A pioneering coach, co-athletic director, and professor at 91����Ƶ in the 1960s and ’70s—and the youngest daughter of John R. Mumaw, 91����Ƶ’s fourth president from 1948-65—Miriam “Mim” Mumaw ’61, of Arlington, Virginia, passed away on Dec. 5, 2025.

During her tenure at 91����Ƶ (then known as Eastern Mennonite College or EMC), Mumaw coached the school’s first women’s basketball (1966-75), women’s volleyball (1968-79), and field hockey (1970) teams. She achieved the most success with the volleyball team, winning a state championship over James Madison University in 1973 and posting a perfect 21-0 season in 1976. Her overall record with the squad stands at 151-99. Mumaw was inducted into the in 2002. Only three other coaches share that distinction.

Those who were fortunate enough to cross paths with Mumaw, either on 91����Ƶ’s campus or at Washington Community Fellowship (WCF), describe her as a people person who greeted everyone she met with warmth. They speak highly of her meticulous attention to detail, which shone brightly in her volunteer service to WCF and in her career at Gammon & Grange Law Offices, where she worked for more than 40 years. They also remember her for her love of baseball, particularly the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, and her generosity in sharing her season tickets with others.

Mumaw was a beloved mentor, leader, and friend, known by many for her deep commitment to 91����Ƶ and her congregation.

“She was a titan, a fierce advocate for women in athletics and for 91����Ƶ in general,” said Carrie S Bert, the first woman to serve as 91����Ƶ athletics director.

Dave King ’76, 91����Ƶ’s athletics director for 17 years before Bert, agreed. 

“Mim advocated for the expansion of women’s sports at a time when that wasn’t supported by many in the institution, including her father who had been president of the college,” said King. 

During one of her visits to the 91����Ƶ Athletics Suite, Bert recalled, Mumaw had shared with her how her father, likely reflecting the feelings of the wider church, had opposed the growth in women’s physical activities at 91����Ƶ. “Mim just laughed and said, ‘Well, that wasn’t going to stop me … we just had to agree not to talk about it,’” shared Bert. 

“Mim was always so encouraging of me, both in words of affirmation and in the wonderful way she would squeeze my hand while we chatted,” Bert said. “I could feel her positivity and enduring support in those moments.”

King told the that he first met Mumaw when he arrived as a student in 1972, but “had no idea of the trailblazer she was and the impact she had on women’s sports” until he returned as director of athletics in 2005. “Besides coaching women’s sports and teaching PE classes, her involvement with the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) exposed EMC athletics to the broader collegiate athletic community and elevated the EMC sports programs,” King said.

Growing up in a glass bowl

Mumaw was born on Jan. 14, 1938, in Harrisonburg, the youngest of five daughters, to John R. and Esther Mosemann Mumaw. She was 10 years old when her father, a professor and ordained minister, took office as president, succeeding John L. Stauffer. He would serve in that role for the next 17 years.

“That was an important part of her growing up,” said Byron Peachey, a nephew of Mumaw and longtime 91����Ƶ staff member. “She lived down the road on College Avenue and EMC was an even smaller community than it is now. Everybody knew everybody else’s business. And so for her and her four older sisters, there was a spotlight on them and a set of higher expectations for what they did and how they conducted themselves.”

Mumaw graduated from 91����Ƶ in 1961 with a degree in business education. She then taught business education classes at Iowa Mennonite School for four years.

“That would’ve been an opportunity for her to spread her wings, outside of this glass bowl at 91����Ƶ where everybody knew her,” Peachey said.

In 1964, while Mumaw was in Iowa, her mother died “very suddenly,” Peachey said. She returned to Harrisonburg to care for her father (in 1965, he married Evelyn King, former dean of women for 91����Ƶ, and resigned as president).

Hired by 91����Ƶ’s fifth president (1965-80) Myron S. Augsburger, Mumaw coached the school’s first women’s intercollegiate athletic teams, including women’s basketball, volleyball, and field hockey. 

“That was groundbreaking for EMC,” Peachey said. “She was a real innovator. ‘Trailblazer’ is an overused word, but she truly was one.”

In 1968, after completing her master’s degree at the University of Iowa, Mumaw began teaching accounting and physical education courses at 91����Ƶ. She also served as co-athletic director and co-chair of the physical education department.

Sandy Brownscombe, coach of 91����Ƶ women’s basketball (1978-89), field hockey (1978-93), and men’s volleyball (1991-98) also in the Hall of Honor, said that Mumaw held significant roles at the state, regional, and national levels within the AIAW, which governed women’s college athletics before the NCAA took over in the 1980s.

“Mim was a foundational figure for women’s athletics in Virginia through the AIAW,” Brownscombe said. “She started volleyball in the state of Virginia.”

A life of balance

Brownscombe was finishing her master’s degree coursework at Washington State University in 1978 when she was hired to teach physical education classes and coach the field hockey and women’s basketball teams at 91����Ƶ. Mumaw interviewed her for the job, and was tasked with finding a place for her to live.

“There weren’t any apartments available,” said Brownscombe, “and so that’s how I ended up sharing her house with her that first year I was here.”

“That was, in my opinion, probably the best thing that ever happened to me,” she added, “because we spent many nights talking with each other, and she would explain to me what it meant to be a Mennonite female athlete. At that point, I was the first non-Mennonite full-time faculty member at 91����Ƶ, so it really was my introduction to Mennonites and to EMC, and she shared that whole faith experience with me. She was like a big sister to me.”

Less than a full year later, in 1979, Mumaw left for a sabbatical year in D.C. at The Fellowship Foundation. It led to her permanent move to the area.

“She felt like she had taken 91����Ƶ athletics to the next stage,” Brownscombe said.

“91����Ƶ women’s sports experienced much success in the 1980s, which I believe was a direct result of Mim’s commitment to developing and expanding sports activities for women,” said King.

Mumaw was a founding member of , a Christ-centered faith community started by President Emeritus Augsburger (its first pastor) and his wife, Esther, in 1981 and affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. Mumaw was an active member of WCF for 43 years and served in many roles, including as presiding deacon, elder, and on the Finance, Human Resources, and Building committees.

“Any time students from WCF were attending 91����Ƶ, Mim always made sure I knew about it,” said Tim Swartzendruber, senior regional advancement director for 91����Ƶ. “She was an admissions ambassador for us, no question.”

In 1982, Mumaw began a long career at Gammon & Grange Law Offices in Tyson’s Corner, where she served as accountant, office manager, and assistant to senior partner. She worked at the firm for more than 40 years.

She often returned to 91����Ƶ and continued to love and support the university. She served on the 91����Ƶ Board of Trustees from 1988-96.

“When I think of Mim, I think of balance,” Brownscombe said. “Her whole life was balanced. She was great as a coach, administrator, teacher, and yet she was so involved in the church, in leadership there, and in her care for people. She was one of those well-rounded people who had it all together.”

“She was always positive, always optimistic,” shared Peachey. “She wanted sports to be fun for young women and for it to be a team experience. I think that was an important value she cultivated, that student-athletes experience team success rather than individual excellence.”

