COLLEGE MAGAZINE SPRING 2006 · COLLEGE MAGAZINE SPRING 2006 ... performing skills,” said Wooten, assistant professor of ... “Listening to the Voices of Our Sisters,

COLLEGE MAGAZIN E SPRING 2006

12 Teaching and Learning Outside the Box15 Berea College Faculty22 How I Got Here and Why28 A Lifestyle of Service

150 Years of Investing in lives of Great Promise

On the Inside

S P R I N G 2 0 0 6 : Vo l u m e 76 N u m b e r 4 : w w w . b e r e a . e d u BE R E A C O L L E G E M AG AZ I N E

4 Editor’s Note

5 Around Campus

10 Sports Update

11 Faculty and Staff Notes

36 Alumni Connections

37 About Berea People

41 Passages

Inside this issue

N ote to our readers: The mission of Berea College is carried out throughactivities guided by Berea’s Great Commitments. Berea’s strategic plan,Being and Becoming: Berea College in the Twenty-First Century, identifiesspecific initiatives which the College is implementing to continue its tradition of learning, labor, and service. While all Berea College Magazinearticles relate to Berea’s mission, specific articles about the strategic plan initiatives are indicated with the symbol.

22How I Got Here and Why:

Interviews with Remarkable Men and Women

Departments

Features12 Teaching and Learning Outside the Box

15 Berea College Faculty:A Commitment to Appalachia and Beyond

28 A Lifestyle of Service:Alumni Who Continue to Care

32 Profiles in Service: Bonner ScholarsStormy Gillespie Otis and Blake Jones

34 The Face of Berea College’s Tuition ScholarshipsFront Cover: Alice Ledford, ’06Back Cover: Courtesy Berea College Archives, 1911-12: Boys

who walked 100 miles to Berea Inside Front: Orion, Moab Desert, Utah, Celeste Francis, ’07

BEREACOLLEGEMAGAZINE:S

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06 Editor’s Note

4

Normandi Ellis, Editor

Dr. William A. Laramee, Vice President,Alumni and College Relations

Timothy W. Jordan, ’76, Director, Public Relations

Mae Suramek, ’95, Director, Alumni Relations

Correspondence and ReprintsIf you have comments, questions, or suggestions for the Berea College Magazine, or would like information about reprinting any article appearing in the magazine, please contact:

Normandi EllisEditor, Berea College MagazineBerea CollegeCPO 2142 Berea, KY 40404

or email [email protected]

Berea College Magazine (ISSN 1539-7394) is published quarterly for Berea College alumni and friends by the Berea College Public Relations Department.

POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to the Berea College Office of Alumni Relations, CPO 2203, Berea, KY 40404.

Berea College is a 501(c)(3) charitable organizationunder federal guidelines.

COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Web: www.berea.edu

Email: [email protected]

Mail: CPO 2203Berea, KY 40404

Phone: 859.985.3104Toll free: 1.866.804.0591

Fax: 859.985.3178

AT YO URSERVIC E

When I first met President Shinn (a year ago now) he mentioned thathe would like to see something in the magazine that really showcasedBerea’s diversity for our friends, alumni, and future students. I thinkthis issue is it. In the year it took me to discover the stories that areBerea, I encountered some incredible people—former and current faculty, students, and alumni.

Looking through the College’s archival photographs one day Idiscovered a 1912 portrait of four gentlemen wearing heavy boots.Each had walked over 100 miles through the Appalachian Mountainsto come to Berea. In 1865 James Bond, a freed slave, walked over 60miles, leading a steer that he hoped would defray the cost of his education. Last year I interviewed a student from the former Tibetwho, as a boy, crossed the frozen mountains into Nepal (approx. 786miles), then continued his studies in India before he arrived at BereaCollege.

“How I Got Here and Why” (p. 22) focuses on the lengths thatstudents will go to acquire the education that ultimately will shapetheir underlying passion to make meaningful change. “A Lifestyle ofService” (p. 28) shows us the lengths to which our alumni will go tomake the world a better place—easing homelessness and hunger,fighting AIDS and poverty, and building a world house under the roofof peace. You’ll also read about some rather amazing teachers whoinfluenced a generation of activists and educators in the interviewswith Berea College faculty (p. 15). In the course of these conversa-tions, the names of many more faculty members from Berea Collegearose—so many names that I could have written a book.

