought, ‘Oh, brother,’ ” recalled Dusty Taylor.
But he took her to the fanciest hotel in Atlanta.
When she told him she was going to seminary and wanted to become a minister, his reply was “well, you’re always preaching to me, so why not?”
“But he was always supportive and proud of my mother,” said his daughter, Kathy Dusser of Aurora. “He’d drop anything to help someone.” He was also a tenor in the church choir.
Greg Taylor of London recalled his father’s love of trains, and they rode plenty of them because Tem Taylor had a railroad pass.
“No one in the family loved trains as much as he did,” his wife said.
Thomas Madison Taylor was born in Rochester, N.Y., on Nov. 27, 1931, and earned his economics degree at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and his engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology.
His nickname came from his mother, Elizabeth.
He married Glendora Boyce on June 14, 1958.
They moved to Venice, Fla., several years ago and moved back to Denver in January.
In addition to his wife, daughter and son, he is survived by three grandchildren. His son Matt died two years ago.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