Clockwise from front center: Miriam “Mim” Mumaw ’61, Liz Chase Driver ’86, David Driver ’85, former Orioles player Larry Sheets ’83, and Stephanie Rheinheimer ’13 attend an Orioles baseball game in August 2022. Sheets told writer David Driver for the Augusta Free Press: “Mim was, first and foremost, a wonderful Christian woman, a huge fan of 91����Ƶ, and a huge supporter of my career and then my son’s (Gavin Sheets’) career.” (Photo courtesy of David Driver/AFP)

A connector of people

A devoted fan of the Orioles and Nationals, Mumaw was known to invite family, friends, and anyone else within her orbit to baseball games. While there, she recorded the action with a pencil and paper scorecard. “It was in her DNA to keep track of details,” Peachey said.

As a student, David Driver ’85, former Weather Vane sports editor, narrowly missed the window when Mumaw was on campus. But he and his family became acquainted with her as longtime members of WCF beginning in the late 1980s.

“She was never one to talk about the role she played as a pioneer for women’s athletics at 91����Ƶ, but her love of sports was contagious,” said Driver. “I’m happy to say she made WCF a church with a lot of baseball fans.”

“I know that Carrie Bert benefited greatly from having Mim as a mentor,” Driver added. “Without Mim, there may not have been a Carrie as the first woman to serve as 91����Ƶ athletics director.”

Long after leaving 91����Ƶ, Mumaw continued to invest in its mission and its students. According to Swartzendruber, Mumaw included 91����Ƶ in her estate plans, directing support to two funds established by her parents: the Esther Mosemann Mumaw Memorial Endowed Scholarship, which benefits upperclasswomen of any major, and the John R. Mumaw Endowed Scholarship, which benefits teacher education students.

In 2018, Mumaw coordinated a fundraising effort among past and present members of WCF to increase the ongoing student impact of the Myron S. and Esther K. Augsburger Endowed Scholarship for Urban Ministry. The scholarship, valued at more than $400,000, benefits students at Eastern Mennonite Seminary who plan to serve in an urban setting. 

“Mim tried her hardest to attend every alumni gathering, homecoming, you name it,” Swartzendruber said. “She adored 91����Ƶ. I always got the impression that 91����Ƶ felt like home to her.”

In addition to her parents, Mumaw was preceded in death by her four sisters: Helen Peachey, Grace Mumaw, Catherine Mumaw, and Lois Martin. She is survived by six nieces and nephews, and many beloved great-nieces and great-nephews. 

“She was a single woman, never had children, never married, and so she created a community around her,” Peachey said. “She knew lots of people in lots of different walks of life. When she went to baseball games, people noticed how all the attendants knew her. She knew them all by name. She was always looking for ways to connect people together.”

Thanks to Simone Horst, special collections librarian, for providing the archival images of Mumaw included in this story.

91����Ƶ joins the nation in mourning the late former President Jimmy Carter, who was known for his humility, strong Christian faith, and lifelong dedication to service, peace and human rights.

Carter, president from 1977-81, died on Dec. 29, 2024, at 100. Jan. 9, 2025, has been declared a National Day of Mourning to honor his legacy. 

His wife of 77 years, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, spoke at 91����Ƶ’s (then Eastern Mennonite College) 68th annual Commencement on May 4, 1986.

“Jimmy and I have come to admire and love the Mennonites through our involvement with Habitat for Humanity,” she said during the commencement speech. 

It was Donald and Faye Nyce, parents of 91����Ƶ alumni Ed ’86, Pam ’86 and Doug ’85, who introduced the Carters to the Habitat for Humanity organization, the former First Lady said. Donald and Faye Nyce volunteered at the organization’s headquarters in Americus, Georgia, and attended the Carters’ church in Plains.

“We developed some very close friendships with them… we came to love them very much when they were in our part of the world,” Rosalynn Carter said. “And it was through them that we learned about your [the Mennonites’] tradition of volunteer service.”

A full transcript of her speech can be read . 

In a 1986 , the Nyces described the Carters as strong Christians who were supporters of civil rights “long before a civil rights stand became the popular thing.”

“Jimmy was our Sunday school teacher,” Faye Nyce is quoted in the article. “We were surprised, then delighted and pleased with his knowledge and application of the Bible.”

A little more than two decades later, in 2009, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter received the Global Nonviolence Award from the Mahatma Gandhi Center at James Madison University. Former EMC President Myron Augsburger spoke at a ceremony honoring the Carters, and 91����Ƶ’s Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir (SVCC) sang at the ceremony.

In a recent Facebook post, Ken J. Nafziger, professor emeritus of 91����Ƶ Music, shared his memories of meeting Jimmy Carter when the Chamber Singers were invited to sing at his church.

From its founding as Eastern Mennonite School in September 1917 up through today, 91����Ƶ has been led by nine presidents who have guided it through times of turbulence and periods of prosperity. 

In honor of Presidents’ Day, we bring you a brief summary of 91����Ƶ’s eight presidents emeriti and some of their enduring accomplishments.

The information below is taken from the profiles at emu.edu/president/emeriti. Click on the link to read more in-depth histories of each president.

J.B. Smith
President from 1917 to 1922

When J.B. Smith, the first president — or principal, as it was called at the time — of Eastern Mennonite School, arrived in Harrisonburg, Virginia, by train on Oct. 9, 1917, he found that several students had been waiting almost two weeks to start their studies. The next morning, he directed the first registration; classes started on Oct. 15.

Smith worked tirelessly to develop the school’s curriculum, hire faculty, recruit students, solicit support from Mennonite churches and expand the campus. He taught a number of courses, and students loved and admired him.

Smith resigned in January 1922 in a dispute about Mennonite churches maintaining their a cappella singing tradition by banning musical instruments in the church as well as in the home. He did not agree that instruments should be banned in the home, and he and his wife had recently purchased a piano.

A.D. Wenger
President from 1922 to 1935

Raised on a farm near Harrisonburg, A.D. Wenger, a founder of EMS, had already twice declined to accept administrative positions at the school before being elected as the second principal of the school in February 1922. 

One of the first tasks that Wenger tackled as principal was what he called a “mountain of debt” that remained from the school’s start-up and construction of the Administration Bulding. In 1930, the junior college achieved state accreditation — probably the greatest accomplishment of the Wenger years.

Wenger, whose title was changed to “president” in 1926, presided over a school hard hit by the Great Depression for most of the 1930s. Enrollment declined, financial contributions decreased and faculty positions were cut. Salaries, which were already low, were reduced. Wenger died suddenly in his home on Oct. 5, 1935, at age 67.

John L. Stauffer
President from 1935 to 1948

Two days after Wenger’s death, the EMS board appointed John L. Stauffer, a charter member of the EMS board, professor and ordained minister, as acting president. He was elected president 13 months later.

