100-year-old 'hero' in abortion battle to receive birthday honors

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
    PORTLAND – He sits there, day after day, as committed to the cause as he was nearly three decades ago. Bundled against the winter chill for the two or three hours that he daily maintains his vigil, his aged eyes are often cast downward but his inner spirit remains resolute.
    Marion “Dock” Hite turns 100 years old on Friday, Dec. 9, and his remarkable sacrifice for the cause of saving unborn babies has made him a local hero to many in the evangelical Christian community.
   His birthday and his years of steadfastness in his cause will be recognized at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 9 with a special ceremony at his post, outside the Lovejoy Surgicenter abortion clinic at 933 N.W. 25th Ave.
    Hite’s church, Holy Rosary Catholic Church at 375 N.E. Clackamas St., also will honor Hite on Sunday, Dec. 4, with a special gathering at 12:30 p.m., after the morning mass.
    Every day, Hite stations himself on the street in his old lawn chair, umbrella nearby to shield from blazing sun in the summer or the rain and snow of the other seasons. He holds a sign urging potential clients of the abortuary to instead spare the lives of their children and consider adoption instead.
    Why has Hite held his vigil for all these years? His answer is simple. “Because they were killing the babies,” he said.
    And to confirm the importance of standing up for God’s littlest ones, he then quoted Jesus, in Matt. 25:40, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
   “I think Dock’s story is one of a hero’s epic,” says Vaughn Longanecker, who got to know him two years ago. “I suspect that he is the oldest individual who has consistently protested this evil in the world. His sacrifice is truly remarkable, his sense of duty should be exemplary to all, his steadfastness is a testimony to God’s truth and love.”
    Longanecker said one day a young woman approached Hite and thanked him for his testimony. She said that one day about nine years earlier, she had come to that corner to have an abortion. She saw his sign, which read,    “Don’t kill your child, please give us your child,” and him sitting there and she turned away. She told Hite, “I now have a 9-year-old daughter because of you, thank you.”
    A similar message came in the form of a handwritten note that Hite received only last month:
   “Dear Marion: I just wanted you to know that through all your suffering out at the abortion clinic you have saved another baby, now 10 weeks along of an 18-year-old father and 16-year-old mother — my grandchild. Please pray for them.”
    Raised in Gresham, Hite says he was given his nickhame of “Dock” because his father had the same name. According to Longanecker, Hite does not remember why he has that spelling on “Dock,” but was told that apparently it’s because his father worked on the “docks” locally. During Hite’s working years he held a variety of jobs including custodian and truck driver. But it wasn’t until his older years that the abortion tragedy compelled him to begin his daily work at the street corner of more than 25 years.
    The program for the Dec. 9 event was still being developed at press time, but was likely to last about 45 minutes and include songs, prayers and special speakers. Longanecker said one confirmed speaker is David Crowe, executive director of Lake Oswego-based Restore America.
    The Dec. 4 event at his church will include both local and national Catholic speakers.
    Both events seek to give the man his due, said Longanecker.
   “The (immediate) goal is to set him up as an example of what a hero is, and promote that kind of devotion in our people,” said Longanecker. “The main goal is to stop the murderous holocaust.”