1. 1847 Otterbein University Inaugural Issue 2012
Behind the sandwich boards
Schneider’s
chaotic kitchen
Hangover remedies
that actually work
Otterbein ballplayer
pitches in

2. Singing and smiling from the sidewalk
Local preaching couple battles everything from failing health to financial hardship
to stay dedicated to their calling.
MIKE CIRELLI
senior editor/senior writer
The story of how David and Denise
Tripp met is a very unusual one.
It begins in 1979 in Hemming Park,
a trim, tree-lined splash of green in the
skyscraper-packed city of Jacksonville,
Fla. Denise and her friend Kristi had
just finished up their shifts at a roadside
fruit vendor and were heading toward
photo provided by david and denise tripp
the nearby bus station. As they walked,
they tried to stay within the shadows
cast by the towering trees and bushes
surrounding the park. It was a hot May
afternoon, and they were eager to go
home and rest. Denise brushed a droplet
of sweat from her tan forehead framed
with a halo of short brown hair.
Suddenly, they heard shouting.
“Sounds like there’s a Jesus freak out
there,” Denise said. She wasn’t worried,
though. She was a devout Christian and
had no reason to be afraid of an especially David has been preaching since he was 18 years old, and Denise
noisy preacher. started preaching with him not long after the two wed in 1979.
They neared the corner. Denise
thought she heard running coming
from the other side, but the large bushes
blocked her view. The two girls rounded as if someone were watching her. She Denise’s premonition was correct:
the bend, and out of nowhere a manic- turned around and saw the same tall man A little over a month later, David and
looking man toppled into them and staring at her. He stood up, walked over Denise Tripp were married.
shouted at the top of his lungs, “WHAT and sat down next to her.
DO YOU THINK ABOUT CAPITAL “I saw you in a dream,” the man said.
PUNISHMENT?” The color of his dark brown hair matched
Denise blinked, too afraid to even Denise’s almost perfectly. Thirty-two years went by. David’s
remember what capital punishment was, Denise had no idea how to respond health deteriorated. He’s had surgery
let alone how she felt about it. The tall to that. She glanced around and noticed twice and has trouble breathing when he
man’s stony gaze demanded a response. a big, fluffy yellow handkerchief sticking sleeps. His hip is weak and mandates the
“Um … it’s a good thing,” Denise said, out of the man’s pants pocket. She use of a cane. When he walks, he hobbles.
hoping that answer would assuage him. silently pulled it out, dipped it in the cool He can only preach outside for so long
As soon as she uttered those words, fountain and wiped his sweaty forehead. before he needs to sit down — cops don’t
the man fired back, “YOU’RE GOING He looked at her like she was crazy. let him put a chair on the sidewalk, this
TO HELL!” “Somehow I feel we’re supposed to be is permissible only during a parade —
Then he sped off down the sidewalk, together,” Denise said. and preaching in the cold is out of the
shouting, preaching and condemning as “You mean in marriage?” he question. He’s exhausted all the time,
if Judgment Day were right around the responded. and it’s not just because of his declining
corner. “Yes,” she said. health. For years he worked at two jobs in
Three weeks later, the two crossed “Tell me your name. Tell me your 12-hour shifts, one as a roaming security
paths a second time. Denise was number. I gotta go pray about this,” he guard, the other as a bagboy at Kroger,
once again waiting at the bus stop at ordered. but in December 2011 David was laid
Hemming Park. This time, she was alone. At this moment, Denise’s bus off from his security post. The letter the
She sat in front of a babbling fountain, pulled up. She quickly whispered the company mailed to David cited “lack of
watching the sun’s wavy reflection in the information to the man and climbed suitable work to offer you at this time” as
water. Suddenly, she got a weird feeling, aboard. the reason. Denise’s health isn’t
1847 2012 20

3. “
students. David and Denise start the
My mind says you’re young. My body says you’re day’s work. She stands, sandwich board
”
tired. My heart says don’t listen to either one of astride, and smiles her signature smile.
