CHEYENNE -- The words of a Swiss missionary, written in 1901, leave a legacy that continues to guide a family.

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,” wrote Jakob Kunzler in his diary over a century ago in Turkey.

Kunzler dedicated his life to transporting some 8,000 orphans out of Turkey and into Lebanon during genocide by the Turks in the early 1900s.

Today, his family -- his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great- great-grandchildren -- remember stories about the man.

Many family members will begin a week-long journey to Armenia today to honor Kunzler’s work. The family is dispersed throughout the world, but members will meet in the country where their relative dedicated his life to bringing whatever peace he could.

A Cheyenne psychologist, Dr. Pru Marshall, will be among them. She is the granddaughter of Papa Kunzler, as he was nick-named in the early 1900s.

She is going to bear witness, she said, and to pay tribute to her grandfather for his work and the peril he faced.

Kunzler’s book, “In the Land of Blood and Tears,” is his eyewitness account of the events that took place at that time.

“I was just really shocked at how horrific it really was,” Marshall said after reading the book.

She described scenes of people’s throats being cut as if they were being sacrificed and of women being marched, naked, through a desert until they died.

It wasn’t safe for anyone in Turkey, she said, and that’s why her grandfather did what he could to get orphans out of the country.

Kunzler, an orphan himself, brought the children to Lebanon and taught them marketable skills like rug-making so they could survive.

Kunzler also came to the United States to lobby for his cause, and the U.S. government supported him, Marshall said.

One of the rugs that the orphans made, which was presented to Calvin Coolidge, hangs in the White House.

This will be her first trip to Armenia, though she did visit Lebanon when she was a child. She said she always knew the story of her grandfather’s work but didn’t really know what it meant until she became an adult.

The family also will honor Kunzler’s wife, Elizabeth, who Kunzler said was essential to his work, Marshall said.

A photograph of the place where a plaque for Kunzler will be placed shows a round monument with a perpetual flame at the center surrounded by thousands of brightly colored flowers.

Marshall will speak at the dedication on behalf of her family and her mother, who is the only living daughter of Kunzler.

Her mother is 92 and is unable to make the trip.

Marshall has written her speech, which includes a piece written by her mother:

“Allow me to pass on to you the legacy my Mama Elizabeth and my Papa Jakob left me: Care for each other, as the Golden Rule so clearly specifies, for I have abandoned the God of War.”

That legacy -- caring for one another -- has permeated the family tree.

Marshall said her family is full of doctors, social workers and human-rights activists, all professions that have to do with alleviating the suffering of others.

“I’ve dedicated my life to being sensitive to other people’s suffering and to alleviating it,” she said.

But she is awestruck by the courage and dedication of her grandfather.

So is Marshall’s 18-year-old nephew, Jesse, who will also be traveling to Armenia for the dedication.

He said he isn’t sure how he feels about being honored by the Armenians for being a relative of Kunzler.

After all, “it’s no thanks to me,” Jesse said.

Not many people have this kind of legacy, he said, and his grandfather’s influence has affected his whole family.

Kunzler continues in his diary: “Whoever it may be, everyone wants to receive love from someone and because of this we should give love to everyone, whether friend or foe, whether Chinese, Negro, Indian or a white, may they be Christians, heathens, Jews or Moslems.”