Frederick is currently library director at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois, a post she has held since 2006. Before that she was director of library services for eight years at The King’s University College in Edmonton, Alberta. And previous to that, she was director of library and information services for five years at the Institute for Christian Studies, a graduate school in Toronto.

In addition to her library work over the years, Frederick served on university committees on environmental sustainability, racial/ethnic diversity, gender equality and spiritual formation. She has taught several courses over the years, including “Truth and Falsehood in the Marketplace of Ideas,” centering on information seeking and retrieval.

While in Illinois, Frederick has been active at Community Mennonite Church in Markham. She preaches about once a month and was approved by Illinois Mennonite Conference as a supply preacher. She is currently finishing a three-year non-degree program at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.

“The search committee was impressed both by her vision for the role of a library in an Anabaptist institution of higher learning and by her breadth of experience in library directorship,” said 91����Ƶ Provost Fred Kniss.

“I’m a librarian because I love bringing people together to create community around ideas, gathering and sharing resources to nurture deep reflection,” said Frederick. “My calling as a library director is to bring a deep focus on institutional mission into ongoing conversations about that community’s information needs.”

A 1982 graduate of Beloit College in Wisconsin, Frederick went on to earn three master’s degrees – a master’s of library science and an M.A. in American history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a master’s of philosophy from the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto.

Frederick will come to 91����Ƶ with her husband, Paul Cook, a studio artist, and her 11-year-old daughter, Jocelyn Cook.

She will oversee a staff of seven as well as numerous student assistants. The three-story , which includes the , is located near the center of 91����Ƶ’s campus. It was built in 1971 after a student-led fund drive pushed the project over the finish line for a federal matching grant. The student effort attracted national media attention.

Brubaker, who has directed Hartzler Library for six years on what was initially a “temporary” basis, is finally retiring after a life-long career at 91����Ƶ. Starting as a nursing instructor, she later chaired the nursing department, became vice president for enrollment management, was selected as the school’s first provost and even served as interim president.

Among the family’s favorites were the autobiographical children’s books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. “It was delightful,” Lois recalls. “Three generations together. … I still like to read to others.”

Books. Lois Bowman has been immersed in them for 50 years at 91����Ƶ.

In 1963, Lois began working in 91����Ƶ’s , plus doing some language teaching. She’s remained in the library ever since, now directing it. At 77, she is the most senior member of the school’s faculty and staff – in length of service and in age.

Library visitors might guess that Lois belongs to a branch of the Mennonites that is more conservative, less modern, than most of the Mennonites employed at 91����Ƶ. She is never seen at work in slacks – or without sleeves covering her upper arms and a prayer veil over her pinned-back hair.

Raised in a conservative Mennonite family

Her appearance does offer clues to her background. Lois was raised in a conservative Mennonite family. Lois’s beloved mother wore a cape dress until she died in 1991. Wade, whom Lois married in 1962, liked for Lois to maintain the tradition of wearing the covering, though he himself dispensed with wearing the traditional “plain coat” as a young adult.��

Since affiliating with (a rural church west of 91����Ƶ) as a teenager, Lois has kept her membership with that congregation over the decades, though she has not been in its pews for many years. In 2002 Morning View withdrew from – with which 91����Ƶ has close connections ­– and helped form a network of conservative churches called .

Yet it would be misleading to draw conclusions based on Lois’s church background and clothing. Lois actually worships at the Oak Lea chapel within . “I started going to Oak Lea when Father was living there – he died in 1987 – and I just kept on.” The services at Oak Lea are led ecumenically by two Mennonite pastors, who regularly invite ministers from other denominations to preach.

It’s a place where instrumental music is welcomed each Sunday – Lois plays the organ there twice a month –– in contrast to Morning View, where Sunday morning worship typically features a cappella singing in four-part harmony.

It’s also a place where Lois is likely the only worshiper on a typical Sunday morning to be wearing a prayer covering. She’s also likely the only worshiper who spends her off hours engaged in vigorous exercising, doing her own lawn and garden work, plus bicycling for miles at a time almost every day.

Avid bicyclist, defying stereotypes

This year, for the second year in a row, , for which she’s logged 776 miles since May 1, the first day of the contest (it ends Sept. 30). Until 2011, when she had back surgery, she often hiked and camped in Shenandoah National Park.

Lois has always belied stereotypes ­–­ or defied them.

She grew up with her hair in pigtails, wearing home-sewn dresses and jumpers. But she wasn’t living in a conservative Mennonite enclave for much of her childhood. She had this appearance while attending a public school in a Maryland suburb of Washington D.C. until she was 12 – her father was working in that area, first in construction and then in a paint store.