He cracks open the old, brown hymnal
them. Listen to God. book and, without a trace of inhibition,
starts belting out centuries-old church
chorales in the middle of the sidewalk.
David Tripp Students stare; most keep walking. A
couple students strike silly poses around
the preachers while another student takes
in such bad shape, but she too admits I introduce myself, and they’re both photos. Denise keeps right on smiling,
that throughout the years, the open-air exceedingly nice. Unprovoked, David David keeps right on singing.
preaching they do at colleges and high delves right into his past.
schools has become more difficult. “Been doing open-air preaching 42
Red and orange leaves spiral to the years. Started out at 18 years old, 1971.
ground on the Otterbein campus. A I got with the Jesus people — Christian David bursts out in song again, this
bright blue sky hangs above the deserted hippies. We were in some big, big events, time at an old folks’ home. He and
Campus Center. It’s 11:15 a.m., 45 especially Richard Nixon’s impeachment.” Denise have come here once a week
minutes before the campus erupts into He pushes his glasses into place with his for the past six years to minister to the
activity, with students making their daily long fingers. “What I saw made me sick.” elderly. The only times they don’t go are
exodus from dorm to class, or vice versa. Denise took over after this. She when the weather holds them up, they’re
But for now, it’s quiet enough to hear a explains how they met each other that sick or they just don’t have the gas for
faint breeze whisper past your ears. day in Florida, 819 miles from where their car.
David, tall, gray-haired and a tad they now stand. Denise is looking stately as usual,
on the heavier side, is wearing a bright “I told my mom we were getting with a bright blue dress, a necklace of
blue shirt that quotes, in thick capital married,” Denise recalls. “She drops her pearls, black flats and pantyhose. David
letters, a verse from Revelation: “FEAR coffee cup and says, ‘No, you’re not.’ Six is dressed in his typical black and gray
GOD AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM.” weeks later, we were married. And we’ve apparel. His singing fills the little room
He wears a watch and carries a book of been married 32 years. The Lord just we’re in, most likely a cafeteria. Four
hymns. went BANG. Didn’t propose or nothing. residents sit at the long tables adorned
Denise, her ever-present smile My brothers and my mom just took with vases of flowers. A counter with a
plastered on her face, has a sandwich David right in.” She shifts her gaze to coffee machine sits in the back. On the
board strapped on her shoulders. “YOU David. “But he’s been there when my wall, a notice reads, “THE YEAR IS
DON’T HAVE TO GO TO HELL” brothers got married, when our nieces 2011. THE MONTH IS NOVEMBER.
hovers above a poorly animated flame, and nephews have been born.” And then TODAY IS WEDNESDAY. THE
and then, “… says the Lord Jesus!” Her she says, with a very loving tone, “He’s DATE IS 9TH. THE WEATHER
short black hair is tucked behind her ears, been a part of everything.” TODAY IS RAINY.” Other than
and a pair of squinty eyes peer out from The clock strikes noon, and the David’s voice, only the occasional
behind her thin-rimmed glasses. streets of Otterbein’s campus fill with footsteps in the hall can be heard.
David’s singing is heartfelt, but clearly
not professionally trained in the slightest.
His vibrato is lousy, his pitch is way
off, his performance is overbearing and
uncomfortable. “Now I’ll pep it up a little
bit,” he says before trying, unsuccessfully,
to go up an octave.
The old folks, six total, watch quietly
and attentively. One of the women idly
adjusts the placemat under one of the
flower vases.
He finishes. No applause, just blank
gazes, some directed to the window. Rain
streaks down the glass.
“I’m old, but I’m young ’cause my
mind says you’re young,” David says. “My
photo by mike cirelli
body says you’re tired. My heart says don’t
listen to either one of them. Listen to
God.”
Denise stands up. “You want me to get
you some, David?”
“Yes, if you will, coffee.”
