Their Labor of Love: Teaching Adventures of the Twentieth-Century Huntington College Faculty

By Ruth E. Nalliah, Erika L. James and Annie K. Seboe

Among Huntington College emeriti, what were their most unusual classroom experiences, and their most treasured moments? Their worst nightmares? When offered more lucrative jobs elsewhere, why did they choose to stay? And what did they find most worthwhile about an ordinary class, taught on an ordinary day?

Also find the answers to the following questions. What pranks have been pulled by Huntington College faculty? Which time period produced the wildest students: the 1960s, the 1980s, or now? Which professor used a snowblower on a roof after the
Blizzard of 1978? Which president walked 25-mile walkathons to raise money? Which emeritus serves on the editorial boards of twelve journals, in retirement?

In Their Labor of Love, you'll read about what sparked an enduring passion for teaching within the long-term twentieth-century Huntington College faculty, and their experiences which established and sustained them in that role. You'll also be inspired by complementary views of the academic landscape through the eyes of long-serving campus leaders and student support personnel who have held the rank of Faculty. The accounting of these experiences is a testament to our mission in Christian higher education, and why we do what we do.

This memoir does not read like a novel. It contains interesting, passionate, and humorous excerpts from emeriti essays and interviews, organized by topics of interest. The emeriti stories and wisdom will be loved by those who knew them, or knew of them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667861012

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While contributors have made an effort to be accurate, events in this memoir have been described by the ways in which the storytellers remember them.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

First printing 2022.

Front cover photo by Paul R. Nalliah.

Cover design by Julie M. Babb.

ISBN: 978-1-66786-101-2

For the faculty who came before us.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

1: Why Teaching Was My Calling

2: Tools of the Trade

3: Everybody Was a New Faculty Member Once

4: The University as Community

5: Faculty Meetings: From Business as Usual to Legendary

6: Bad Days, Good Days, and Nightmares

7: Pearls of Wisdom

8: Spiritual Growth for Contrarians

9: The Best Practical Jokes

10: Surviving the Hard Times

11: The Laborer’s Rewards

Epilogue: More Emeriti Essays

Further Reading

Notes

Preface

This book began when my teenage daughter brought home a book from the library. A large picture of a bear loomed on the cover, and the title was A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson.1 Finding it comforting and humorous to read about a long, hard journey, I read it in small increments before going to sleep each night, as a way to freshen my appreciation of life just before falling asleep. When that book was finished, I found myself looking for other biographies of long-distance trail journeys, to read in the same fashion. I read books about many-month hiking journeys on the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide, and the Grand Canyon. Perpetually teased by my family, I never hoisted a backpack to become a long-distance hiker. Or at least not in that fashion.

Instead, I saw a remarkable similarity between those hiking journeys and long-term teaching careers. Like a day in the life of a long-distance hiker, an individual day in the life of a teaching professor may seem uneventful, exhausting—with all that work for a distance of often under 20 miles. And the next day, it has to start all over again. There are days with silly but significant challenges, days when something goes wrong from out of nowhere, days of exasperation with the ups and downs of the terrain, and zero days which are essential for rest and renewal. And it is both the beautiful and the ugly parts of the adventure which keep the hiker on the trail—not just the views of the amazing wildflowers and beautiful breathtaking vistas, but also the more sobering and informative views of areas ravaged by tree diseases, pollution, and forest fires. A long-term academic career, like a long-distance hike, seems like a journey that will take forever, but before the hiker knows it, the journey of wonder is done. Currently in my 27th year of service on the teaching faculty, that reality is beginning to become more central to my long-term goal-setting every year.

Each hiker experiences the same trail differently, not only from perspectives of different backgrounds, different temperaments, and different goals, but also by hiking the trails through different seasons. Some hikers set records as trailblazers and remarkable achievers, while some may stop more often to appreciate what other hikers may overlook. If hikers complete some portions of the journey alone, they often find sustenance in reading others’ log entries at shelters along the way. There is mutual respect among hikers for completing the journey itself, regardless of the glorious differences in their experiences. Most importantly, those experiences are worth writing about.

All of the faculty (both instructional faculty and administrative personnel with faculty rank) who have contributed to this book know about long-term career journeys. They have either achieved emeritus rank, which requires having served 15 years or more at Huntington University, or at the time of writing are presently serving on the faculty with 30 or more years of service, which would have given them about a decade or more in the twentieth century. Although this book focuses most directly on currently-living emeriti and faculty, these faculty have also written and spoken about the contributions of those who came before them who are now deceased; and in some cases we have augmented those stories with additional research. A project like this describes our history as we remember it, or as we recall what we have been told. Our best efforts notwithstanding, inaccuracies may surface; and yet these oral histories are worth recording. The future is open for the younger faculty, who are not yet in this memoir, to write their own teaching sequels which are even more vibrant than this one, either by the written word, or on the hearts of their students.