Berea College’s administration, faculty, and friends are in thebusiness of building a powerful community of service and socialchange. Perhaps some would say our philosophy of investing in livesof great promise is a dream too difficult to attain in this complex andconflicted world. Personally, I believe that prayer and people can change things.

Or, as Margaret Mead once said: Neverdoubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Normandi Ellis

It’s not enough to speak to people’s minds;you must speak to their hearts.

—Perly Ayer

Around Campus

Around Campus

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150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service

Fifteen students studying under economics and businessprofessor Debbi Brock performed a management studyto develop a comprehensive strategic business plan forthe College Craft Industries. “We took our students intothe field to learn management while performing an inte-grated service for the crafts program,” Brock says.

The students learned to create a strategic plan tolower production costs, boost profit margins, andimprove operations of the 115 student workers who arethe key components of the broomcraft, weaving,wrought ironworks, ceramics, and woodworking programs. They examined the craft industry, its market,and how the program plays into the success of BereaCollege, the community, Kentucky, and the region.

The students shared their recommendations with thebusiness administration, craft program administrators,and others in a final presentation. “Having a chance toparticipate in this project,” says Katrina Kubesova ‘06,“was a great way to make us retain the material we learned.”

Brock praised her students. “By far this is the best project we have everdone. It integrated all the functions of business management into a successfullearning experience.”

Chomba Chocho, ’07, listens intently to his professor as they preparethe strategic business planfor the College CraftIndustries.

Anonymous Donor Provides $270,800for Appalachian Music and Dance

EPG Studies Appalachian Crafts Industry

O’N

eil Arnold, ‘85

Appalachia

Medical SocietyDr. Douglas Owen, president of theMadison County Medical Society,presented scholarship funds to Dr.Dawn Anderson, chair of the BiologyDepartment, to benefit a graduatingsenior planning to attend medicalschool.

Lindsay Bruner, ’06

Two anonymous grants totaling$270,800 have allowed Berea Collegeto hire a full-time sound archivist andexpand and its sound and oral archivesin an effort to further preserve traditional Appalachian dance andmusic.

The grants brings with it the opportunity for more students to experience traditional music and danceby allowing more access to thearchives, as well as bringing aboardadditional music faculty. The granthelps the College to acquire traditionalinstruments for student use and provides time for teachers to train the

students in the art form. Funds willalso enable an ensemble of dance musicians to accompany the BereaCountry Dancers when they are traveling throughout the region.

In addition, four fellowships weregiven this spring to musicians who areworking with the sound and oralarchives of the region. DeborahThompson, of McKee, Kentucky,studied race and gender representationin traditional music. Brian Harnetty, ofColumbus, Ohio, gathered sound andimages into a large-scale multimediawork, “American Winter,” being produced by Appalshop. Erin Marshall,

a Canadian fiddler, explored EasternKentucky fiddle styles and tunes. Thissummer ethnomusicologist Ajay Kalrafrom Austin, Texas, will study theMcClain Family Band.

Spring fellowships to study Appalachian musicin the College Archives were awarded to BrianHarnetty, Erynn Marshall, and DeborahThompson.

Tyler Castells, ’08


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Berea Hosts State ForensicsTourney, Garners Awards

At the same time the Berea College speech and debateteam was hosting the 2006 Kentucky State Forensics(KSF) Tournament in February, it earned third placeoverall in the events, including Coach of the Year fortournament coordinator Billy Wooten, ’98. Severaldebate team members picked up individual awards.

Ten colleges and universities—including BereaCollege, Asbury College, Transylvania University, andWestern Kentucky University (WKU)—participated inthe tournament, with 160 students, coaches, and judges.“I was thrilled to see so many students entering thesecompetitions and honing their cognitive, speaking, andperforming skills,” said Wooten, assistant professor ofEnglish, theatre, and communications.

Chosen by student competitors, Wooten received theKentucky Forensics Association (KFA) Coach of the Yearaward. Incoming KSF president Barry Fields from WKUpresented the award, calling Wooten the GreatMediator of the KFA, noting his ability to keep peaceamong the KFA coaches. “It’s nice to be recognized bythe students and be known as a mediator,” said Wooten.