When he moved the family back to Harrisonburg in the late 1940s, they settled in a white-frame house with a large front porch on an acre fronting Chicago Ave., two blocks from what was then Eastern Mennonite College. (The house still stands, though the large garden area in the back is now occupied by the Red Bud apartment complex.)

Lois’s mother initially earned pocket money selling Stanley Home Products and then, back in Harrisonburg, working for a Christian book distributor. From these earnings she paid for Lois’s piano lessons. (Lois’s father drove a milk-delivery truck after they settled near EMC.)

In her late teens, Lois started taking violin lessons with James Harman, owner of Harman School of Music, who taught music at area colleges and did public performances, such as playing violin with the orchestra that accompanied local silent movies in the 1920s.

By the time Lois entered EMC to study modern language education in 1956, she had added the violin to her musical repertoire. In recent years, Lois began playing fiddle in local jams of old-time music.

Off to Harvard on full scholarship!

After graduating from EMC in 1960 with a German major and education minor, Lois worked half time in the historical library and half time in the president’s office, where President John Mumaw encouraged her to apply for a scholarship to Harvard through the Council for the Advancement of Small Colleges in which he was active.

On her application, she said she wanted to study German ­– it was part of her Mennonite heritage, after all (her mother grew up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch). Lois didn’t expect to garner one of the five scholarships offered that year for women graduates of small colleges across the nation. “I was dating Wade at the time and graduate school was not a top priority.” But when she got the scholarship, “I had to go.” After her first year at Harvard, she and Wade married and he joined her in Cambridge, Mass.

With a master’s degree in hand, Lois returned to EMC in 1963, where she taught German and Latin and worked in the historical library, which was then in the area where the dining hall now sits in Northlawn. Until the mid-1960s, as Lois recalls, EMC female faculty members were required to wear cape dresses, obliging Lois to forgo the skirts and blouses she sported at Harvard.

In the spring of 1964, when she was visibly pregnant, Lois looked into a mirror, didn’t like how her cape dress was fitting, and said “enough.” To this day, she typically wears skirts and blouses, unless she is mowing the lawn or running a weed eater, hiking in rough areas, or doing other activities where leg protection is clearly needed.

“My Bible says that widows and orphans are to be taken care of,” says Lois in her forthright manner. “I’m a widow, so I am helping to take care of myself by dressing with my safety in mind.”

Stellar credentials, but still deferring to a male academic

As classes in Latin and German were phased out, Lois came to spend all her time in the library, beginning around 1970, when construction of the new Sadie Hartzler Library was underway.

Lois explains that a significant portion of the historical library’s collection of 40,000 books was selected by Irvin B. Horst, an EMC church history professor who moved to the Netherlands in 1967 to teach Mennonite history at the University of Amsterdam. From the 1940s until his death in 2011, Horst collected Anabaptist-themed books, many from the Netherlands. (The Menno Simons Historical Library is named for a former Catholic priest, a Dutchman, who led the Anabaptist/Mennonite movement in the Netherlands in the 16^th century.)��

In 1987 Lois earned a second master’s degree ­– this time in library science from The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. Her focus was rare books, giving her the skills to care for the library’s collection of aging materials. She is able to curate books that are in German, French, Latin and Dutch.

Despite her stellar academic credentials, Lois said she did not second-guess Irvin B. Horst. He held a doctorate and was an expert in Mennonite history. He was a man. She was a woman. “His decisions impacted everything we did,” says Lois. The impact was mostly good, but Lois is now ready to assert herself on one matter. “We have too much Erasmus stuff. Irvine had us subscribe to the complete works of Erasmus in its definitive Latin form.” The first 36 volumes of Erasmus (additional volumes keep being published) occupy more than three shelves in one corner of the library.

“Nobody has ever used even one of these volumes,” Lois says. “The old boy network was so strong, we [women librarians] pretty well did what they told us to do,” though she hastens to add that Horst treated women respectfully. It just didn’t feel appropriate to question his judgment.

In 1990 EMC asked Lois to take over as head librarian of the historical library upon the retirement of her supervisor, Grace Showalter, on June 30. It was a date that Showalter did not reach. She unexpectedly died during her last week and was buried on June 30.

Lois’s close colleague today is Cathy Baugh, who works three-fourths time. Lois also supervises two student assistants.