Many people have contributed to the making of this memoir. Dean Luke Fetters and President Sherilyn Emberton gave approval and support for the concept of the project. An advisory committee, consisting of Dr. Luke Fetters, Dr. Todd Martin, Dr. Ann McPherren, Prof. Randy Neuman, and Dr. Jeffrey Webb, readily screened ideas and gave support and suggestions. Dr. Ann McPherren contributed the invaluable ideas of developing a suggested writing topic each month for emeriti during the academic pandemic year of 2020-21, and of involving students in conducting summer emeriti interviews. Archivist Randy Neuman assisted the project from the beginning by advising how to locate essential resources. Dr. Kevin Miller allowed me to audit his 2021 January term course, Oral Family History Project, and gave essential advice for conducting and documenting interviews. My two excellent student research assistants, Erika James and Annie Seboe, interviewed numerous emeriti and faculty over the summer of 2021, and spent many hours transcribing those interviews into useable text. Having received many third-party compliments about putting their interviewees at ease, they were able to inspire emeriti to tell stories about their careers. Annie Seboe researched and drafted many biographical sketches of emeriti. The following emeriti and long-serving faculty agreed to be interviewed and/or contributed written responses for this project, some spending numerous hours carefully crafting their contributions.

Dr. Chaney Bergdall

Dr. William Bordeaux

Dr. Dwight Brautigam

Dr. Ron Coffey

Coach Lori Culler

Prof. Sharon Custer

Dr. Jerry Davis

Dr. G. Blair Dowden

Dr. Bruce Evans

Dr. Mark Fairchild

Dr. Paul Fetters

Dr. Norris Friesen

Prof. Sarah Harvey

Dr. William Hasker

Dr. Francis Jones

Prof. Robert Kaehr

Dr. Ann McPherren

Dr. Paul Michelson

Prof. Randy Neuman

Prof. James O’Donnell

Dr. Terrell Peace

Dr. Mary Ruthi

Dr. Gerald Smith

Dr. Patricia Spedden

Dr. Cynthia Steury

Prof. Connie Updike

Dr. Linda Urschel

Prof. Anita Wickersham

Several emeriti spouses also contributed to the interviews, including Mrs. Rebecca Barlow, Mrs. Christine Dowden, Mrs. Barbara Fetters, and Mrs. Jean Michelson. In response to the suggested topics, Dr. Gerald Smith wrote a collection of nearly three hundred pages of his own essays, which are available through the library archives, and which are used extensively here.

The Jack P. Barlow, Sr., Research and Artistic Creation Fund at Huntington University generously supported the summer portion of the project. This fund was established by Rebecca (Becky) Barlow, wife of the late Professor Jack Barlow. Becky graciously granted an interview for the project, in which she shared her memories from the academic life of Jack. The Board of Trustees and Huntington University approved and supported a sabbatical in the fall of 2021 for assembling the memoir from the collected information, during which my colleagues Dr. Aaron Baker, Dr. Mark Bryant, Dr. Jeff Lehman, Prof. Amber Lewis, and Dr. Ann McPherren took on extra duties with coursework, division chairing, and Alpha Chi. HU alumna Julie (Magrum) Babb used her graphic design expertise to design the book cover. My husband, Paul Nalliah, provided technical support, encouragement, and ideas throughout the project, as well as the front cover photo; and my two daughters, Rachel and Lisa, brightened the journey with their curious and supportive presence. Finally, without the moral support of Dr. Bill Bordeaux, my department chair and division chair throughout the first part of my teaching career, this memoir never could have been written.

Ruth E. Nalliah, PhD

Professor of Chemistry

Huntington University

December, 2021

Introduction

A community of Christian scholars. Much continues to be written about this subject. And yet at Huntington University we have some idea of what it means to be a living community of Christian scholars, and we are writing that book every day—in our interactions with students and with each other.

I have to admit that the hope was for at least part of this book to be a paperback page-turner, with adventuresome anecdotes and stories that will make you laugh out loud. But I also hope that on a more serious level, whether you are new to the institution or have been familiar with the Huntington University campus for the greater part of a century, you will emerge with a renewed appreciation for the mission and work of the institution.

The hope is that the themes which reverberate throughout give living examples of what builds a community of Christian scholars: An institution with a well-articulated purpose, built on the persuasion that all truth is God’s truth. Courageous and wise leadership. On the part of the teaching faculty, academic preparation. Faith-based commitment. Appreciation of all of the disciplines. Resonance with a larger community of Christian scholars, both current and down through the ages. Care about students’ lives. Passion about developing the whole person. A compassionate sense of social responsibility. A commitment to constructive vetting and mentoring. Devotion to what is spiritually, physically, and educationally important. And by necessity, persistence through the hard times.

To that end, the book title contains terms such as labor of love to reflect the fact that the twentieth-century Huntington College faculty were not afraid of hard work. Yet that hard work was balanced with love for their students and respect for each other. The term teaching adventures describes just that: teaching is an amazing adventure, and the opportunity to touch the lives of students of all stripes is an enormous privilege.