David and Denise have traveled to 230 universities in 15 states, the farthest being
Colorado. They also started preaching at nearby high schools in the past year. (Continued on page 23)
21 1847 2012

4. The street preachers share a
small apartment on the east
side of Columbus. When they
aren’t busy preaching or when
David’s not working, the two
like to watch a title from their
large collection of movies,
read their Bibles together and
post on Facebook.
photo by mike cirelli

5. After Denise finishes up, we leave the
nursing home. Puddles in the parking lot
ripple with raindrops. The sky is white
and gray and cloudy. David limps to his
car with his cane, coughing as he goes.
He loses his breath in the short trip to
the car.
He says he started using the cane four
months ago. His doctor told him he’s
going to be in a wheelchair for the rest
of his life unless he gets hip replacement
surgery in his right leg. “It’s just bone
grinding bone now,” he says. “That’s why
I don’t stand three-four hours on campus
anymore.”
David refuses to admit himself to a
nursing home because he doesn’t want
to leave Denise alone. He tells her she
wouldn’t be able to pay the bills on her
own.
They gently place their Bibles in
the trunk of their dark green sedan.
Three bumper stickers adorn the back
photo by mike cirelli
of their car: One an American flag, the
second a 2008 McCain endorsement,
half of which is ripped off, and the
third advertising Calvary Chapel, their
nondenominational church.
Three Otterbein students strike poses next to David as he preaches on the
sidewalk in front of the Campus Center. He said that while college students
David and Denise don’t see their can become pretty rowdy while he and Denise preach, high school students
families very often. David’s son from are usually even more aggressive.
his first marriage, Anthony, tries to take
them out about once a month, but long David and Denise lost their first child dimensions (21 pounds, 21 inches long,
hours at work give him little time to during pregnancy and decided to give up 15 inches tall), the way he seemed to be
do anything but sleep. David’s brother, on having children together after several genuinely concerned when David and
Melvin, lives with his partner in another other miscarriages. One day, about a year Denise were sick and his apparent ability
state. after the first miscarriage, David came to only grant Christians entrance into the
David doesn’t hate his brother home with an 8-week-old kitten. apartment.
for being gay; neither he nor Denise “Joshua,” Denise says with tidy But it is David’s responses that
have any hatred for anyone, including pronunciation and affection. “It was are more interesting. He remains
all gay people, though he does think perfectly marked. It had four white feet. uncharacteristically silent save the
homosexuality is sinful. “Hate the sin, If you put Josh in the sunlight, you could occasional sigh or whispered remark
not the sinner,” became David’s mantra. go ahead and see stripes on him.” of affirmation. Every few minutes he
Neither David or Denise agree with Lady Denise sits barefoot on the couch in quietly says, “He was a different kind of
Gaga’s recent theology on the subject. her and David’s Columbus apartment. cat” — the same comment every time,
(They were not born that way, David said, David sits next to her wearing a blue shirt never elaborating on the statement, but
but they became that way through their with the word JESUS stamped across the sounding more and more despondent
environment and experiences.) front, his long legs stretched out in front each time he says it.
You’ll never catch either of them of him. The cat lived an unusually long life at
wearing a “GOD HATES FAGS” “He was a great companion,” Denise 18 years. They never took in another pet
sandwich board a la the Westboro says. “Very much so … very much so.” because Denise became allergic to the
Baptist Church, however. Both David Denise rapturously expounds on the hair.
and Denise have stated, forcibly, that cat the way parents talk about their kids, “One of these days I’m going to get
they think the WBC’s methods are with bursts of pride and compassion a cat again,” David says weakly. Denise
wrong and they’re making all open-air lighting up each syllable she speaks. laughs affectionately and says, “He still
preachers look bad. They hate the fact She tells me of Joshua’s on-again-off- thinks about that cat and he’ll start
that Otterbein students have compared again relationship with a cat who lived crying.”
them to the WBC simply because they nearby, a “beautiful white female” with Mike Cirelli is a junior journalism major and
wear sandwich boards. “glittery blue eyes.” She details his exact is the senior editor/senior writer for 1847.
23 1847 2012