Senior Christie Poteet garnered the Harlan HammAward for the student most dedicated to furtheringforensics study and competition. “I feel honored,” saidPoteet, who serves as Berea’s team captain. “This awardis not just for me. It is for the whole team.”

In the small four-year institution category, Bereabeat out six other schools to earn first place. Bereaplaced second in individual competition, earning fourawards. In all, including the final KFA debates, thisyear’s speech and debate team ended its season with 45awards.

Professor Billy Wooten (standing) won Coach of the Year atthe Kentucky State Forensics Tournament; his team won thirdoverall. Berea College hosted the event.

Jessica Turner CreatesHomeGrown HideAways—AnAward-Winning Business IdeaBerea College junior Jessica L. Turner received thegrand prize in the second annual SoutheasternKentucky Concept Challenge for innovative businessideas. Turner gained $1,000 in funding for her pro-posal for ecologically designed and built vacationrental cabins, “HomeGrown HideAways.”

Sponsored by the Eastern Kentucky EnterpriseGroup, the Berea College Entrepreneurship for thePublic Good program, and the Kentucky Science andTechnology Corporation, the competition was opento full-time students from postsecondary schools and community colleges throughout southeasternKentucky.

Turner’s proposal entails ecologically designedand built rental cabins direct to consumers who wantto fulfill travel desires while minimizing environmen-tal impact. HomeGrown HideAways would give cus-tomers an opportunity to engage in hands-on work-shops and classes designed to teach techniques for sus-tainable living. As a bonus, tasty home-cooked,organic meals prepared by an in-house chef would beincluded in the price.

Already Turner’s seed idea has taken root and isgrowing. She and her husband, Nathan, have begunscouting land and renovating their house, which theyplan to sell for profit, then use the profit to build herinnovative, environmentalbusiness.

“I want to showpeople the differentways you can build thatare less expensive andless toxic.” Turnerexpressed high hope fora clean environmentalfuture and is happy to bemaking contributions fora better tomorrow.

Jessica Turner, ’07, displaysher Southeastern KentuckyConcept Challenge Award forher innovative business ideas.

Tyler Castells, ’08

Celeste Francis, ’07

7

Around Campus150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service

The College’s Black Cultural Center, the Africanand African American Studies program, andcampus ministry, hosted events throughout blackhistory month honoring heritage and culture.

During the February 2nd convocation, students were transported 148 years back in timeto hear of the hardships of racism, the honor ofservice, and the life of a black soldier. WearingUnion blue civil war dress, Hasan Davis, ’92,portrayed A.A. Burleigh, who graduated fromBerea in 1875. Davis, an actor, lawyer, and motivational speaker, based his portrayal onBurleigh’s military records and correspondencewith John G. Fee.

Dr. Mary Frances Howard-Hamilton deliveredan awe-inspiring speech after her recent attendanceat the wake for Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. In her convocationspeech, “Listening to the Voices of Our Sisters,”Howard-Hamilton literally brought audience membersto their feet when she asked them to rise, talk to their neighbors, and discuss the inspiring women of their liveswhom they cherished “as part of their freedom choir.”

During the tenth annual Unity banquet, faculty andstudents were recognized for service and contributionsto the unity of all races, cultures, and ethnicity. TheCarter G. Woodson Awards, named for the 1903 Bereagraduate and father of black history month, were givento students Marcus Elston, ’06, Anton Bates, ’07,Nicholas Citizen, ’08, and Thaddeius McCall, ’09.Faculty recipients were director of the Center forExcellence in Learning and Service Meta Mendel-Reyesand vice president of Alumni and College Relations BillLaramee.

Hasan Davis, ’92, portrays the Union soldierA.A. Burleigh appealingto John G. Fee.

This year Berea Collegecelebrated another milestone ‘birthday.’Phelps Stokes Chapelturned 100 years old. In1902, a fire destroyed theprevious chapel. Uponhearing of the loss, MissOlivia Egleston PhelpsStokes determined to turntragedy into triumph. She offered to pay forconstruction of a new“plain, commodiouschapel as soon as it can beerected by student labor.”