When Lois herself retires in June 2014, she plans to remain in the house on Mt. Clinton Pike where she has lived since 1964. She’ll have lots to occupy her: enjoying her two grandchildren and many nieces and nephews, playing fiddle, organ and piano, bicycling, ham radio, word games like Scrabble, retreating to her cabin at Singers Glen, and church activities at Oak Lea. Plus she plans to return to the library as an enthusiastic volunteer.

Dr. Horst taught church history and English literature courses at 91����Ƶ from 1955 to 1967. During this time, he worked to increase holdings at the Menno Simons Historical Library in 91����Ƶ’s Hartzler Library. He became the historical library’s most influential benefactor, collecting hundreds of books dealing with Anabaptist-Mennonite heritage and local Shenandoah Valley history.

Horst moved to the Netherlands in 1967 to become professor of Mennonite history at the University of Amsterdam, a position he held until his retirement in 1987. During this time, he continued his searching and collecting books for the historical library on the European market.

“Irvin’s contribution to the Historical Library lay in his knowledge of the fields of Mennonite and Reformation history and knowing what books and authors were important for us to collect,” said Lois B. Bowman,�� Menno Simons Historical Library librarian.�� “We are fortunate that Irvin collected so many books when it was still possible,” Bowman added, noting that the rising cost of collecting rare books has restricted the library’s ability to add to its collection as much in recent years.

Horst was president of his class when he graduated from the former Eastern Mennonite School in 1939 with a ThB degree in biblical studies and theology. He went on to earn a BA degree from Goshen College, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam. He was a graduate�� student at the University of London, 1954-55.

In 1946, Horst went to Europe to do postwar relief work while searching far and wide for books in Dutch, German and English to give or sell to the historical library.

In April, 1987, Horst was named “scholar-in-residence” at the place near and dear to him, the Menno Simons Historical Library at 91����Ƶ.

The university released a book, “Menno Simons: A Reappraisal,” in January 1992 and dedicated to Horst as a “festschrift,” a book published in honor of a scholar. The 225-page hardback was a compilation of the addresses given at a Conference on Menno Simons held at 91����Ƶ in 1990 and edited by Gerald R. Brunk, professor emeritus of history. A plaque was unveiled in his honor naming the Special Collections Room in 91����Ƶ’s Historical Library after Horst.

Horst was born on May 31, 1915, in Lancaster, Pa. On June 17, 1944, he married Ava Mae Rohrer, who died in 1994.

Surviving are four children: Marlisle Horst, Montreal, Quebec; Rachel Horst, Lancaster, Pa.; Daniel Horst, Amsterdam; Joanna Horst, Amsterdam; four brothers, Samuel L. Horst, professor emeritus of history, 91����Ƶ; Luke Horst, Lancaster, Pa.; John Horst, Elizabethtown, Pa; Clarence Horst, Reading, Pa.; one sister, Orpah Horst Kurtz; and one grandson, David Horst, Amsterdam.

A memorial service will be held Apr. 29, 2011 at VMRC with 91����Ƶ president emeritus Myron S. Augsburger and pastor John Lehman presiding.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Mennonite Simons Historical Library c/o the development office, 91����Ƶ, Harrisonburg VA 22802.

Irvin B. Horst, 94, currently resides at Oak Lea at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. The Anabaptist scholar’s professional career took him to several European countries and lengthy teaching stints in Holland and at 91����Ƶ. His spouse, Ava Rohrer Horst, died in 1994 at age 77.

Dr. Horst, professor emeritus of church history at 91����Ƶ, devoted much time and energy to acquiring both rare and contemporary books to enrich the collections in the Menno Simons Historical Library in Hartzler Library. The library is named for the late Sadie A. Hartzler, head librarian at the former Eastern Mennonite College, 1926-1962.

Irvin B. Horst: “(The late) Sadie Hartzler helped instill in me a passion for books and for Mennonite history.” Photo by Jim Bishop

“I was a poor Mennonite farm boy from Berks County (PA) who wanted to go on in school but lacked the means,” Horst said. In 1936, the late Daniel W. Lehman was in the area soliciting students and told young Horst that “I think we can find a way to get you to Harrisonburg.”

Horst wound up working in the library under Sadie Hartzler, while “enjoying biology classes under D. Ralph Hostetter and studying Latin with Dorothy Kemrer.

“Sadie Hartzler not only encouraged my interest in books, but also helped kindle a passion for Mennonite history,” he said.

Horst was president of his class when he graduated in 1939 with a degree in biblical studies and theology. In 1946, he went to Europe to do post-war relief work while searching far and wide for books in Dutch, German and English to give or sell to the historical library.