In some institutions, it might be possible to write a book which resembles this one departmentally, but not institutionally, or perhaps not at all. Not all types of institutions embrace the value of having all of their faculty talk to each other. Not all types of institutions prioritize the ethos of developing the whole person, and the value of integrating one’s faith with all of the disciplines. And not all students are able to see their universities as being in the business of developing them as persons—helping them obtain not just an education and connections, but something called fulfillment. When reading this book, I hope that you are as grateful as I am for the legacy that we carry, both in spite of, and because of, all of the humanness of those who have comprised it.

1: Why Teaching Was My Calling

Do not become teachers in large numbers … since you know that we who are teachers will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. (James 3:1, 2a NASB)

Teachers have a hard row to hoe.

Those who can’t do, teach.

The last thing I ever wanted to do was become a teacher.

Probably every college professor at one point or another has wrestled with these types of statements, from Biblical wisdom reminding us of our level of accountability, to various societal perceptions of the role of teacher. Yet faculty who invest in their students are readily willing to express why they would spend a significant part of their lives teaching at a small primarily undergraduate institution, for fewer material rewards than they might receive in other professions.

Not all professors think of teaching as a specific calling. Some do. Some cite teaching as their spiritual gift. Not all professors were straight A students, not all professors have an extraordinarily high IQ, and not all professors are extroverts. Not all professors initially ever imagined themselves teaching in a college-level classroom, or had friends who would have imagined them teaching in a college-level classroom. Some professors recall being nudged or recruited (or we might even say called) into teaching at Huntington University by others in the profession.

For some professors, the calling, or recruitment to teach, was a process of becoming. Recruitment or mentoring by an acquaintance, or by a former professor, was particularly influential in that process of becoming.

Let’s start out with the story of Anita Wickersham, associate professor of accounting and business. Through the casual comings and goings of Huntington town life during a work day, we can almost imagine the similarities in Anita’s story to Jesus’ calling of some of the disciples in the town life depicted in the Gospels. Anita describes some of the interactions that led to her initial decision to go into teaching.

I was at a CPA firm for about four years, and I was starting to get a little restless with that. It seemed a little repetitive to me. I remember it was a really nice summer day, and I was on my lunch break. I was walking in beautiful downtown Huntington, and I met one of my former faculty advisors, Professor Barlow. He asked me how I was doing, and I kind of gave the standard answer, you know, Everything’s fine.

He said, Well, that’s too bad, which is kind of a strange response.

Then I said, Well, you know, actually I’m starting to get a little bored here.

We talked a little bit more, and, you know, that was sort of that. A couple days later, I got a call from the Academic Dean Jerry Smith asking if I would be interested in a teaching position, because they had one opening up in the business department.

So, I said, Well yes, go ahead and send an application, and I thought about it and prayed about it, and it seemed like there were a lot of things about teaching that were going to satisfy what I was missing in public accounting. Anyway, so, here I am still!

Anita goes on to describe the career-long joys which come with college teaching. It’s striking how many times she uses the word enjoy to describe her calling, although descriptions of the actual workload come in a later chapter.

You are using the academic part that you love, but in a different way. One of the things that I thought I found confining about CPA firm is that you’re always watching how much time you spend doing something, because you’re billing your clients and you have to make sure that that bill is not outrageous. You’re trying to be as efficient as possible, and there may be, you know, rabbit holes you’d like to run down but you can’t. Then when you get into academic life, you can do as much of that as you want to. It’s great because you can go off on those tangents whenever you want, so that’s wonderful.

We’re all here because we enjoy the academic life. We enjoy learning, and we enjoy sharing that with others. That’s a lifelong responsibility, and if you don’t enjoy that, you won’t enjoy this. I think that’s just your enjoyment of learning new things, all the time.

Working with primarily 18- to 22-year-olds is another enjoyment. If you enjoy that combination, this (higher education) is a great place to be. You know, it energizes you…. That first day back in the classroom, it’s always like, Yeah, I’m glad this started up again, this is fun.

Professor Sharon Custer, assistant professor emerita of business, succinctly describes her sense of a teaching calling in practical terms.

When I began college right after high school, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to study. I always loved math and English but didn’t feel I wanted to major in either of those areas. My brother majored in business administration so I was drawn to that field of study. Although not unhappy in that area, I felt it wasn’t exactly the right fit for me.

I have always enjoyed helping others. I began assisting in children’s Sunday school classes and found that I liked the experience of helping the children. So why not combine the business area with teaching? Thus, business education evolved as my major. That was a stretch from children to college age students, but seeing the students master material that was presented to them was rewarding.

Dr. Ann McPherren, professor of business and economics and vice president for strategy and graduate/adult programs, described how she received a call when she was finishing a master’s degree to say that there was opening in the business department, and asking whether she would have an interest in applying. Otherwise, she would have gone into healthcare administration. Here’s how she describes what drew her into teaching.

What inspired me to go into college teaching were other faculty members at Huntington college. It was the people who taught me. So I think about Carl Zurcher; I think about Jack Barlow; I think about Paul Michelson; I think about Charles Brady. I mean there were just a number of faithful, intelligent people who were well-rounded, with great senses of humor, encouragers, who had a strong faith in Jesus Christ and wanted to live that out through their professions.

