Plymouth Magazine-Spring26-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 12
Faith in Action: Scott Stouffer
By Karen Downing (she/her)
There are many ways to hold those in power
accountable: attending protests, writing
letters to Congress, door knocking, or
running for office. For Scott Stouffer, he
opts for pen and paper.
At 89, Stouffer could be forgiven for
slowing down. Instead, he laughs. “I don’t
give a damn,” he says. “At this point in my
life, I’ve got nothing to lose.”
After the last election, discouragement
drove him to his sketchpad. “I got so
down in the dumps. I began with simple
ones, and I’d create a cartoon every twothree weeks. There’s so much material, I
can’t keep up now, but Pat [Scott’s wife]
won’t let me do more than one a week.”
Scott Stouffer in his studio.
Stouffer is no stranger to artistic
expression. He built a career as an
architect where he learned his craft by
drawing and sketching and working on
paper in a time largely before the use of
computers. After retirement, he spent 25
years painting watercolors.
Then came neuropathy. “My feet went
first. Then my hands started shaking.
I had to quit painting serious stuff —I
couldn’t do it the way I wanted.”
Stouffer thought about going to abstracts
with loose blobs of color, but he didn’t like
the results. “That led to me doing simple
watercolors in cartoon form. It’s just a
natural sequence, one forced on by age.”
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Stouffer joined Plymouth about 75
years ago. In 1968, after leaving the
Army, Stouffer served on the Social
Action Board, one of several Boards and
committees he was involved with over the
years. “I’m pretty liberal when it comes
to religion. I’m less about the Bible and
more about the church socialization.”
His cartoons underscore the value he
places in community. “We live at Scottish
Rite on the first floor, and everyone has to
walk by our place if they are going to the
garage, the gym, the movie theater. We’re
allowed to have one piece of art outside
our door, and I post different framed
cartoons every week. People take pictures
of them and send them to their kids.”
His work has also reached beyond those
halls. The Iowa arts and culture magazine
“Little Village” has published several of
his pieces, each one sharp, funny, and full
of truth. “These cartoons have turned
into an obsession. By doing them, I make
myself feel a bit better about where the
country and world is going.”
Though he can no longer attend worship
in person, Stouffer’s ministry continues.
His cartoons—humble, honest, and
bold—remind us that holy work
doesn’t always happen in the sanctuary.
Sometimes it happens at a kitchen table,
where a faithful hand still dares to draw
justice, one line at a time.