Horst recalled a directive he received at that time from then academic dean Ira E. Miller: “Send us all the books you can!”

Horst joined the 91����Ƶ faculty in 1955 to teach church history, but in those days, he noted, “we found ourselves teaching other courses that we weren’t necessarily trained for. We had large classes and heavy teaching loads.”

Along with teaching, Horst did major research on European and American Mennonite and Amish history and continued his efforts to build up the school’s historical library, which became the Menno Simons Historical Library and Archives, housed in the basement of Northlawn residence hall until moving to its present location on third floor of 91����Ƶ’s Hartzler Library when that facility opened in 1971.

In 1967, Horst accepted an appointment from the queen of the Netherlands as professor of church history on the theological faculty of the University of Amsterdam. During his distinguished tenure, he continued to actively peruse book catalogs and visit antiquarian book shops, seeking additional items for the historical library.

When Horst left for his new assignment in Europe, colleague J.P. Jacobszoon wrote, “America will miss him, but the Netherlands is extremely glad to receive him, especially the Dutch Mennonite Church. There will be a gap in the United States and among American Mennonites. It may be, however, that he will create a new relationship between the churches on both shores of the Atlantic.”

“Irvin’s contribution to the Historical Library lay in his knowledge of the field of Mennonite and Reformation history and knowing what books and authors were important for us to collect,” said Lois B. Bowman, director of the Menno Simons Historical Library since 1990 and a faculty member since 1963.

Among the most significant acquisitions from Horst, according to Bowman, are two Jan Luiken collections of 100 and 35 items, respectively, including the 1685 illustrated Dutch “Martyrs’ Mirror,” the Menno Simons collection (66 items) of materials from the 16th to the 20th centuries both by and about Menno Simons and an Annuity Book collection of 197 items, a “gift” for which Horst receives an annual payment of a percentage of the appraised value.

In April, 1987, Horst was named scholar-in-residence at the place near and dear to him, the Menno Simons Historical Library at 91����Ƶ.

The university released a book, “Menno Simons: A Reappraisal,” in January 1992 and dedicated to Horst as a “festschrift,” a book published in honor of a scholar. The 225-page hardback was a compilation of the addresses given at a Conference on Menno Simons held at 91����Ƶ in 1990 and edited by Gerald R. Brunk, professor emeritus of history.

Menno Simons, a Dutch Catholic priest who converted to the Anabaptist movement in 1536, soon became one of the fledgling church’s leaders.

“I wanted to make these books available to 91����Ƶ not only to expand the library resources but so that persons would be positively influenced by these important works in the life of the Anabaptist-Mennonite movement,” Horst said.

A feature article on the Menno Simons Historical Library and the many services it offers can be accessed at www.emu.edu/library/historical-library/

Elwood E. Yoder of Harrisonburg can’t quite believe what he had in his hands – a rare book printed in 1539 in Strasbourg, Germany.

Not only that, but the thick tome was printed on the very press that is featured in Yoder’s novel, “Margaret’s Print Shop,” published in 2005 by Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa.

His book tells the story of Margaret and Balthaser Beck, who ran a 16th century printing business in Strasbourg and both joined the early Anabaptist movement.

Yoder, who is chair of the Bible and social studies departments at Eastern Mennonite High School, received an e-mail “out of the blue” from Bruno Weber in Switzerland regarding an old book he found. The Webers were retiring and “apparently found the book while cleaning out their house,” Yoder said.

Connection Made over Internet

“Weber knew virtually nothing about Anabaptists or Mennonites, but he found my name on the Internet in connection with my book, and through our back and forth conversation he learned more about Anabaptist origins in Switzerland,” Yoder continued. Weber eventually offered to place the volume in the rare book room of the Menno Simons Historical Library at 91����Ƶ.

The book, a translation from the Latin of Flavius Josephus’s “A History of the Jews” by Caspar Hedio, a Lutheran preacher in Strasbourg, is written in very old German, Yoder said. A German student studying at EMHS “had great difficulty” reading the old script, he noted.

The only other copies of the book with the same date that Yoder knows of is in the Yale University library and at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Other copies are at three locations in Europe.

“I find it remarkable to have a copy of a book printed by the Beck press,” Yoder said. “I’m uncertain when Margaret Beck died, so I can’t prove that she worked on this book in 1539, but I’m guessing that she did, since we know she established the press in the mid 1520s and lived for some years after 1525, the official start of the Anabaptist movement, and printed many books and pamphlets in her shop.