That fit me so well in terms of my own natural inclinations and interests to be in a profession that was not adversarial, that is an encouragement, that’s adding to the kingdom—and maybe a different way certainly than ministry—but that is helping to enrich people’s lives. Those are the people who did it when I graduated from HC.

Ann goes on to describe how the appeal of the Huntington College community stacked up to the appeals of other professions when making a decision to embracing the college teaching profession at such a young age.

It was a wonderful place to be as a student, and I had some of my best days of my life here. It was just a compelling invitation to think about being able to teach. I will admit that when I was called, I was 23 years old at that point in time. [She had graduated from HC at the age of 20.] I was getting my master’s, I just had a couple years of work experience, and I thought, Oh, I am so unqualified to be a college professor.

And I’m thinking about my mentors and the people who had taught me when I was here, but yet I loved this place and what it did in people’s lives. My dad was an elementary school teacher, so there were some teaching genes, I think, in terms of wanting to develop students.

And so I thought, Oh, I can’t imagine a better job. I mean, I could go into healthcare administration or banking or a variety of other things I was looking at, but I thought, To be on that campus and to be a part of people’s lives and to work with those people who had been like mentors and continue to be my mentors, and then they’d be my colleagues? Yes, it was just really a compelling opportunity.

Dr. Francis Jones, professor emeritus of mathematical sciences, who has been described by a colleague as a mathematician’s mathematician, and who also received a state teaching award, describes a profound influence of a high school teacher on the choice of his field of study, as well as the unfolding of his career, in the following interview sequence.

Annie Seboe: Dr. Jones, to begin, why did you choose your academic field of study?

Dr. Jones: Well, that was kind of an interesting journey. It wasn’t overnight. It began in high school and kind of went through the first two years of college before I got things pretty clearly in mind about what my field of study would be.

It’s kind of strange because I’m a math professor, [and] I love math, but when I was in junior high and grade school, I hated the subject. At that age I never dreamed I would be doing what I did for forty plus years.

Then, when I entered my freshman year in high school, I had the great good fortune to have a brand new teacher named Max Fordyce who had just graduated from Huntington College. He was such a wonderful inspirational teacher that under his teaching I soon began to see that I could do math and that it was fun! I’ve told him several times that if it weren’t for his efforts, I don’t think I’d be in the career I was in. He was that influential in my life.

Francis describes an abrupt introduction to secondary education, followed by several sources of inspiration to pursue college teaching.

Surprisingly, the first education course I ever took was student teaching. I walked into class in the old Huntington High School downtown, and I said to myself, What am I doing here? I had no idea what was going on. Aside from my own student days, I had never done something like that.

I just had to observe for a week and then my supervising teacher said, Next week, you’re on. I got through student teaching just fine and really enjoyed it. I took the rest of the education courses after that and got a teaching license when I graduated in June. I had the secondary license just in case this college teaching thing didn’t work out, but I never used it.

My supervising teacher at the high school said, I really think you should try college teaching because I think you would be bored if you taught at the high school level. Here was another nudge in the direction of teaching in higher education.

At the same time, my major math professor here at the College, Miss Edna Shipley, was nearing retirement. She said to me after class one day, I want you to go to graduate school and come back and take my place.

And I thought, You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Dr. Hale, who was my physics professor, had said something along the same line of going to graduate school and looking into college teaching. Those two professors were a big influence in my life and career path. Of course, my mom had been a college professor and librarian, so she was another role model for me. It didn’t take too much of a leap of imagination to see myself possibly becoming a college professor too.

Francis goes on to describe a love of teaching which he recognized during his graduate school teaching experiences.

Then, the sort of final confirmation of being a college mathematics professor came when I was in graduate school. The mathematics department at Michigan State University had many teaching assistants, of which I was one. I got paid to do something I love, which was working with mathematics and working with students. I just really enjoyed that. The first year and a quarter, all they would trust me with was recitation sections of a large lecture class.… That was okay, but it wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped it would be.

After I finished my master’s degree, I got a call from the department organizer.… He said, How would you like to teach a class of your own in Calculus next quarter?

And I said, Really?! Okay!

It was the second or third quarter class, so as I was jumping into the middle of the material, which I knew was going to stretch me. Oh, I loved it anyway! I had a class of my own and I saw students five days a week. I was in charge of everything except for just a few things…. It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun. I thought, This career is where the Lord wants me.

Dr. Gerald (Jerry) Smith, professor emeritus of physics and chemistry and vice president and dean emeritus of the university, describes an early sense of the professorship as a vocation which seemed to fit, as a result of the sometimes humorous prophecies in his early years which turned out to be pretty accurate.

Growing up in a fairly conservative United Brethren church, the emphasis of a calling was always on church or pastoral ministry—or perhaps missionary service—despite the occasional nod to other vocations. So, I probably didn’t spiritualize my decision to enter college teaching.

Nevertheless, my choice to attend Huntington College and later to serve on the faculty was nearly always couched in terms of HC being my church college. And though I didn’t describe those as a calling, I did feel led to Huntington as a student and then as a professor.

