Stoos Views

Sioux City attorney pens book of inspirational stories

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
(Email Renee)

If you judge others, you just might get it wrong.

A personal experience that taught that life lesson to Sioux City attorney William Kevin Stoos more than 30 years ago led to his becoming a freelance writer for various Catholic magazines.

The long-time Blessed Sacrament Church parishioner has compiled 24 of his cover and feature stories into a book titled The Woodcarver (And Other Stories of Faith and Inspiration).

“The stories are based on personal experiences through the prism of serendipity or what some people would call coincidence,” Stoos said. “My writing for the church has convinced me that I no longer believe in coincidence. As I say in the forward to my book, I think coincidence is the name God uses when he wants to remain anonymous.”

He said people and events are put in your path for a reason.

“We don’t always know it or understand it, but that certainly has been the case with me and others,” Stoos said. “I think there is something very big and powerful out there that you can tap into if you desire to. It’s the Holy Spirit.”

Sometimes these experiences are subtle, he noted, and sometimes “they hit you in the face.”

While the book highlights numerous stories where the writer gained a fresh and faith-filled perspective from everyday experiences, he explained that he chose The Woodcarver as the title because that was the event that motivated his faith-related writing. That particular short story is featured second in the book.

Back in the early 1970s, as a young soldier stationed in Germany he and fellow soldiers were out at a café when Stoos noticed a grizzled-looking older man.

“He was sitting at a table by himself, drinking a beer and smoking cigarettes. He was surrounded by the most beautiful statues of Mary and Jesus that I had ever seen in my life,” Stoos described.

The writer explained that the man kept staring at the one Black man in the group whose name was Charles. Stoos said it made him nervous because he believed that all of the old Germans who had fought in the war were racists.

“The lesson of the woodcarver was that Josef (the old man) invited us over to his table and bought us all a beer and spoke to us in German,” Stoos recalled. “I was the only German-speaker in the group so I was the translator. He kept staring at Charles and it made Charles and all of us uncomfortable.”

Eventually the man took Charles’ hand in his and said, “I love the Blacks.” The rugged old man explained that he had been captured by the Allies at Stalingrad in World War II and was imprisoned in the southern United States. He told the soldiers that the Blacks were the only ones who were friendly to him when he was held in captivity.

“That was a life-changing experience for me,” Stoos said. “It taught me a lot. It taught me never to stereotype anybody because invariably you are going to be wrong. It taught me that my conclusion about this grizzled, old, ex-Nazi was absolutely wrong. It shows how wrong you can be about people.”

In the end, Stoos purchased a statue of Mary and Jesus from the old man, who was a woodcarver.

“The other irony about it all is that these were carved from an oak beam of a bombed-out Catholic church that was 500 years old,” said Stoos.

He wrote down that story but didn’t submit it for some time.

Stoos, who had already been a published political columnist for several years, eventually submitted the short story of The Woodcarver to Liberty, a religious freedom magazine. He sold it to Liberty and gave the proceeds to the church. Not long after it was published, Stoos began to wonder if he could ever sell anything to The Catholic Digest and soon the call came from that prestigious publication. They had seen the article in Liberty and asked to republish it. Again, he gave the proceeds to the church as he has done with all of the proceeds from the inspirational works.

From there, numerous other inspirational stories flowed. He began to pay closer attention to his life experiences and view them through a prism of faith. While 24 stories are featured in the book, many more have been published in about 15 religious publications.

“I’m mystified. Very humbled by the whole thing,” he said.

Stoos said that while he is an attorney by profession, writing is his passion.

He noted that the first story featured in the book centers on an experience he had in Sioux City. After giving a coat to a crippled, lonely man whom in the dead of winter was always coatless, the man asked Stoos, “Are you a minister?”

“That incident really affected me,” said Stoos, who noted that this has been the most published of all his stories.

It has made him think about how even small gestures can impact the lives of others.

Other stories in The Woodcarver center on the beauty of nature, childhood experiences, the Carmelites, his thoughts on abortion and more. One story even centers on his experience at children’s Masses when his two children were attending Blessed Sacrament Grade School in Sioux City.

Stoos and his wife, Jean, are the parents of two grown children, Catherine and David. Both graduated from Bishop Heelan High School.

The Woodcarver is available at Trinity Heights gift shop and on various internet wholesale book sites. Stoos plans to donate proceeds from The Woodcarver to the Carmelites nuns in Sioux City.

“(The nuns) are just wonderful – totally selfless and dedicated,” he said. “They pray for people they don’t even know.”