“Bruno Weber could just as easily have given the book to some major library in Europe, so I’m especially grateful that he felt the rare book room in the Menno Simons Historical Library would be a good place for it,” Yoder added.

Yoder is a 1981 graduate of 91����Ƶ and earned a masters degree in education from Temple University and is a senior master of divinity degree candidate at 91����Ƶ. He has taught Bible and social studies courses on the high school level for 25 years.

He plans to bring his classes to 91����Ƶ’s Hartzler Library in the future to see the book, adding that “a visit to the rare book room is an education in itself.”

“Books published during the 16th century are always intriguing – this one especially so, because it was produced by an Anabaptist family,” said Lois B. Bowman, librarian in the Menno Simons Historical Library. “We have numerous books of that era about the Anabaptists, but this one was literally handled by one or more of them. Now we can touch it too.”

Ms. Shenk served in a variety of roles at 91����Ƶ’s from 1950 until her retirement in 1984, including catalog librarian and assistant librarian. She was head librarian, 1961-1973. She served as librarian for a girls’ school in Izmir, Turkey, during a sabbatical year.

“Margaret was a hard worker and got a lot done – and done well,” said Lois B. Bowman, librarian in 91����Ƶ’s Menno Simons Historical Library. “She was careful about details. Students she trained were well trained.

“Margaret liked to travel and enjoyed driving. I remember a trip to a conference in Atlanta with Margaret gladly taxiing a car full of librarians,” Bowman added.

A 1949 91����Ƶ graduate, Shenk did graduate work at the former Madison College and at Goshen (Ind.) College and earned an MA in library science degree from George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn.

Shenk was born Feb. 15, 1919, in Elida, Ohio, and moved to Newport News, Va., at an early age. She is survived by four sisters, including Mary Florence Shenk, a former long-time assistant to the dean at 91����Ƶ; a brother, John M. Shenk, a former member of 91����Ƶ’s physical plant department; and many nieces and nephews, including niece Gloria Shenk Kniss, an administrative assistant at 91����Ƶ at Lancaster (PA).

A memorial service was held Aug. 17 at Park View Mennonite Church where she was a member.

Memorial contributions can be made to the VMRC Compassion Fund, 1491 Virginia Ave., Harrisonburg, VA 22802 or to the Warwick River Mennonite Church, 250 Lucas Creek Road, Newport News, VA 23602.

Vida J. Huber, 68, who was instrumental in the development and growth of the baccalaureate at 91����Ƶ, died of an intracranial hemorrhage on Sunday, Nov. 20, at University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.

Dr. Huber was flown by Pegasus helicopter to U.Va. after being admitted to Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg Saturday, Nov. 19, suffering from severe headaches.

Huber was an associate dean of the College of Integrated Science and Technology (CISAT) at James Madison University in Harrisonburg at the time of her death. She was also director of the Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services and professor of nursing at JMU. From 1967 to 1984, she was chair of the nursing department at 91����Ƶ.

"Vida brought many ideas to 91����Ƶ from her graduate school days at Columbia Teacher’s College," said 91����Ƶ Provost Beryl H. Brubaker, who succeeded Huber as nursing department chair. "She and I worked closely together in the 1970s as the faculty developed 91����Ƶ’s innovative nursing program, much of which continues to the present.

"Vida was an important mentor to me and many other faculty and students, both at 91����Ƶ and JMU where she worked in recent years," Dr. Brubaker said. She also was an influential member of the faculty at large at 91����Ƶ. Her passing is another reminder of the tenuousness of this life we hold so dear."

Huber was born Mar. 27, 1937 in West Liberty, Ohio, and was the daughter of the late Laban L. and Nanna Bender Swartzentruber.

On June 6, 1970, she married Harold E. Huber, who survives. He retired in December, 2004, after 30 years at 91����Ƶ, most recently serving as assistant in the archives and Menno Simons Historical Library. Also surviving is a daughter, Heidi, and her husband David Schanberger of Baltimore, Md., a brother and four sisters.

She received M.A. and Ed.D. degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, a B.S.N. from Eastern Mennonite College (now 91����Ƶ) and a diploma from Milford (Del.) Memorial Hospital School of Nursing.

Huber was active in numerous professional, civic and health-related organizations, including serving as president or board member of the Valley AIDS Network and the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Free Clinic. She held a variety of leadership positions at Broad Street Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.

Funeral services were held Nov. 23 at Weavers Mennonite Church west of Harrisonburg, with burial in the Weavers cemetery.