During Stauffer’s 13-year presidency, the student numbers increased from 159 to 442. He, along with longtime Dean C.K. Lehman and others, worked for years to achieve accreditation for EMS as a four-year college. This was finally accomplished in 1947. That fall, the school officially became Eastern Mennonite College.

In 1948, Stauffer asked for and received a sabbatical leave, feeling that he had served his time and that he should step aside for a younger person with more formal education. 

John R. Mumaw
President from 1948 to 1965

Taking office as acting president of the newly renamed Eastern Mennonite College in the fall of 1948, John R. Mumaw had spent more than half his 44 years on campus — as student, staff member, campus pastor and professor. He was the first alumnus to be chosen president.

Throughout the 1950s, Mumaw led EMC in pursuit of regional accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The college achieved regional accreditation in 1959. Enrollment during Mumaw’s 17 years as president increased 44 percent, from 475 to 843. EMC was one of the first colleges in Virginia, a racially segregated southern state, to integrate (in 1948).

In the early 1960s, Mumaw started talking about leaving the presidency, but he agreed to stay on until 1965. 

Myron S. Augsburger
President from 1965 to 1980

When he took office as president of EMC at the age of 35 — the youngest president ever — Myron S. Augsburger was already a nationally recognized evangelical leader. 

He gave passion to the office. Drama, instrumental music, intercollegiate athletics and international study developed dramatically. The seminary program was strengthened, and EMC changed its official name to Eastern Mennonite College & Seminary. The two biggest building projects during the Augsburger years were the domed state-of-the-art facility later named Suter Science Center, which opened in 1968, and the building that later became Hartzler Library.

After 15 years of work to strengthen EMC&S, Augsburger decided to resign in 1980 to pursue other interests.

Richard C. Detweiler
President from 1980 to 1987

The EMC board recruited a respected 55-year-old churchman from eastern Pennsylvania, Richard C. Detweiler, to succeed Augsburger.

Under Detweiler, then-academic dean Albert Keim led a consultative process with the faculty that resulted in one of the cornerstones of undergraduate education to this day: a requirement, beginning in 1982, that students be exposed to cross-cultural matters through study and experience.

The biggest crisis of Detweiler’s tenure was the 1984 fire that destroyed the Administration Building during a major renovation. The building was unoccupied at the time, but the tragedy affected campus morale, and Detweiler faced the challenge of slumping enrollments and budget cuts that affected faculty and programs. By the time he left EMC&S, however, the student population was on the increase again and a striking new Campus Center stood on the side of the hill where the “Ad” Building had once stood. 

In 1987, Detweiler resigned from the presidency, saying his years at EMC&S were “the most enjoyable and most difficult” of his life.

Joseph L. Lapp
President from 1987 to 2003

Like his immediate predecessor, Joseph L. Lapp was a native of eastern Pennsylvania. But unlike all six of his predecessors, he was not an ordained minister. He was a lawyer by profession.

His biggest accomplishments were starting four graduate programs — counseling, conflict transformation, education and business — in the 1990s, and, as a result, ushering in the new name of 91����Ƶ in August 1994. Under Lapp’s leadership, 91����Ƶ expanded its innovative cross-cultural program. 91����Ƶ made numerous campus improvements that culminated in the University Commons complex that includes the Yoder Arena. The building opened in 2000.

After 16 years as president, Lapp departed in 2003 to join the staff of Mennonite Foundation (now part of Everence), directing its Harrisonburg office.

Loren E. Swartzendruber
President from 2003 to 2016

Although elected in 2003, Loren E. Swartzendruber did not actually take office until January 2004. He spent the intervening months in preparation for the presidency. Provost Beryl Brubaker was interim president from June to December.

Among Swartzendruber’s accomplishments were the successful re-accreditation process for another 10 years by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, filling key administrative positions with talented people, and leading the university through economic hard times while balancing the budget.

One of the biggest building projects during his administration was “Phase Two” of the University Commons project (completed in 2011) in which the old Student Center was transformed into a main stage theater, studio theater, art gallery, classrooms, advanced media lab, and expanded coffee shop. Other accomplishments included 91����Ƶ’s groundbreaking solar installation on the roof of the Hartzler Library and attendance with alumna Leymah Gbowee at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

Swartzendruber retired in June 2016 after 13 years as president.

Current president

Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman has served as 91����Ƶ’s ninth president since Jan. 1, 2017. During her leadership, 91����Ƶ has shattered records for donor giving — mark your calendars for this year’s Lov91����Ƶ Giving Day on Wednesday, April 10 — and the university has garnered its share of the national spotlight with high rankings by U.S. News & World Report and Money Magazine.

Among the building projects completed while she’s been at the helm, renovations for Suter Science Center West were finished and dedicated in October 2021. Along with new seating, lighting and upgraded technology for S-106, Suter West renovations included modernized classrooms, new laboratory space for 91����Ƶ’s engineering program, upgrading of the discovery room and expanded displays from the D. Ralph Hostetter Natural History Collection, upgraded climate-control system and an improved sprinkler system.

Another major project, which is nearing the finish line, is the new track-and-field complex being built. The $6-million complex, which is more than halfway funded, is scheduled to open this year. Donations are accepted online at: /campaign/track-and-field.

Huxman has served for more than 25 years in higher education in a variety of administrative and academic leadership roles. A graduate of Bethel College, Huxman holds an MA and PhD in communication studies from University of Kansas.

Interim presidents

Over the years, three interim presidents have kept the business of the university moving forward: Beryl Brubaker (May-December 2003), Fred Kniss (May-August 2013 for Swartzendruber’s sabbatical), and Lee Snyder (July-December 2016).

Friday afternoon’s Presidential Forum at 91����Ƶ’s MainStage Theater offered a rare opportunity to hear from four leaders: three who have led the institution through major cultural and curricular change, and a fourth whose current leadership symbolizes a new beginning and new challenges.

“This is one of the events I’ve been looking forward to this weekend,” Donald Kraybill, author of 91����Ƶ’s new Centennial history, told the gathered crowd at Homecoming and Family Weekend. “We are very fortunate as an institution to have four living presidents. It’s rather remarkable in many ways.”

 introduced presidents emeriti , 1965-80; , 1987-2003; and , 2003-2016. [, president from 1980-87, died in 1991.]

Each president was asked to share a defining moment in their presidency, an achievement or accomplishment, and a prank or humorous story.

Myron Augsburger

The library fund drive of 1969 made Augsburger’s highlight list. The event drove then-Eastern Mennonite College into national view, primarily for the that raised $111,000 in four days at a time when many college campuses were places of unrest and dissent.

Students “gathered things from all over the neighborhood” for a Saturday night auction. As the night went on, the amount rose and rose.

“Finally, at quarter to two or two o’clock in the morning, I auctioned off the last thing,” Augsburger remembered. “It was [campus pastor] Truman Brunk’s necktie. I reached over and pulled it off him and that put us over the top.”

In regards to his accomplishment, Augsburger noted the development of the Inter-Disciplinary Studies curriculum, popularly known as IDS, which Kraybill called a rare and “massive transformation” that integrated the Christian faith into the liberal arts. “It proved we were not an educational program with a little religion tacked on the edge like many colleges,” Augsburger said. “We had seven courses, each taught by five professors from five disciplines who modeled integrated Christian faith with each discipline and how they overlapped.”

