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2008-01-22 issue:

Integrity and faithfulness

Mennonite higher education—part 1

by J. Daniel Hess

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Daniel B. Suter was once invited to teach at the University of Virginia at three times the salary that Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., paid him. But he stayed at EMU because “I believed that’s where the Lord wanted me to be.”

Suter later said, “I’m grateful when I think about the more than 300 physicians, dentists and other health-care workers who are serving all over the world that I helped train.”
Now archived are scores of tributes to this dedicated biology professor. For example, a medical doctor wrote, “I always respected and admired his integrity, gentle spirit and his faithfulness to the Lord.”

Shortly after the death of Dr. Suter, another Mennonite professor was honored. Cascadia Publishing House released a book entitled Nurturing Spirit Through Song. Colleagues and students created the book to honor Mary Oyer, who taught at Goshen (Ind.) College and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Elkhart, Ind. The editors wrote:

“Mary—through her extensive knowledge of the fine arts, exacting standards, infectious leadership and generous sharing of herself—has influenced, even profoundly shaped, the lives of many people. Her creative energies have taught us to use our aesthetic senses to understand the world and our place in it. She has helped us value the experience of others in faraway places, and through her insight and excitement we have come to grasp the depth of our shared humanity.”

Intellectual growth through excellent teaching: These two examples illustrate a great regard for teachers who have devoted their careers to students in Mennonite higher education. This level of respect is not a recent development in Mennonite circles. If we had patron saints, Christopher Dock would be one of them.

Our small denomination has a junior college (Hesston [Kan.] College), two colleges (Bethel College in North Newton, Kan., and Goshen [Ind.] College), two universities (Bluffton [Ohio] University and Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia) and a seminary (AMBS in Goshen). Eastern Mennonite Seminary is also integrated into EMU. As many as 500 teach in those institutions.

I interviewed a wide range of graduates of Mennonite higher education. What do they now remember, appreciate, regret and/or build upon from their experience on campus?
The most frequent response in these conversations pertained to a person, usually a professor, sometimes a staff person, who, from the vantage of years later, played a larger-than-life influence upon the individual.

George Rable: George Rable (Bluffton, 1972), a professor at the University of Alabama, where he is Charles G. Summersell Chair in Southern History, has received the prestigious Lincoln Prize and other awards for Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! (University of North Carolina Press, 2002).



He says, “I was a nervous first-generation college student from a working-class home. I had thought about becoming a high school math teacher, but in the first semester of my sophomore year at Bluffton College I met the greatest teacher with whom I would study at any level—John D. Unruh Jr.”

Knowing that Rable had studied in graduate school with the Pulitzer Prize winner T. Harry Williams, I knew his comment was significant. “[Unruh] was deeply knowledgeable about the whole range of American history.”

John D. Unruh Jr. died early in his career, but he left a powerful impression. “Whatever the subject, John could convince you that he thought it was vitally important and so should you. John believed in pouring on the work—anything to make students read, think and write. But however much we students might stagger under what seemed an unimaginable work load, we could never hold that against John, whose goodness and kindness were obvious to anyone.”

Susan Schultz Huxman: When Susan Schultz Huxman (Bethel, 1982) entered college, “I was ushered into a wonderful whirlwind of involvements in academics, sports, trips abroad, reader’s theater and forensics.”



Today Huxman’s life continues to be a whirlwind of involvements with family, church, community and career. Formerly director of the Public Speaking Program at Wake Forest University, she is now director of the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University.

She attributes her career trajectory to two Bethel College professors—Mark Stucky, who taught speech and debate, and Ada Mae Haury, “an amazing person, a living legend.” Now at 90, Ms. Haury “keeps up with me and my family.”

Jim Smucker: “At first I didn’t think I belonged at Goshen,” says Jim Smucker (Goshen College, 1984), president of Bird-in-Hand Corporation in eastern Pennsylvania. “I wasn’t academic, in the bottom half of my high school class. I didn’t know why I was in college.”

Economics 201 turned him on. Professor Carl Kreider (“He wore his suits so long that they went in and out of fashion three times while I was at Goshen.”) devoted the final class to a discussion of faith, economics and lifestyle. “He said provocative things, and I knew he was genuine.”

Later, in Senior Seminar, professor Del Good prodded each member to state a goal. “I wrote that I would get a Ph.D. by the time I was 40.” Actually, Jim received his Ph.D. on May 31, prior to his 40th birthday on June 13.

Rachel Miller Jacobs: Rachel Miller Jacobs (AMBS, 2000) is pastor of faith formation at Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend, Ind. Her own journey through college (Goshen, 1983)—and she was an excellent student—took her to a master’s degree in English at Indiana University and successful classroom experience. However, with the birth of her children she concluded that she “couldn’t afford to go back to teaching.” For a dozen years she raised a family.



Her father’s untimely death led her to grapple anew with the meaning of her own life. And at that traumatic time she watched a pastor, Duane Beck, “walking with people who needed company.”

Rachel enrolled in a course at AMBS on foundations of worship and preaching. Then another class. And another—evenings and weekends, with encouragement from people at church and even a financial gift from a friend to help pay for tuition. She eventually earned an M.Div degree.

Professor Marlene Kropf said, “I think you would make an effective spiritual director.” Professor Mary Schertz, “a stunning pedagogue,” slowed Rachel down in Greek classes “to see what was there.” Professor Gayle Gerber Koontz helped Rachel see that theology not only had a solid central trunk and academic branches but also grass roots. When Rachel participated in a Lilly Foundation-funded program called “The Engaging Pastor,” she found a vocation that fit well with what Kern Road Mennonite Church was looking for.
“I could kiss every one of those faculty members,” she says now, recalling her days at AMBS.

Effective teaching: The presidents of the institutions of Mennonite higher education have reaffirmed a commitment to intellectual growth of students through excellent teaching: “A comprehensive liberal arts education requires students to engage in spiritual discernment. Our academic programs feature valuable content and excellent instruction by knowledgeable and accessible faculty who are themselves committed to Christ. We call forth … intellectual gifts.”
The resolve that prompts such a statement assures me that quality teaching will continue in Mennonite higher education. For this faithful service we may be grateful.

J. Daniel Hess is a member of Shalom Mennonite Church in Indianapolis. This is the first of five articles on Mennonite higher education.

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