Although I didn’t aspire to college teaching until I came to college, teaching was one of the professions I considered in early teens.… Probably like many of my colleagues who are adept with mental math, my quick mental calculations elicited the appellation of professor from some cousins a few times when I was in lower elementary school….

Another incident that reflected more on me as a smart aleck was before my high school trigonometry class. This was in the late ‘50s before calculators so it was novel to discover that the calculation of pi had been published to 100 decimal places…. To show off one day after I had memorized the 100-digit sequence (while most of the trig class watched but before the teacher came back from lunch), I wrote the numbers across the front board from memory to the applause of the class and calls of professor.

My plan, such as it was, was to go to the University of Michigan for engineering…. But I also considered going to Huntington College, my church college, for the first year with the intention of then transferring to the U of M. HC scholarships were the final inducement to attend HC. (My home church was well represented at HC with eleven students my freshman year—mostly relatives—from a small church of seventy or eighty members where Huntington was prominently promoted.) By spring semester, the idea of transferring to the U of M faded as I envisioned staying at HC to major in the sciences and mathematics, likely to prepare for a teaching career.

The idea of teaching at the college level grew as I continued at HC. One time in the beginning calculus class Professor Shipley asked that I teach her class when she was going to be gone to a conference (the topic was a completely new for me and I did awful teaching it to the class). As a sophomore I became Professor Howald’s chemistry lab assistant, and he had me instruct lab sections a few times. I came to feel that I had more ownership of the labs and chemistry storeroom than even the professor as I did pretty much all of the lab prep work.

Jerry goes on to describe the interruption of his PhD program to begin a teaching career.

I received a letter from a friend, asking if I would consider joining him on the faculty at Owosso College…. It was a fateful decision to suspend my program at the U of W (though I continued to register on-leave), well-short of the PhD, to embark on a college teaching career.

My initial teaching experience was challenging but rewarding. As the young science professor, I enjoyed the affirmation of students and the appreciation of my dean in teaching at a college with limited resources, necessitating that I learn to be resourceful. I probably did feel that it was a ministry to which I had been called.

Two years later I was invited to join the faculty at Huntington College.

A later chapter will continue the stories of several faculty, including Jerry, who finished their doctorates in the early years of teaching. The beauty of this calling is that it is really a career-long becoming, built up bit by bit, and confirmed at various intervals along the way. Jerry goes on to describe a particular culminating experience upon retirement which seemed to affirm this sense of calling.

One of my passions from the beginning of my teaching career had been to include many demonstrations as part of the class lecture. Some were quite simple while others were more elaborate—and often required significant time to set up before class. The culmination of that was captured in the Night of Physics public demonstration event when I retired in 2009.

The Night of Physics was a rewarding conclusion to my 44-year teaching and administrative career. Like many of my colleagues have experienced, the notes of affirmation and well-wishes from students and colleagues confirmed for me the calling to spend my life in higher education.

Dr. Chaney Bergdall, professor emeritus of Bible and religion, describes how he came to Huntington College after thinking that he would have a career in pastoral ministry, and how he developed his sense of mission as not only a professor of future pastors, but even more so as a professor who taught in the Core Curriculum.

As a student at Huntington College from 1965-1969, I had a clear vocational goal in mind. As a teen-ager, I had felt the call of God to ministry in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, either as a pastor or missionary. I started college with the plan to pursue a liberal arts undergraduate degree and to continue graduate education for ministry at Huntington College Theological Seminary. For my undergraduate major, I chose Ancient Civilization, an inter-divisional major that combined coursework in history, biblical languages, and philosophy.

Toward the end of my time at HC, Dean Gerald Swaim initiated a conversation with me, asking if I had ever considered preparing to teach at the college level. I responded that I had not and that I felt a strong sense of God’s calling to ministry in a local church context. He did not press the issue and acknowledged that pastors with strong academic interests and perspectives were certainly to be valued in church ministry, as he could see in his own church.

After graduating from HC, I studied for a year in Jerusalem at the Institute of Holy Land Studies and Hebrew University, completing a Master of Arts degree in Palestinology from IHLS. This program of study focused on the ancient history, geography, and archaeology of the land of Palestine. Then I returned to Huntington for one year at the Theological Seminary and transferred to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where in 1973 I completed the Master of Divinity degree in preparation for pastoral ministry.

During my two years at Trinity, I also began pastoring the Kilburn Avenue United Brethren Church in Rockford, Illinois, on a part-time basis. After graduation, I married Patricia Tinker and we settled into the parsonage at Rockford. I felt satisfied with my many years of preparation for ministry, and I eagerly entered into full-time work as a young pastor.

Early in 1975 I was surprised to receive the first of two calls from Huntington College. I do not remember who called first, but the two callers were Carl Zurcher and Ralph Bealer. The first caller asked me if I would put in my application for an open teaching position in the Bible and Religion Department. It was thought that my academic background and interests and my connections as an ordained minister in the United Brethren Church made me a perfect fit for the job. I said I would think about it and pray about it. Pat and I did that for a week or so and decided to decline the invitation and stay where we were. I remembered my earlier conversation with Dean Swaim, and I still felt a strong commitment to pastoral ministry in a local church setting. I responded accordingly, and we both felt completely at peace about the decision.