One of Augsburger’s most embarrassing moments came in his first year as president at EMC when he invited his predecessor to speak in chapel. The night before, a drama had been staged and the banner that displayed the college’s motto “Thy Word is Truth” had been temporarily taken down.

Mumaw had not been on campus for many months (shortly after marrying Evelyn King, former dean of women, they had traveled on a lengthy worldwide tour). Upon arriving at the pulpit, his first comment was “I see that since I’m no longer president, the college has removed the motto ‘Thy Word is Truth.’”

Joe Lapp

Lapp came to presidency after serving 13 years on the board of trustees. He arrived at a difficult time, he remembered, with challenges related to enrollment, revenue and campus morale. “Soon after I was appointed, one of my attorney friends said, ‘Why would you leave a good practice and join a sinking ship?’”

An enrollment boost helped both revenue and morale, as did entrepreneurial development of programs that became new revenue sources, such as the Adult Degree Completion Program, the Intensive English Program, and the seminary’s Clinical Pastoral Education program. This era also saw the founding of successful graduate programs, including the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and the Masters in Counseling program.

“I thought I needed to be an encourager of new ideas,” he said.

His leadership in changing the name from Eastern Mennonite College (EMC) to 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ) led to many tongue-in-cheek gifts: “I received a collection of wonderful things to celebrate emus from around the world, like a pack of emu cigarettes for Central America, emu wine, emu jerky…”

Lapp was also the only president to sport hair below his collar. It grew long during a cross-cultural trip to the Middle East and he decided not to cut it because “it was more fun aggravating people.” Eventually he pulled it into a ponytail and cut it off, after the YPCA made it into a fundraising event.

Loren Swartzendruber

President from 2003 to 2016, Swartzendruber recalled that “issues of sexuality were absolutely the number one challenge that I dealt with from the beginning, starting with a demonstration on campus one week after my inauguration. … That became a 13-year-long conversation, as it has been in the church.”

Accomplishments included 91����Ƶ’s ground-breaking solar installation on the roof of the Hartzler Library and attendance with alumna Leymah Gbowee at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

As for pranks, Swartzendruber brought with him a photocopy of an April 2004 issue of the Feather Brain with the headline “Cops bust party at presidential residence.” He speculated that , posthumous recipient of the Distinguished Life Service Award during the weekend, may have had a hand in the writing of the article, though as is tradition with the “prank” newspaper, no writers’ names were included.

Swartzendruber also noted the infamous episode during which a student fell while trying to move the 250-pound taxidermied bison into the third story of Oakwood. “This was a generational prankster family, so when I went to visit the student in the hospital, I told him, ‘I’ve heard stories about your grandfather, I know your dad, and before you have kids at 91����Ƶ, I am out of here.”

Current president seeks perspective, advice

Nine months into her tenure as 91����Ƶ’s ninth president, Huxman opted to ask each of her predecessors two questions.

She was curious about the joys of the position. “You’re never not a president,” she said. “But still with the pressures of the position, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that 89 percent of all college presidents report having huge job satisfaction, even if they served a short tenure.”

Swartzendruber said his particular joy “always had to do with students;” whether in art, theater or athletics, he enjoyed “seeing student accomplishments and then following them as graduates, as alumni.”

Lapp remembered one special day when the university was awarded a large grant, affirming the university’s influence and the expertise of its faculty.

Augsburger noted teamwork: “working with faculty who were my peers, not only to have their support, criticisms and counsel.”

Huxman also asked the group for recommendations for caring for and empowering spouses. She pointed out her husband Jesse in the audience, and praised Kraybill for giving spouses equal attention in the Centennial history: “Pat, Hannah and Esther are not just footnotes in your book,” she said, referring to Pat Swartzendruber, Hannah Lapp and Esther Augsburger.

From the audience, the presidents fielded questions about the early Bible college curriculum, the need for and value of accreditation, shifts within the liberal arts curriculum and growth of professional studies programs, as well as the college-to-university name change.

Audience member Mary Ellen Witmer, who worked in the alumni/development office for many years, prompted the sharing by Lapp of a few major events during the time of President Richard Detweiler (1980-87), specifically the loss through fire of the Administration Building. “That was particularly devastating to Richard,” Lapp said, remembering that his predecessor felt deeply the loss of the landmark structure that was then under renovation.

The new chapter of , Rotary International’s college-campus iteration, joins more than 9,500 other clubs — with more than 291,000 members ages 18-30 in 177 countries — in “developing innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.”

At the 91����Ƶ launch on Thursday, Sept. 28, club co-sponsor and 91����Ƶ associate director of development said that the university and Rotary were “natural partners, as each of us is concerned with social justice, the well being of our communities both locally and abroad, and truly living into the Rotary motto, ‘Service above self.’” Hoover is a member of the .

An early goal will be to let other students know about the club and “how good it is to be with such wonderful people,” said student president Linda Ouedraogo. One emerging interest among the club’s first members is serving homeless people, she said.

Founding club president from Burkina Faso

Hoover described Ouedraogo as “one of the most tenacious and compassionate students I have ever met. She almost single-handedly brought Rotaract at 91����Ƶ into being. All acclamation should go to this bright, up-and-coming, future community leader.”

Ouedraogo joined Rotaract in her home country of Burkina Faso after an older brother invited her to an annual three-days-long event during which free dental care was provided to more than 500 people in a rural community.

“I was only there for a day, but it was enough to impress and inspire me to get involved,” she said.

With the help of Hoover and James Madison University Rotaract sponsor , Ouedraogo, a junior biology major, worked “tirelessly” to “bring Rotaract to fruition,” said Hoover.

“I can’t wait to work with you all on these good things,” Ouedraogo said to those gathered for the launch, “not only for 91����Ƶ, but for the Harrisonburg community, too. And hopefully someday we will hear that the Rotaract club of 91����Ƶ did something great in the world.”

Present and past presidential support

In prepared remarks, 91����Ƶ president commended Rotarians for their work and welcomed the Rotaract presence on campus.

“More than ever,” she said, “our world, our nation, our state, our cities, and our campuses need Rotarians. We need Rotarians who believe that giving back to our communities and forming meaningful, lifelong friendships are two of the most simple and yet most profound ways that we unify, not divide, that we congregate, not segregate, that we help, and not harm, our social fabric here at home and around the globe. More than ever, we need Rotarians to help us aim high at what we can accomplish to serve our communities.”

President emeritus Myron Augsburger, too, lauded the addition at 91����Ƶ. He first joined Rotary International in 1965, when, as the college’s new leader, he wanted contact with the wider community.

“Up to that point, the Mennonite community was pretty separate, so I needed contact with a broader area, and Rotary was a good way to engage that,” he said. “It’s very important for students as they are developing to move out, to associate with others. We need to be able to hear each other, or how in the world can we share what we have to offer?”