In meeting Miss Phelps Stokes’ challenge, the chapeltruly became Berea’s own, having been built with studentlabor, using student-made bricks, stone from the BereaRidge, and student-cut lumber from the College forest.After Miss Phelps Stokes’ death in 1927, the Chapelwas renamed for its benefactor.

During a March 2006 gathering that coincided withInternational Women’s Day, First Lady Nancy Shinnunveiled a portrait of Miss Olivia Phelps Stokes, whichnow hangs in the chapel. Miss Olivia Phelps Stokes, aswell as her sister Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes, shared philanthropic interests that advanced the Christian religion by giving money for the construction of chapelsat such diverse locations as Columbia University, BereaCollege, and Tuskegee Institute. They also financiallysupported the cause of women and of American minorities, especially African Americans and NativeAmericans, by strengthening education and improvinghousing for the poor.

Philanthropist Olivia EglestonPhelps Stokes

Black History Month CelebratesAfrican American Culture

Phelps Stokes Chapel Turns 100

New Heat Plant Almost ThereThe backhoes, trenches, and plastic orange security fencingaround campus are the necessary nuisances that signal that of the new heat plant and distribution lines are nearly complete.The more efficient heating and cooling plant and its distributionsystem will supply more accurately the buildings’ energy needs.The new system replaces less efficient, antiquated steam piping.The main piping is nearly complete. Chilled water pipes will beready for summer cooling; hot water lines are expected to beready by fall.

A backhoe prepares to lay and install pipe behind the ScienceBuilding.

Tyler Castells, ‘08


courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard U

niversity

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Funding from the National Science Foundation has helped assistant professorsMark Cunningham and Paul Smithson enhance chemistry education throughcomputer and flash technology. In collaboration with Lee University, the professorsare testing online chemistry tutorials, homework sets, and quizzes. Boasting aninteractive computer application, the new programs will be available to allscience students, particularly those in general, environmental, and organic chemistry. Using sound, motion, and other visual effects, flash technology demonstrates how a particular chemical or biological process occurs. Theprogram may be configured to provide self-study exercises that allow students towork at their own paces.

“The timed quizzes have the feel of a video game,” Smithson says enthusiastically, “and students try to beat the clock. The program provides incen-tive to learn the material all chemists need to know, avoiding the distractions that interrupt regular homework.”

Assistant professor Matthew Saderholm purchased a new automated peptidesynthesizer with some funding from the National Institutes of Health. The time-

saving synthesizer will accelerate summer researchfor both students and faculty.“A peptide that previouslytook well over a week tomake could be made in aday now,” Saderholm said.“This, combined with the electrospray mass spectrometer acquired lastyear, will allow us to complete substantialsummer projects in 8 weeksand give students practical

skills that pharmaceutical companies are using more often.” The synthesizer alsomakes peptide synthesis accessible to advanced laboratory students during theregular year.

Upgrades to the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy machinewere overseen by associate professor Jay Baltisberger. The equipment, purchasedwith National Science Foundation funds in 1999 for $200,000, determines how amolecule is put together. The $80,000 upgrade, funded by federal Department ofEducation allocations, extends the life of this equipment. “Basically we were ableto turn the clock on the life of this instrument back to zero,” Baltisberger said.“This instrument has served us well these last six years and should continue to beone of the most heavily used chemistry instruments for years to come.” TheNMR machine allows Baltisberger and his students to return to pulse sequencedevelopment research.

Recent federal Department of Education (DOE) allocations allowed thechemistry department to upgrade a gas chromatography instrument that uses aflame ionization detector and to repair a carbon/hydrogen/nitrogen analyzer toassist with organic chemistry research. Other DOE money will be used toupgrade small equipment like stirring hot plates, balances, and melting pointdetection apparati.

PR and DevelopmentReceive CASE AwardsDuring the statewide CASE (Council forthe Advancement and Support of Education)conference, Berea College received a totalof eight awards for outstanding achievements in development and publicrelations projects.

The Office of College Developmentreceived a grand award for its publicationappealing to Berea’s young alumni, inaddition to an excellence award for itspublication “Students are the Reason.”