Several weeks later I received the second call. I was told that the teaching position was still open and that people at the college strongly desired me to apply. Would I reconsider my earlier decision? I began to realize that these two men whom I greatly respected and admired were convinced that I was the person who could best fill this position. Again, I said I would think and pray about it. This time we conferred with family members and trusted people in the church. I began to see that teaching at Huntington College, especially in a program of study that helped prepare young people for ministry, was also an appropriate way that I could use my gifts and abilities in ministry for the United Brethren Church. This time we said yes, I sent in my application, and soon we began preparing for the move to Huntington. We both felt completely at peace about this decision, too, but we agreed to re-evaluate this career move in two years or so.

After a few years, I realized that I wanted to continue teaching at Huntington College, so we began to put together a plan for me to pursue a doctoral degree. As soon as I was eligible, I applied for and was granted a one-year sabbatical leave to begin this work at Fuller Theological Seminary. Our family of three moved across the country to southern California, where I pastored the Glendale United Brethren Church and began my doctoral studies. I was given a leave of absence for two more years, during which I completed my course work. In 1984 I returned to HC, where I continued to teach until my retirement in 2012.

I began teaching at Huntington with the central purpose of serving the United Brethren Church and helping to prepare young people for ministry and leadership in the church. I gradually expanded my sense of purpose and mission to include an acknowledgement of my role as a teacher of Bible and religion in a Christian liberal arts school. This included the work of helping to provide a biblical foundation for young people who were majoring in the wide variety of programs at the college and preparing to contribute their skills in all areas of society. I also came to recognize another important aspect of my teaching role: to welcome unbelievers, doubters, and skeptics in such a way as to encourage them to consider the historical and intellectual foundations for the kind of faith commitment that was represented by the institution, its history, and its Statement of Faith. I came to see my work of teaching as a kind of discipleship in a higher education context—a discipleship broadly defined to include discipleship of the mind.

A strong desire to serve the church brought me to Huntington College, a purpose that was broadened to include the mission of Christian liberal arts higher education. The ongoing interaction with students and their rewarding feedback was the other strong motivating factor to keep me coming back class after class, course after course, semester after semester, and year after year. I greatly value and appreciate the way the institution—through presidents DeWitt Baker, Eugene Habecker, and Blair Dowden, through academic deans Gerald Swaim, Watson Custer, Gerald Winkleman, Gerald Smith, Ron Webb, and Norris Friesen, and through division chair Carl Zurcher—recruited me, supported me, and encouraged me to develop my skills and abilities in the work of Christian higher education.

Dr. Mark Fairchild, professor of Bible and religion, describes a sense of teaching as a distinct calling into a type of ministry.

All through high school and college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t become a Christian until after I graduated from Penn State. When I graduated from Penn State, I had a degree in biology and genetics, but I became a Christian a year after I graduated. Once I became a Christian, God revealed his plan for me, and I felt like I was being called into a ministry of some sort.

I assumed, to begin, that it was a pastoral ministry … I didn’t know what kind of ministries there were, because I didn’t come from a Christian perspective, Christian parents, or anything of that sort. The more I started studying the scriptures, the more I realized that God was calling me into a teaching ministry, because I loved studying the scriptures and sharing what I had learned with others.

So, I went back to school to get a second bachelor’s degree [at Toccoa Falls College] down in Georgia, and that was pretty much affirmed. I did very, very well, and I was encouraged by my professors. And so one step after another, God was leading me sequentially to this point.

Mark used the words realized that God was calling me into a teaching ministry, because I loved …. He goes on to describe the fulfillment he has found in teaching in the area of Bible and Religion.

I’ve often met with our presidents and have made the statement, I can’t believe that you folks actually pay me to do what I’m doing!

I enjoyed it from the beginning. When I first became a Christian, it was a love that I had, a fascination and interest that I had. Maybe for other people who have been Christians all of their life, the Bible is boring because they’ve heard it so much or for whatever reason. I’m puzzled by people who aren’t excited about the Bible. I’m thinking, Why not? This is God speaking to us. It’s recording the lives of Christians and how they negotiated life in a hostile world. So, for me, once I became a Christian, I think that was the big issue for me: making that transition from being a secular person who’s living life for yourself and for whatever you can get out of it, to learning there is a God, then following after God and realizing that God has a program and a plan for me. Once I plugged into that, that’s when I discovered the teaching ministry, and to me, that’s exciting because I’m teaching something that is so important.

Likewise, it’s striking how many times concepts having to do with the concept of enjoyment and [intrinsic] reward surface in the description of Dr. Dwight Brautigam, professor of history.

I always wanted to teach, I think, even when I was in high school. I admired good teachers that I had, and I thought I would like to teach something, and I liked teaching. I think it’s my number one spiritual gift as well. And I always enjoyed the teaching that I got to do as part of grad programs, and even before that, I substitute taught during the year I was between college and graduate school. I enjoyed that mostly, although being a substitute is really just a babysitter. But even that, I enjoyed some of that.