Making concrete differences

At the launch, Jeremy Spilman of the Harrisonburg Massanutten Rotary Club and assistant governor for Area 3 of Rotary International District 7570, highlighted Rotary’s efforts, which range from hosting local soap box derbies to eradicating polio. 

Also present was 30-year Rotarian Glen Kauffman, a 1982 graduate of EMU and a financial advisor at Everence. The first person he sponsored to join the Harrisonburg club was Hoover, also an 91����Ƶ alumnus.

“I’m really impressed with what Rotary does both in our communities and around the world,” Kauffman said at the launch. “Peace is one of those key things, and that fits so well with what 91����Ƶ does.”

Having a Rotaract club on campus, he said, will allow students to “develop leadership skills, do service projects, and to network with local business and professional persons — and hopefully get a taste of Rotary so that when they begin their careers, they will think that it would be a good place to make connections.”

JMU Rotaract sponsor Fulcher sees the club as a way for students to think beyond their campus borders and serve others.

“There’s this whole group of amazing students who just have the right passion and energy to do good,” he said. “What Rotaract does is provide channels for those students to take that passion and energy and actually make concrete differences locally in the community and internationally.”

welcomed students, faculty, staff and guests with a summary of the summer’s events on the national, denominational and local levels, situating these events as sources of fear, unrest and anxiety, as well as of grace and hope.

“Our aspiration is to be a university community that embodies these signs of hope, nurtures their development, and provides an alternative to the fear, ignorance and violence that drives so much of human society,” he said. “We aspire to be an engaged community of learning that is bound together by love – the love of learning, the love for God as revealed in Jesus Christ, and a love for each other.”

President , who will after 13 years at 91����Ƶ, gave his final convocation speech, sharing his dreams for the future: “These are the dreams I have for you and my grandchildren: to serve as co-creators with God for a more sustainable world in which all God’s people can flourish, to be sustained by a faith that is grounded in hope not fear, and to be energized by an insatiable thirst for discovery and knowledge, not for ourselves but for the good of the world.”

He pointed to tangible actualizations of sustainability on the campus itself that he could already share with his

grandchildren: the recently revived by the student-run Sustainable Food Initiative, a new set to begin this fall, and the .

And in speaking to all in the community who mentor and support each other, Swartzendruber observed that too often Christians fall into argument or dissent, and are not exemplars of Jesus’ commandments: “love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.”

In a fitting intergenerational tribute, Swartzendruber was introduced by Student Government Association co-presidents Hanna Heishman and Rachel Schrock, and then promptly turned to introductions of honored guests and members of the 91����Ƶ community.

Those present included former presidents and ; and , former interim president, as well as Shirley Showalter, former president of Goshen College, and Laban Peachey, former president of Hesston College who was also a professor and dean at 91����Ƶ.

The event concluded with a sending of the China cross-cultural group and the traditional “Shenandoah Welcome,” during which the campus community forms two rows and new students walk between the clapping crowd to the sounds of traditional bluegrass music.

SFI, who seeks to expand local sustainability and social responsibility in food production, began in 2010 when a concerned group of students witnessed large amounts of unused cafeteria food being thrown away. This led to a food donation program, a campus composting program, the planting of campus vegetable gardens and even a student-run Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, which sold produce grown on campus to local buyers. However, when this core group of students graduated, SFI was left a ship with no captain, and its programs quickly fell into disarray.

Eshleman’s vision for the group focuses on longevity. “We are a student club,” the rising senior pointed out, “but have started to work towards being more of a coalition of local organizations and persons, to encourage better practices within our food systems, as well as helping groups fully utilize their own spaces to achieve healthier and more sustainable systems.”

Partnering on and off campus

One key to achieving this longevity is partnering with other campus organizations, such as , the and (ESW), to draw interest and forge common connections. Already this summer ESW helped the SFI crew install solar panels on the campus chicken shed to power the heat lamps that burn throughout the winter months.

“One of our visions for the next year is to share a meal made of locally grown food with as many campus groups as we can,” said Eshleman. “What better way to show people what we do, than through the food itself?”

The group also strives to promote 91����Ƶ’s mission of sustainability outside and . “We want to live the way we talk,” said Malachi Bontrager, an major. “SFI is tangible and easy to access. We can fill a need and do so conscientiously.” Such an ethos demonstrates the group’s commitment to building sustainable local communities through dedicated service.

One of SFI’s key partnerships has been with the Farm at Willow Run. The farm, located on Willow Run Road just minutes from campus, is owned by the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC), and was once the property of former 91����Ƶ president Myron Augsburger and his wife, Esther. Tom Brenneman, the market garden coordinator at VMRC, has been working with VMRC’s dining services director Tobie Bow on a farm-to-table renaissance with the help of SFI students.

Forging real connections

Brenneman, a 1992 graduate with a degree in social work, lives at Willow Run and manages the gardens, in addition to his work with court-involved youth in the 26th District court service unit in Harrisonburg. Despite the enormity of the Willow Run project, which is now delivering produce directly to VMRC kitchens from 1.5 acres of cultivated land, Brenneman laughed when thinking back to its humble beginnings.

“I just had all this extra produce,” he said, which he then passed along to his friend and “co-conspirator” Cal Redekop, who in turn shared the produce gratis with fellow residents in Park Village from a stand at the end of his driveway. The fresh produce has been a huge hit over the past four years. Soon a formal conversation began at the invitation of the executive team of VMRC about how local produce might be brought directly into dining services with sourcing from its own land and resources.

The Farm was quickly identified as a viable location, but who would do the work of growing it? Brenneman rallied volunteer support , some with the local network, which encourages community-building through creative skills-sharing. But the project gained steam when the partnership with SFI was formed. With five to six students working three to four days a week for two to three hours a day, Willow Run is now staffed with a consistent and dedicated workforce.

Mentors help with ag-business skills

“Without the labor from SFI, this really couldn’t have happened,” said Redekop, who often works side by side with the students. “The Farm at Willow Run really provides almost unlimited opportunity to bring different generations together around common concerns, like how we raise our food or how we might show better reverence toward the earth.”

“The farm-to-table initiative makes good sense for VMRC,” said Judith Trumbo, VMRC president and CEO. “As an advocate for aging well, VMRC continues to identify ways to help people live healthier lifestyles. We are pleased to have the support of 91����Ƶ students to make the farm a success.”

Along the way, the members of SFI have learned valuable lessons, not only about large-scale gardening, but also about how to keep their vision afloat. The opportunity to learn from local farmers such as Radell Schrock, a 2001 graduate who operates in Harrisonburg, has given SFI members a clearer sense of the realities of what they are attempting to accomplish.

“Effectively we’re running a small business,” said SFI treasurer and nursing major Abe Thorn. It’s an experience the group will carry with them long after they have left 91����Ƶ, and a legacy they hope to leave behind for future generations of students.

This bridge actually exists in Honduras: it was built in the 1930s by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Pan-American Highway, but was abandoned in 1998 when the river changed its course after a hurricane.