The Berea College Magazine received agrand award for its Spring 2005 issue, aswell as two writing awards—an award ofexcellence to Jay Buckner for his article onJake Krack, “Fiddling Around” and anaward of merit to Normandi Ellis for herarticle on the civil rights movement,“Walking in the Footsteps of Peace.”Buckner also received an excellence awardfor his video news release, Juice & Water,about the sale of Berea College’s utilities.His two other video projects—one detailingthe 40th anniversary of Berea’s participationin the civil rights march, the other aboutthe Schmidlapp Fund endowment to assistwomen, primarily single parent students,from Appalachia—received awards of merit. Chemistry professor Matthew Saderholm shows students

how to use the automated peptide synthesizer.

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Chemistry Department Upgrades

CASE award winners are (clockwise from left)Colleen Payne, Chris Schill, Jay Buckner, NormandiEllis, Will Jones, Amy Hogg, and Linda Kuhlmann(printing services).

Celeste Francis, ’07

9

Around Campus150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service

Students Pen Prized Essays onWomen, Palestine, & TrafficThe Berea College Learning Center awarded several talentedwriters for their contributions to the anthology Voices. Thecompilation includes Berea College student, faculty, andstaff authors spanning 75 years. Editor Bradley Fletcher,’06, believes these voices will take readers through sevendecades of historical perspective on issues dealing from raceand gender to war and peace.

After a college-wide contest, three student winners wereselected for inclusion in the anthology. Beth Coleman, ’09, afreshman political science education major from Mt. Vernon,Kentucky, took first place with her poem “I am an Appalachianwoman.” Second place winner, Michael Adams, ’08, anEnglish major from Princeton, Kentucky, submitted a poemthat takes place in Palestine in the early 1990s. Third placewinner, Robert Fox, ’08, a nontraditional student majoringin English, penned his story out of “frustration with increasingpollution and traffic in northern Virginia and ongoing recollections about life in the U.S. Army.”

Staff and faculty winners were Lesia Holder, assistant tothe Dean of Labor, Betty Hibler, associate director of theCenter for Excellence in Learning Through Service, and RobertHoag, chair of the philosophy and religion department.

For a copy of Voices, email [email protected].

Winners of the writing competition and staff members of the ZephyrVoices project are: kneeling: Rob Fox; sitting left to right: PaigeCordial, ’06, Caitlin Szalay, ’07, Bradley Fletcher; standing from leftto right: Beth Coleman, Michael Adams, Joshua Ward, ’07, andAmanda Walton, ’07.

Berea College held its 70th annualMountain Folk Festival in March atthe Seabury Center. Since 1935, thefestival has reached out to theAppalachian region to interest a new generation of dancers and danceleaders in the mountain folk tradition.Children in grades 4-12 perform traditional music and dance from theBritish Isles, Denmark, and Appalachia.

Weekend events included traditional Englishseasonal display dances with colorful costumes,flowers, bells, ribbons and dance items such assticks and swords. The event was codirected byJennifer Rose Escobar, performing artist and educator, and Pamela Corley-Slowkowski, Morrisdance coach of the College country dancerwomen.

Berea musicians Al and Alice White, andAtossa Kramer, provided live music. BobDalsemer, former president of the CountryDance and Song Society and coordinator of programs at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, was the featuredcaller.

Mountain Folk Festival – 70 Years of Music, Dance & Song


Alice Ledford, ’06

Divine andDazzlingTheatre Once on This Islandstudent performersinclude (left to right)Stephanie Smith, '06, asErzulie, Goddess of Love;Vincent Henry, Jr., '07, asPapa Ge, Demon ofDeath; Valton Jackson,'09, as Agwe, God ofWater; Morgan Younge, '06, as Asaka, Goddessof the Earth; and Tianna Williams, '09, (lyingdown) as Ti Moune, the poor peasant girl whofalls in love with an unattainable man. Themusical was directed by Dr. Deborah Martin.

The cast of Once On This Island

Celeste Francis, ‘07

Sports Update

Swimmer Britin Ellard BeginsHer Berea Career SwimminglySwimmer, Britin Ellard, ’09, jumped right into BereaCollege history this season by breaking nine individualschool records, including the 100-, 500-, and 1000-meter freestyle; the 50-meter backstroke, the 50-,100-, and 200-meter breaststroke; and the 200- and400-meter individual relay. Ellard represented Bereaat the NAIA Nationals in St. Peters, Michigan, inMarch, placing 6th in the 200-meter individualmedley, 7th in the 200-meter breaststroke, and 11thin the 100-meter breaststroke. She called the chanceto compete for Berea nationally “an amazing opportunity and privilege for me.”

