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Published on 04/06/1998 All articles from this issue

Turning to God 'First response, not last resort,' Geschkes tell breakfast gathering

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

It's scary to open up a piece of your personal life, especially to a large audience. But Los Altos residents Nan and Chuck Geschke did just that.

Last Friday 480 people sat riveted at the fourth annual Los Altos Community Prayer Breakfast at Hyatt Rickeys in Palo Alto as the Geschkes shared how prayer sustained them when Chuck was kidnapped at gunpoint in May 1992.

"We consider this a testimony to how important we consider prayer in our everyday life," Nan said. For them, "Turning to God is not a last resort but a first response."

The room was hushed. People leaned forward in their chairs, to catch every word, as the Geschkes spoke for nearly an hour.

Even though it has been almost six years since he was kidnapped from the parking lot of Adobe Systems, the company he founded with John Warnock, Chuck still chokes with emotion. He had to pause, as feelings swept over him, when he talked of the moment when he first saw his kidnapper's gun.

"'Oh my God' - I was speaking literally to God - it's time to have an in-depth conversation to ask how to deal with this," Chuck said.

He grew up a Catholic, attending Catholic schools, and spent three and a half years studying to be a Jesuit priest.

Chuck and Nan took turns speaking, at numerous times with humor, each telling the story from their own point of view.

For Nan, when the "fateful call" came at noon on May 26, 1992, "I immediately knew it was for real." Chuck's secretary had already searched the buildings at Adobe. "We knew he was missing," Nan said.

"I felt my body go limp. I truly asked God for courage," she said. "There are few times we need to be brave. And I had to be brave that day."

Nan, too, grew up in a devout Catholic home, with "prayer ingrained. The basis of our marriage has been prayer," she said.

Once the FBI was called in for the kidnapping, Nan was the first prime suspect.

"Four burly FBI agents were in my house, and I realized I was frightened of them. So I threw them out of my house. That day by myself, I was imploring God's help," she said. "I was also very afraid I may be next on their (kidnapper's) list."

Chuck was kept blindfolded, part of the time in a closet, in a house in Hollister.

"I began praying for the kidnappers. I meditated on the mysteries of the life of Christ," Chuck said. "But I forgot the mysteries. So I used my father, my wife, my children as my mysteries," he said, his voice barely audible as he again choked back his emotion.

At home in Los Altos, the Geschke house on University Avenue "was like mission control. But I felt very lonely," Nan said. "There was a lot of public prayer," with her children, "praying, holding hands. I felt powerless. I felt God was in control."

On the final day of Chuck's captivity, he prayed with his kidnappers. As one left to go pick up the ransom, Chuck said, "God be with you. I wanted him to come back."

It became clear to Chuck that if anything went wrong he would be killed. That night he was chained, blindfolded and on the floor in a closet.

Toward morning, hands touched his face. The FBI had found him and captured the kidnappers.

"You guys aren't dressed in white but you are angels and God sent you," Chuck said to the FBI.

At home, Nan kept a vigil, waiting for word, expecting the worst. "At two minutes to noon the phone rang, and it was Chuck. This was a resurrection in a lot of ways. The unbelievable joy and thanksgiving that was totally unexpected.

"It is so clear to me that God's guiding hand was in this. Our ordeal was only five days long. For some, with disease or death, it goes on for years," Nan said.

The Geschkes said they didn't feel angry for months, until the trial and sentencing of the kidnappers.

In the years since, the couple said they have had therapy to help them cope.

"Life is not a sit-com," Nan said. "You don't wrap it up in five days. I give thanks for ordinary days, of taking the dry cleaning, of going to Safeway. God's in his heavens."

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Geschkes' story was told in a four-part series in the Town Crier Oct. 15-Nov. 5, 1997.