“It is still beautiful and it still stands,” said Okanya, during a lecture at 91����Ƶ, “but the river is not there. The river has moved.”

Similarly, Okanya said, the historical, traditional model of mission engagement – with churches of the global north “sending” missionaries into the “receiving” global south – must be restructured to accommodate changing flows of worldwide Anabaptist faith.

Okanya’s visit to campus, in which he also spoke at two worship services, is part of the annual , originally funded by Myron S. and Esther Augsburger to address “topics in the area of Christian evangelism and mission for the stimulation and development of a vision for evangelism and missions for the 91����Ƶ community.”

The first mission took place in the 1930s, Okanya reminded the audience during his chapel sermon, and those who were called, and those who sent them, were compelled by the powerful story of Jesus Christ. Like the early martyrs of the Anabaptist faith, they suffered for their faith. “You can see their graves,” Okanya said, recalling Elam Stauffer ’64, one of the first missionaries to be sent by EMM. Stauffer suffered for his convictions, losing an infant and then his wife, Elizabeth, after arriving in Tanzania.

Young people seeking purpose are often confronted with the popular narrative of “moving towards something we will get for doing things right,” Okanya said, adding that he too went to college for this reason. Yet there is an alternative narrative: the one followed by missionaries.

Think about “the difference that you can make in life because you are completed not by what you can get but in response to the One who loves you and gave you life,” he urged.

Okanya, who was born and raised in Kenya, pointed as evidence of this compelling narrative and the power of missions to the rapidly growing numbers of Mennonites in Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia have the, behind the United States.

In his youth, Okanya interacted with the Kenya Mennonite Church and the EMM mission community in Nairobi. (When he preaches, he wanders away from the microphone, Okanya joked, because he is still a “Kenyan shepherd boy” at heart.) After graduating from university in Nairobi, Okanya came to the Baltimore area with the YES (Youth Evangelism Service) program and eventually attended seminary at 91����Ƶ, where he met his wife Jessica Lawrence Okanya ’01.

Okanya has served as president of EMM since 2011, following years of mission work and also six years as lead pastor of Capital Christian Fellowship in Lanham, Maryland.

In his lecture titled “What Needs to Change? A Paradigm Shift in Missions Engagement and Implications for Western Mission Agencies,” Okanya shared some of the challenges affecting mission work today. He and his staff continue to grapple with the question of “what it means to be missional in today’s environment,” considering the issues of sustainable funding mechanisms, human resources, increasing hostility toward Westerners, changing stakeholders and globalization.

“There is a lot the church in North America can offer the world,” he said, “but there is much that the churches in the global South can offer us here. I’ve met with Lancaster Conference bishops asking about receiving missionaries here. What does that mean? What are the benefits? They want to know this and we want to help them.”

The way to engage youth in missions, and in church itself, is sharing and teaching with authenticity, Okanya said, just as the prophets, disciples and Jesus himself did.

“Are we ‘almost Christian’?” he asked, using a term coined by author Kendra Dean Creasy. “Are we not serious enough about our faith and not taking seriously what He said and what He meant? We lack the strength to tell the story, and if we do not have it, then we cannot pass it on. We must be passionate.”

“It may at first sound strange to you,” he told students, faculty and others at an academic forum in the , “but the more I learned about Jesus the more he seemed like an Indian spiritual leader or a medicine man to me.”

Woodley, professor of faith and culture at George Fox Seminary in Portland, Ore., spoke at 91����Ƶ’s annual Augsburger Lecture Series on Christian evangelism and mission.

In 28 years of Christian ministry among Native Americans, Woodley has seen their core values of harmony and balance in similar light to the Christian concept of shalom. He chose this as the subject of his doctoral dissertation from Asbury Seminary. “Shalom is woven into the very fabric of being indigenous,” he said.

“Shalom is a lot more than peace,” Woodley said at the university chapel service in Lehman Auditorium, where he also spoke during his visit. “It’s the way God designed the world to be – one community, embracing all creation.” The more he studied the concept of shalom in the Bible and in church history, however, the more he came to believe that Christians have fallen short in practicing true shalom.

Early missionaries devastated indigenous cultures

The first Christian missionaries to Native American communities, for example, held Western colonialist attitudes about conquering non-Christian lands and “civilizing the savages.” They had little awareness that their ideas and actions were devastating to indigenous cultures, Woodley said. Nor did they consider that God might already have been working among indigenous people.

“Theologically and missiologically, we should always begin by asking in what ways God is already active in the culture,” he said. “Native American values include an already-present relationship with the Creator. And Christians, at least first-century Christians, believed Christ is already present in the culture via his work as Creator.”

Woodley said shalom is antithetical to most American values. “Shalom is cooperation above competition and community above the individual,” he said.

“I am urging Americans to live out Christ’s values through biblical shalom and specifically through understanding the Native American harmony way,” he wrote in a scholarly paper, which he read at the academic forum.

From angry young man to missional work for shalom

Woodley began his address at the university chapel by speaking about his background and his ancestral roots in the Shenandoah Valley near the 91����Ƶ campus – both from a Cherokee tribe and a white settler community. In the 1970s, he said, he was an angry young man with a meth addiction. After he converted to Christianity and became a “flaming evangelist,” his Christian colleagues told him to ignore his Native American heritage and focus on saving “lost souls.”

As Woodley read the Bible, however, he was drawn to a broader vision, especially as he studied the Christian community that is described in the book of Acts. The early Christians followed Jesus’ teachings about shalom, which called for a different way of loving and living, and urged compassion for the poor and marginalized.

“If the church is not busy making shalom,” he said, “then it has no mission.”

Sitting in the audience at chapel were Myron and Esther Augsburger, who funded the lectureship that brought Woodley to campus. Prior to serving as president of 91����Ƶ from 1965 to 1980, Myron Augsburger was a well-known author, evangelical leader and evangelist. After he left 91����Ƶ, he and his artist wife, Esther, founded a church on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.  Before retiring to Harrisonburg, he also served as president of the Coalition of Christian Colleges & Universities.

35 years of grassroots ministry

Woodley’s theme for his Augsburger lectureship was “Embracing Missional Shalom Community.” During his visit to campus, he also spoke at the seminary chapel service and met informally with students and faculty.

For more than 35 years he has been engaged in what he calls “grassroots ministry.” He founded or helped to form Christians for Justice, Eagle’s Wings Ministry, American Indian Environment & Health Association, North American Institute of Indigenous Theological Studies, Evangelicals 4 Justice, Eloheh Village for Indigenous Leadership & Ministry Development, and Eloheh Farm.

Ordained in the American Baptist Churches, Woodley served as pastor of Eagle Valley Church in Carson City, Nev., which was for many years a unique role model as an authentic Native American congregation.

Woodley has authored Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision (2012) and Living in Color: Embracing God’s Passion for Ethnic Diversity (2004).

In addition to teaching at George Fox Seminary, he directs its intercultural and indigenous studies program.

