"Gerry Crane died of a broken heart, both literally and figuratively," the Rev. William Evertsberg told mourners Tuesday.

Crane, who died of a heart attack Jan. 3, and his partner, Randy Block, were members of Evertsberg's congregation at Westminster. When Crane and Block pledged their lives to each other in a commitment ceremony in November 1995, Crane became a controversial figure.

He was an award-winning teacher at Byron Center High School at the time. After word of the private ceremony leaked out, the Byron Center School Board was besieged by parents who wanted Crane fired. Just as many parents wanted him to remain.

The leader of the group opposing Crane, Pastor Richard Gregory of the Byron Center Bible Church, at the time said Crane "threatens the morals of our community." Other residents of the city said Gregory and his followers were conducting "a witch hunt."

The controversy grew beyond the borders of this small town 15 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune and The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News, among other publications, also had stories.

Crane did not like being the center of attention.

"I didn't ask for any of this to happen to me. I just want it to go away," he told The Star and The News in December 1995.

It didn't go away. After a school board meeting in which the members condemned homosexuality but said they lacked legal grounds for dismissing Crane, the tension in the community made it difficult for Crane to live and work. He negotiated a settlement with the school system and resigned in July of last year.

"You can only put up with just so much and then you say, 'My humanity is more important than to have to deal with this,'" Crane told The Grand Rapids Press when he left the school system.

Five months later, just after Christmas, he suffered a heart attack from which he never recovered. He was 32 when he died.

Many of his former students were among those who gathered to mourn him. They packed the stairs and the aisles of the church as they listened to Evertsberg's eulogy.

"Gerry's homosexuality actually made him a better teacher because it helped him to understand students who had been hurt," Evertsberg told the crowd.

"Life is too short to hate."