And it’s just rewarding, and especially teaching college students, … I have always just loved watching traditional-age college students change and develop and grow, respond to challenges, sort of start figuring out, Oh, this is who I really am, this is what I really want to do. I just love watching that process and being part of it as well.

Similar themes surface from Dr. William (Bill) Bordeaux, professor emeritus of chemistry, for whom a love of teaching helped determine the direction of his life.

My fiancé … then, was teaching at a high school that was also after me to teach chemistry, but I had no teaching degree as a chem major.… We went to look at [a] graduate school and I really, really didn’t like the place at all. They were very, very aloof…. And I finally said, Okay, I’ll teach high school chemistry. You kidding? I’m going to teach—I’ll do it.

And so I had a waiver for teaching chemistry, but the interesting thing was: right when I got into the classroom, I just loved it. I loved teaching. I was always a people person. I loved trying to get people to learn something. I tutored in high school, and, again, I wasn’t a very good student, but I guess I was smart enough to get away with it. I was tutoring some kid in Latin. So I liked the idea of teaching; and so when I was going to grad school, I knew why I was there.

Similar statements are made by Dr. Ron Coffey, vice president for student life, in his description of prior experience as a resident director. Again, such sentiments can provide invaluable clues about what we are cut out to do.

I loved being an RD. I did that for seven years, and I tried hard to make that role not about student behavior. That is sometimes part of it, but I tried to make it about relationships and building hall identity. I loved doing that.

It is very significant for the climate of Huntington University that instructional faculty in supporting areas, in addition to classroom teaching, have felt and embraced what they sense as a distinct and purposeful calling, just as thoroughly as the full-time teaching faculty. Professor Robert (Bob) Kaehr, director of library services and associate professor emeritus, tells his story, beginning in high school.

My story is about how a small town (Bluffton, Indiana) kid through a series of God-directed incidents became the Director of Library Services at Huntington College/Huntington University which lasted for an amazing 34 years. Needing to start somewhere near where this journey clearly began, I must consider my second birth when I became a Christian.

During my senior year of high school and just to be out of the house on weekends and to be with some of my friends, I decided to go to Park United Brethren in Christ church. During that same year, I began dating a girl on a regular basis. She was a Christian, but I didn’t know she was when we began dating. One night after a date, she began asking me questions about God. I gave her all the stock answers I knew and she asked, Bob if you believe all the things that a Christian believes, then why aren’t you a Christian? I knew I was in a box, and there was only one way out. I replied, You’re right; I guess I’d better start acting like a it. That night she led me to the Lord as my Savior.

On my way home, I drove past my pastor’s house; the light was on; it was about 10:30 p.m. I stopped and rang his doorbell and he answered. I said, Sorry it’s so late but I wanted to mention something to you. Do you know what I did tonight?

He said, Oh, you became a Christian.

I replied, How’d you know?

His answer: I always thought you would; I just didn’t know when. I left and went home. That earlier moment in time changed my life forever, and I accepted Christ as my Savior. Then I began to get involved in the fellowship of my local church. The pastor guided me through taking baby steps in becoming a disciple. I taught a children’s Sunday school class and got heavily involved in Bible quizzing.

That spring I graduated with little understanding of what I wanted to do. When fall arrived, I got a phone call from a friend with whom I had played football and baseball, a third cousin, who was going to attend Huntington College. He invited me to go along with him while he applied for entrance to HC. We were standing in line at the ad building lined-up to arrange for his payments for the first semester. A man, the business manager, came out from the business office while we were standing there and asked if we would please go back to his office for a few minutes. We went. Then he gave all his attention to me asking a series of questions.

Are you going to college?

No.

Why not?

I’ve never thought about it. I was never a super-good student in high school.

Well, if I could arrange for you to get into HC, would you consider going?

I suppose.

Consider yourself a freshman at Huntington College; you’re in.

I found out later in the semester that my Bluffton pastor had called the business manager and asked him to be on the alert concerning me. He also told him that he thought I had the ability to do college work and that I might consider going to college with a little encouragement. By the way, on that day, I gave the business manager all the money I could muster, a five-dollar bill.

Bob goes on to describe his post-graduation experiences teaching high school English and other subjects in Ohio and Indiana for five years, followed by eight years of teaching in Arizona with the Navajo Nation, which included experience as a high school librarian and graduate work in library science. Then he writes about the career move that came next.

One evening while I was cleaning off the dinner dishes, Winnie and I were discussing a possible move to Maryland where I had applied for a Library Director position. This was a small Christian college that had just recently started, and they wanted us to come to their campus for and interview. Then I casually mentioned to Winnie, Wouldn’t it be interesting if Huntington College would call? It wasn’t a serious comment, and I had not applied to Huntington. Immediately after I asked the question, the telephone rang. I picked it up and it was the Academic Dean, Winkelman, from Huntington College calling! He asked if I would be interested in a library position at Huntington. Dr. Jerry Smith had mentioned that he thought I was finishing a Master of Library Science degree in the near future and recommended me for the position. It also just happened that both librarians had resigned that spring, and I was finishing my second master’s program at George Peabody in Nashville. I was offered the directorship after I came to Huntington for an interview. How do such things happen? God!