Two Lady Mountaineers who brokeCollege records this basketball seasonwere recognized at the VirginiaIntermont home game this year.Forward Rebecca May, ’07, scored morethan 1000 career points, and guardCrystal Davis, ’06, became the all-timeassist leader.

May, a sociology education majorfrom Waynesburg, Kentucky, is only thesixth Lady Mountaineer to be inductedinto the 1000 point club. While averagingonly 22 minutes a game, she makesthose minutes count, typically scoring20 points per game. This season alone,May scored 523 points in 26 games.

“It felt amazing to be a part of the1000 point club,” says May. “I’m glad Ican be a part of the Berea College basketball history.”

Davis, a business administrationmajor from Wilmington, Ohio, has beenplaying basketball since the eighthgrade. With more than 500 assists,Davis is Berea’s career assist leader. Shealso ranked second in rebounds for theLady Mountaineers. Last season, Davis’sassist-turnover ratio of 3.48-1 was thebest in the country.

“Crystal will not quit,” says Bereacoach Bunky Harkleroad. “When thingsdon’t go well, she always comes backstrong.”

Lady Mountaineers Take Their FirstKIAC TournamentBerea College’s No. 1 Lady Mountaineers tamed and defeatedBethel College’s No. 2 Wildcats 91-85 to win their first everKentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) basketballchampionship game held at Indiana University Southeast.

The two teams traded leads throughout the game and tied onlytwice. Berea’s largest lead came in the second half when they led by24 points. Rebecca May, ’07, led the team with 30 points, 5rebounds, and 5 steals. Also a force to be reckoned with, CrystalDavis, ‘06 scored 18 points.

The Lady Mountaineers represented the KIAC in the NAIADivision II women’s basketball national tournament in Sioux City,Iowa, in March, but lost in a disappointing first round.

The men’s basketball team fell 93-63 to No. 1 IndianaUniversity Southeast in the KIAC championship game. Berea’shighest scorers were Jermaine Martin, ’09, and Tomas Klimas, ’07,with 13 points each.

Britin Ellard, ’09, broke nine school records during herfirst year on the swim team.

Senior guard Crystal Davis, ’06, and junior forward Rebecca May, ’07, led the LadyMountaineers to a KIAC victory.

Lady Mountaineers May and Davis Shatter College Records

Alice Ledford, ‘06


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Ali Duff, ’07

Faculty and Staff Notes150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service

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Six faculty members were awarded fellowships that willinclude academic study of service learning and thedevelopment of community partnerships. Participantsinclude Rodney Clark, theatre; Dwayne Mack, history;Connie Richmond, nursing; Paul Smithson, chemistry/SENS; Stephanie Woodie, physical education andhealth; and Billy Schumann, Appalachian studies.

The faculty will gather throughout the semester todiscuss and plan the courses that they will teach withinthe next year. Since Spring 2004 the fellowships havebeen offered each term by the Center for Excellence inLearning Through Service through a three-year Learnand Serve America consortium grant.

Oh for a Muse of Fire…Theatre buffs, actors, and historians alike now have acomplete record of Berea College’s full-length theatreproductions from Berea’s first Hamlet produced in1892, through the premier summer production ofWilderness Road at the Indian Fort Theatre, to thestudent directed and designed The York Mystery Plays. Full-Length Plays Produced at Berea College 1892-2006 by John Bolin, professor of English andtheatre, was released in February. In addition to itshandsome cast photographs, the book includes a list of thetheatre faculty, artists in residence, directors, designers,playwrights, performance dates, and where the work wasstaged—the Tabernacle, the Jelkyll Drama Center, or elsewhere. For more information or to request a copy,contact [email protected].

Steve GowlerAppointed Director ofGeneral EducationIn February, Deanof FacultyStephanie Brownerannounced thatassociate professorSteve Gowler hadaccepted anappointment as thenew director ofgeneral education.Gowler’s role will ensure the ongoingexcellence and coherence of general education classes at Berea College.

As project director for grants to digitize the Appalachian music and oralhistory collection, he has been instrumentalin furthering liberal education througharchival resources. In addition to hisextensive knowledge of libraries, Gowlerhas teaching and study abroad experiences, and was actively involved inassessing, developing, and adopting thenew general education program.