John taught courses in , during 1956-57 at EMC, then headed to Indiana University where he earned an MBA with a focus on accounting in 1962. The following year he became a CPA. He taught accounting part time at Goshen College, while maintaining an accounting practice serving Goshen and vicinity. His professional brochure from that period said, “Since 1962 our business has been helping others achieve.” He stressed the importance of estate planning and the value of deferred charitable giving.

Mildred recalls that EMC president Myron Augsburger invited John in the late 1960s to return to his original alma mater to teach, but John felt that EMC still didn’t value business as a career – and thus had little incentive to provide quality instruction in business and accounting – and he passed up the invitation.

In 1983, John died of a heart attack, leaving behind Mildred and seven children, including two 91����Ƶ alumni, Beverly ’73 and Alden ’79 (in medical school then), plus two sons enrolled in EMC, Loren ’85 and J. Eric ’88. Daughter Ardith ’90, was enrolled in Hesston when her father died. Mildred says the family benefited from her husband’s financial expertise and foresight – he ensured that they would not be homeless, destitute and uneducated without him.

Two decades after John Hostetter’s era as an EMC undergraduate, Daniel H. Martin ’69 had better luck studying business at EMC. He majored in “general business” – taking every accounting course EMC offered, from basic to advanced, augmented by courses like “business law” and “office machines” – but EMC still didn’t offer a major in accounting, with instruction in auditing. Dan had to pursue his CPA on his own later, after graduating from EMC and after doing voluntary service with Mennonite Central Committee for two years.

In his first 14 years as an accountant, Dan worked for a Staunton firm. In 1985, he returned to Harrisonburg and became a partner in what is now known as Martin, Beachy & Arehart, PLLC.* One of the other three partners is also an alumnus, R. Scott Beachy ’88, who majored in accounting just a few years after that became an option at EMC.

Martin and Beachy work in what was once a gracious home, now renovated into attractive offices, fronted by clear signage on busy N. High St., just a mile and a half from 91����Ƶ. It’s a street corner that I pass at least three times a week as I head toward Community Mennonite Church, Rocking R Hardware, Greenberry’s Coffee or downtown Harrisonburg.

In contrast to the cumbersome adding machines with rolls of paper that John Hostetter used at the beginning of his career, the technological resources of Martin, Beachy & Arehart have made their operations largely paperless.

On a personal level, though, one thing has not changed. Like the Hostetters, Dan and Scott have entrusted their children’s education to 91����Ƶ. The first-born child of Daniel and his wife Ruth Ann, Jonathan Daniel, is a 1997 graduate who is a legislative budget analyst for the State of Maryland. Their daughter, Nicole Ann Stark, is a 2001graduate who directs student health services at the University of Pittsburgh, Bradford. (She is married to Zachary Stark ’02 who many will remember as a member of the men’s volleyball team from 1998 to 2002.)

Scott and his wife Jodi Gerber Beachy ’89, who teaches grade 5 at Eastern Mennonite School, have two children currently enrolled at 91����Ƶ – Emma, a rising junior who is majoring in , and Ryan, a rising sophomore who is majoring in accounting, as his father did.

“The education I received from 91����Ƶ gave me a strong base from which to operate,” says Scott by way of explaining his loyalty to his alma mater.  “Although it’s been many years since I sat in an 91����Ƶ classroom, I still remember the integrity displayed by all of the professors with whom I interacted.”

— Bonnie Price Lofton, MA ’04, editor-in-chief

“The Summer Institute for Missional Questions fits our goal of bringing flexible high-quality ministry education close to congregations,” said , director of EMS Lancaster.  “These instructors bring rich global and local perspectives to the landscape of contemporary Christian mission.”

The 2013 summer institute kicks-off early with a course in April – May:

• “Romans: A Letter to the Church,” taught by Myron S. Augsburger. The class meets weekly on Friday evenings, beginning April 5, concluding May 18. It includes two Saturday sessions.

Two courses are slated for May – June:

• “Encountering Anabaptism in the Global South,” taught by Conrad L. Kanagy. This is a hybrid course, combining online components and a weekend in the classroom, May 31-June 1.
• “Human Sexuality in Theological Perspective,” taught by Mark and Mary Thiessen Nation. This course meets on three weekends, May 10-11, May 24-25 and June 7-8.

Each of these courses is available for graduate academic credit or for audit. The final weekend of the “Human Sexuality” course will focus on theology and homosexuality.  There will be separate non-credit registration for this weekend event.

For more information call 717-397-5190 or visit

When the state of Georgia needed someone to rescue its troubled system for mentally ill and disabled individuals, it hired Frank Shelp ’80. In May 2009, Georgia named Shelp to be its first-ever commissioner of its newly formed Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, charged with the well-being of 120,000 individuals, 2,000 of them in hospitals.

Shelp, a psychiatrist who holds multiple degrees, knew the work would be challenging. In 2007, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a series of investigative articles on Georgia’s underfunded psychiatric hospitals, holding the system responsible for more than 100 deaths from 2002 though 2006. These newspaper articles attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice, which did its own multi-year investigation and concluded that “preventable deaths, suicides and assaults continue to occur with alarming frequency in the hospitals.”

Shelp’s remediation efforts in his first year on the job impressed the U.S. Department of Justice sufficiently to cause it to withdraw its lawsuit against the state for violating the civil rights of the people it was supposed to be caring for.

The foregoing facts about Shelp and his cabinet-level position in Georgia have been widely reported in the media in Atlanta and elsewhere in the state.

What has not been reported is the path Shelp took from his own troubled childhood home in New England through what was then Eastern Mennonite College to arrive at his current position of immense responsibility. It requires him to combine compassion, medical knowledge, and organizational acumen to head an agency with an annual budget of $1 billion.

Shelp grew up in Colchester, Connecticut, in a family consisting of a younger sister, a mother with fragile
mental health, and a Navy-serving father who was away from home for months at a time as a non-commissioned officer on submarine duty.

Shelp somehow made it to college in Kansas in 1973, but had to drop out when his father sent his mother on an airplane to Shelp. By that act, his father announced his decision to wash his hands of his wife’s deteriorating mental state. He took Shelp’s sister and moved out of the family home.

Shelp brought his mother back to Connecticut, got a job at a Christian bookstore, married, settled with others on a chicken farm, and became a father. Lacking a car, Shelp would ride his bicycle 14 miles one-way to work in the bookstore, regardless of the weather, season or amount of daylight.

At a national meeting of Christian booksellers in 1976, Shelp heard then-91����Ƶ president Myron Augsburger deliver an inspiring keynote speech. Shelp sought Augsburger’s counsel after the speech. Augsburger, known across America for his leadership as an evangelist, encouraged Shelp to consider
re-enrolling in college and invited him to visit 91����Ƶ.

Borrowing a dilapidated VW Beetle, Shelp and his family drove to Harrisonburg where Augsburger showed them around the campus. The president told them that finances should not be viewed as an insurmountable barrier to getting an 91����Ƶ education—ways and means could be found.