Coach Lori Culler, athletic director and head women’s basketball coach, has a definite sense of calling in terms of developing the type of community and environment which makes a difference in the lives of student athletes.

It became pretty clear to me early in life that athletics was going to be a part of my life. Growing up, I didn’t really think about the fact that no one in my family had ever gone to college. I just always had the idea that, I want to keep playing sports, so I definitely want to go to college. I was the first one in my family to go to college. I didn’t realize that was a big deal at the time. To me, it was just like, Hey, this seems like the next step and seems pretty natural. So, I continued to play sports in college. And that’s what whet my appetite more, to think about wanting to still have an outlet for my competitiveness when I was done with my collegiate eligibility. So, coaching was obviously an option to look into.

I went to a state school in Pennsylvania my first year, and I found out pretty quickly that that environment was not for me. There were way too crazy people there, so I transferred to Huntington as a sophomore. I still can remember coming to Huntington to visit during my spring break on my freshman year. One of the reasons I went to the state school is because I really wanted to play softball. At the time, Huntington didn’t have a softball program, but when I came to visit campus during my spring break, I discovered that they had a club team, and they were going to make it a varsity sport the following year. That was a God thing.

I asked if I could talk to the softball coach, and it happened that they were in the gym practicing. When I walked in the gym, they were in a huddle, and they were praying. I looked at my dad and said, Okay, this is where I’m supposed to be. This is me. That made such an impression on me and was such an important part of what I wanted in my experience to be. That’s why we do that at the end of our practices today.

It was a part of the basketball program and softball program when I was an athlete here at Huntington and definitely fueled my fire for wanting to coach and to incorporate that into what I do as well. From that perspective, I think it did help prepare me for what I would want that to look like if I had the opportunity to coach my own team.

Because I transferred, I also changed my major. I had been an accounting major when I went to the state school. … I thought, Well, if I’m thinking I’d like to coach sometime, maybe I should go into education. So, when I transferred, I became an El Ed major.

The story of Lori being asked to serve as a head coach right after graduation is continued in the chapter called Everybody Was a New Faculty Member Once. Being thrown into it so young was something that, rather than turning her away from the challenge, confirmed her sense of calling.

The sense of calling is more striking, and is often spoken of more explicitly, when faculty enter the professorate from other professions, which involves a significant financial adjustment for those in professions such as business or health care.

Professor James (Jim) O’Donnell, associate professor emeritus of business and economics and executive-in-residence, relates the following epiphany experience regarding a sense of calling, at the cusp of a very significant career change to Christian higher education.

I was a business person managing money in Boston and New York for some big investment firms. In 1985, I had a pretty serious Damascus Road kind of conversion experience. I really began to think and to pray a lot about, Lord, what do I do with this? I went from not knowing really that God existed to a profound sense that, My gosh, I apologize for ignoring you, for not knowing you were real. What can I do to give glory to you and to make up for lost time? So I began writing and speaking and traveling, giving testimony and encouragement. And actually, Huntington was the third Christian college that offered me a position. Huntington had caused me to think harder about teaching at a Christian college because it was third one.

I had a kind of epiphany experience where—as if in a dream, but very real—I was with Christ Himself, and we were walking on a humid day in the woods. He sat down on a log and asked me, Tell me, Jimmy, please, what does that prayer mean that you keep praying? The one about ‘help me use my gifts and talents to their highest and best use’?

Yeah, that’s my prayer, I said.

What does it mean? Jesus wanted to know, when these jobs are being dropped in your lap?

Well, they mean that I’m interested.

What does that mean?

Ultimately, I told him I’m afraid.

What are you afraid of?

Taking a 90% pay cut, and coming to the end of the world, to fly over country, when I’ve only known and lived in big city America, I muttered.

What I remember then was my Lord patted my knee, stood up, started to walk away, leaving me back on the log. I got up and said, Wait!

From the expression I seemed to see on Jesus’ face, I sensed I was not eternally lost, but it was as if he thought I were different. That was the sense I got.

That epiphany or dream or whatever it was became a big reason for my deciding to come to Huntington. I did not want to displease my Lord. I sensed I should try it. I should be brave and take a risk.

And then three months after we arrived, my wife—not Laurie, my wife today, but Lizzie—was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. So, I had this strange sensation of doing something big and brave for my Lord, and then finding, what? He was asking something else, something even bigger.

Jim goes on to speak of a prior experience with young adult Sunday School class which helped pave the way for a career switch to Christian higher education.

Before I came to Huntington, I had moved to take a job at Fidelity in Boston. And in making that move, about four years after coming to faith, it was the first time—I mean I didn’t move a lot, mind you—but it was the first time in my life when I actually moved to a house in a town near a good Christian church. I mean, people move for school systems, country clubs, and all that kind of stuff. I simply wanted to be near a good church.

And we got into this good church, a very large church—it’s the only mega-church I’ve gone to in my life. And within a year of being there, I was asked if I would take over a Sunday school class, and in a big church like