H is four-year appointment begins inAugust 2006.

Faculty Fellows Begin Service Learning Plans for 2006

Faculty fellows are (left to right) Rodney Clark, DwayneMack, Connie Richmond, Paul Smithson, Stephanie Woodie,and Billy Schumann.


Berea College History


Shannon Wilson signed copies ofBerea College: An IllustratedHistory at the College Bookstore.Autographed copies became partof the sesquicentennial GreatCommitments Relay, and weregiven out to participating communities.

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Teaching and

Since 1971, the short term

semester has provided students

with the opportunity for intensive

month-long study in one topic of

special interest. On and off

campus short term classes allow

for professional growth of

faculty through planning and

teaching new courses, which are

frequently experimental in

content and experiential in

format. A total of 1312 students

enrolled in one of 75 different

courses spanning the disciplines,

including chemistry, dance, and

gymnastics.

You breathe crisp morning airand feel a biting winter chillsoak into your throat. The

frost resonates, and your bones tingle.Your toes are ice cubes. But you stillwait—for an amber horizon; a momentof relief; a moment of warmth.

The sun begins to rise. Pink andpurple mist colors the sky in acanopy of pastels. The sun comes upfurther, brightens your face, warmsyour body through, and you knowfor a brief moment that you haveseen heaven.

Twelve students, along withtheir professors—photographer AlanMills and poet Libby Falk Jones,experienced the opportunity of alifetime–visiting four national parksin Utah through a short term classdesigned to explore nature conservation through photographyand writing. The group traveled toCanyon Lands, Arches, Bryce Canyon,and Zion national parks.

“Because there were so few students, we had a lot of one-on-onetime with professors and each student’s questions were answered,”said Alan Prather, ’07. Throughoutthe 10-day mandatory early wake-ups, Prather, a photography teachingassistant, willingly helped other students with challenges.

“Photography,” he said, “issomething I do to get away.” At 8000feet, atop a mountain overlookingBryce Canyon’s red rock, Prather’shorizons have certainly expanded.Sunrise on one side and a cascade ofslender red rock spires accented bymorning light on the other makesfor a wonderful world to wake up

to. Carved by wind, blanketed bysunlight, basking in oranges, reds,and ambers, waking up in BryceCanyon—the coldest of the fourplaces was worth the morning chill.Regardless of the harsh weather conditions, students shared gratitudefor their chance to travel.

“Traveling off campus reallybroadens a student’s experiencebecause you get the hands-on applications of the class, as well asexperience dealing with groupdynamics,” said Emily Potter, ’08, acommunications major. This wasEmily’s first trip out West. As a nontraditional student, she alreadyhas experienced living and workingin intense, away-from-home environments, but, she loved seeingher peers learn some of life’s morevaluable lessons. She cited everydayevents, such as luggage and transportation issues, tiredness, andcrankiness, bonding, and overcomingobstacles, as some of the challengestrip members faced.

Upon return each student sortedhundreds of photographs, reread andrevised a month’s worth of writing,then chose one photograph and onepage that best represented the Utahexperience. The photos and writingwere displayed in Hutchins Libraryduring February; the exhibit filledlibrary patrons with sighs of awe.And, for students dedicated enoughto get up at 5:30 in the morning andwalk outside in 2 degree weather towrite and photograph nature’s miracle, a better conclusion couldn’tbe possible.

Photos by Beth Bissmeyer, ’09

and Tyler Castells, ’08

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Teaching and Learning Outside the Box

Learning Outside the BoxTen Days in the Heartbeat of Utah

By Robert Fox, ’08

A short term class in photography and writing brought out the beauty of a frozen landscape in Utah.

Celeste Francis,’07


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They ripped up floors, pulled downpaneling and insulation, carriedout trash and sodden furniture,

and treated the remaining floors andwalls for mold. These thirteen Berea students spent their January in Louisianahelping to clean out six hurricane-damaged homes in the town of NewIberia. They described the perspective-changing experience as “amazing.”