Enrolled in the fall of 1976, Shelp received tuition assistance from the college. For living expenses, he ran a bike shop, open Monday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m., and all day on Saturday. Bikes were the family’s only transportation — “not because it was a groovy, hippy thing to do; it was raw necessity.” Shelp and his wife—towing the baby—biked to a co-op to buy grains, beans and other staples and to a dairy farm to buy milk.

Shelp recalls with gratitude that Augsburger stayed attuned to Shelp’s financial and personal struggles; Augsburger periodically passed along funds from his own pocket, quietly and with no expectation of repayment. Shelp double-majored in biology (earning a BS) and liberal arts (for a BA). Carrying a heavy load of classes, he graduated in three years of year-’round coursework.

Amid this staggering amount of responsibility—schoolwork, a business, parenthood—Shelp remained the caregiver for his desperately ill mother. Despite Shelp’s efforts to keep her safe in an apartment, his mother usually lived out of her car. She often disappeared for days until Shelp could locate her and retrieve her.

91����Ƶ’s classes were a bright spot in his life. “I will put my degrees and quality of education at 91����Ƶ up against any one of my fellow graduate students from Harvard, Yale or any of the other Ivy League schools. I would not have done as well if I had graduated from any other school. It wasn’t just the academic preparation. It was the personal attention I received from the professors. That made the difference for me.”

Shelp managed to reach his final semester of college with only $3,000 in outstanding loans. He borrowed
another $3,000 just before graduation to position himself for settling his family in Richmond, Va., and beginning his graduate studies at the Medical College of Virginia.

While earning his medical degree from MCV, Shelp remained the conscientious son. He took his mother to Richmond, so that he could continue to look after her. She died of natural causes in his third year of medical school.

In 1988 at Duke University, Shelp completed a residency in psychiatry and geriatrics—familiar terrain for him, given 10 years of being his mother’s caregiver. In 2006, he earned an MPH in healthcare policy and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In his role as commissioner today, Shelp says he seeks to implement values similar to those he saw underpinning 91����Ƶ in the late 1970s: respect for all and inclusiveness; meaningful service to society; integrity; and transparency in both finances and operations.

As the keynote speaker at the 2011 Homecoming banquet for donors, Shelp told hundreds of attendees: “Eastern Mennonite represents the greatest paradox in terms of its size versus its impact.” He applauded the way 91����Ƶ asks students to go beyond acquiring knowledge and skills to pondering how they are going to use these assets to make a positive difference.

Since the early 1990s Shelp has chosen to thank 91����Ƶ for enabling him to transform his life as a young adult by making a generous donation each year to its University Fund, the primary fund through which 91����Ƶ provides financial assistance to undergraduate students.

On Nov. 14, 190 people gathered at the Eastern Mennonite High School dining hall for a program and dinner to remember and to honor the godly legacy of John R., Esther M. and Evelyn K. Mumaw.

Former 91����Ƶ presidents Myron S. Augsburger and Joseph L. Lapp and current president Loren Swartzendruber honored their predecessor John R. Mumaw at a ‘Celebration of Ministry’ event. Photo by Steve Carpenter

John R. married Esther Mosemann in 1928 and together they raised five daughters – Helen, Grace, Catherine, Lois and Miriam, in Harrisonburg, Va. John R. possessed exceptional leadership gifts. He went on to become the fourth president of the former Eastern Mennonite College, 1948-1965, served twice as moderator of the Mennonite Church, 1961-63 and 1969-71, and led Virginia Mennonite Conference as moderator, 1968-1974.

Pastoral skill and vision

During the evening, many spoke of John R’s pastoral skill, vision and administrative ability. Nancy Hopkins-Garriss, executive director of Pleasant View Homes, Inc., recounted how he started Pleasant View as a place for adults with developmental disabilities. Ron Yoder, CEO of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, recalled how John R. gave vision to the expansion of VMRC, while Dr. Linford Gehman cited his leadership as executive secretary of Mennonite Medical Association,1969-79.

Sprinkled in were stories of Esther and Evelyn’s service to the church given independently of and alongside their husband. Esther died suddenly in 1964. One year later, John R. then 91����Ƶ president, married Evelyn King, the college’s dean of women.

Byron Peachey

Byron Peachey, a campus minister at 91����Ƶ and John and Esther’s grandson, emceed the evening. His mother Helen, died in 2000 and was the only Mumaw daughter not present. Byron read a remembrance from Hubert and Mildred Pellman. They recalled Esther winning a game of Scrabble, then looking at John with a mischievous smile and saying, "…and I didn’t even go to college."

Lee M. Yoder, president of his 91����Ƶ class under John’s tenure, recalled presenting a demand for a forum to express student opinions. John R. acquiesced and provided a prominent display board. The only problem – it was completely enclosed in glass. The only way to get something posted was to go through the dean of students and the president’s son-in-law, Laban Peachey.

Another commented how effective John R. was in dealing with his critics by referencing his constituency. On one occasion the moderator of VMC approached him with an issue. John R. replied "You meet on campus in assembly once a year. I work with this community every day. I cannot do what you ask."

Later, 91����Ƶ’s current president Loren Swartzendruber jokingly commented, "Tonight I learned a lot from John R. about how to deal effectively with both VMC’s moderator and student class presidents." Swartzendruber also shared reflections on taking a homiletics course with Mumaw as a seminary student in 1973. Mumaw expected all sermons to be written in manuscript form, saying, "The Holy Spirit is present in the study as well as in the pulpit."

All three surviving present or former presidents of 91����Ƶ – Myron Augsburger, Joe Lapp and Loren Swartzendruber, along with former 91����Ƶ interim president Beryl H. Brubaker – were present to honor one of their own. 91����Ƶ helped sponsor the event along with VMRC, PV Inc., and Dr. Gehman.

This was Virginia Mennonite Conference’s 10th Celebration of Ministry banquet. In addition to honoring a remarkable man and his family, it raised funds for VMC and established a ministerial training and trust fund for the theological education of pastors in the Potomac District of VMC.

Steve Carpenter is conference coordinator of Virginia Mennonite Conference.

The recognition took place during an all-school picnic Aug. 19, part of the school’s annual faculty-staff conference. Dr. Augsburger, 91����Ƶ president from 1965 to 1980, turned 80 the next day, Aug. 20.

Myron and Esther Augsburger

"I thank the Lord for each step of the way and I appreciate this surprise affirmation," Augsburger said. "The older I get, the more I realize that relationships with family, friends and colleagues and fellowship are among the most important things in life."

The former 91����Ƶ president continues an active schedule of writing and speaking in church and conference settings. He and wife Esther K. Augsburger are leaving for Croatia the end of September for a teaching assignment at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek.

Contribute to the Myron S. Augsburger Endowed Chair of Theology…

Eugene R. Hostetler, a former physical education instructor and coach at 91����Ƶ, died of cancer Apr. 9, 2006, at his home in Park View. He was 74.

Hostetler was appointed to a faculty position in physical education in 1957 and served until 1967. He was the school’s first men’s soccer coach, 1965-66, compiling a record of 6-4-2, and the first men