As part of her January short termclass, “Rebuilding through Service:Lessons of Hurricane Katrina,” CELTSdirector Meta Mendel-Reyes joinedforces with a grassroots organization,Southern Mutual Help Association.“Like many people, I was affected by thehurricane and wanted to respond,” shesaid. “A short term class was the firstopportunity to involve students in recovery work.” By lending their hands,students learned the differences betweencharity work and the service thataddresses root causes.

Before their trip, the class studiedthe hurricane and subsequent recoveryprocess, including ways to have improveddisaster response. They also explored theconnections between service and citizenship. Mendel-Reyes wanted theclass to give her students firsthandknowledge about the hurricane, as wellas insight into the impact the hurricanehad on the poor and people of color.

Students bonded while repairing thehomes; presumptions and biases wereboth discussed and resolved. “As a class,we got so close,” said Mikala Rollins ’09,a child and family studies major.

By seeing hurricane devastation andspeaking with people inside their flood-damaged homes, the students reassessedmany preconceived notions. They

worked intimately with a diverse population affected by the disaster, ranging from a four-generation family ofCajun fishermen to an elderly AfricanAmerican couple. Rollins said that shewas most affected by the people sheencountered because despite their unfortunate living conditions, “they hadso much hope.”

Sociology major Katrina Burton,‘06, kept a journal about her experiences.In writing about a woman whose homethe students helped repair Burton said,“She transformed from a woman whowas skeptical of a bunch of unskilled col-lege students to the most welcoming andwarm person; the kind that you feel youjust have to talk to.”

The students also spent a day inNew Orleans surveying the hurricanedamage and finding some chilling effects.While some houses stood virtuallyunharmed, a neighboring house might becompletely destroyed. “It was hit andmiss everywhere we went,” said Rollins.

“You see all this on the news andyou become desensitized,” said communications major Zack Kocher, ‘08.After students saw the damage in personand met the families affected by the hurricane, the true tragedy became real.“You wouldn’t believe how much hopethese people have,” he said.

At the end of the term, the classheld a Louisiana-themed presentation inBaird Lounge to show others on campuswhat they had accomplished. News articles, slide shows, and photographspainted a moving portrait of their experiences and gave a taste of Louisianaculture, as well as the continued need forongoing relief efforts.

Students Rebuild Homes and HopesBy Morgan Adams, ‘09

Students spending January in New Orleanson relief efforts to Hurricane Katrina victimsfound many houses irreparable and manypeople still grieving.

Photos by Katrina Burton, ‘06

MEMORABLE FACULTY MOMENTS

FROM THE PAST

Emily Ann SmithIn the fall of 1946 several war veterans led an effort to abolish the smoking banon campus. In an attempt to reach an acceptable compromise, someone suggested that only males be allowed tosmoke in designated areas. Miss EmilyAnn Smith announced that if women werenot included in any change of rules, shewould promptly march down Main Streetsmoking the biggest cigar she could find.No doubt some began to suspect thatmale chauvinism was even more morallyand politically unacceptable.

—Willard E. Arnett, ’47

The years were 1965 and1966. A Kiwanis Clubsign on a tree-lined streetoutside of town read:Welcome to Berea. Drive

Carefully! Many Leading Citizens ofTomorrow Are Playing In The StreetsToday.

The world was changing, and so wasAppalachia. The homecoming queenwore a plaid skirt and an eyelet sweater;the Tab theatre produced some edgyplays—The Man Who Came to Dinner,White Dresses, Krapp’s Last Tape, andthat old class-act, Othello. The studentsmarched in Alabama and on Frankfort.They held mock U.N. assemblies, participated in leadership and peacetrainings, and collected books for elementary students in Pike County andelsewhere.

It was a world in which PresidentLyndon Johnson urged the nation tobecome “The Great Society;” we foughta war on poverty at home and a

disastrous war in Vietnam. Students werepoised at a crossroads in history. As theChimes yearbook put it: “We tried tolearn the knowledge of the ages in fifty-five minutes and two cherry cokes.”

As alumni return to campus thissummer for their 40th class reunion, nodoubt they will recall the luminaries onfaculty who helped to shape their lives—Gordon Ross (philosophy and religion),Emily Ann Smith (English), ThomasBeebe (chemistry), Perly Ayer (sociology),‘Occie’ Gunkler (physical education),John White (psychology), CharlotteLudlum (ancient languages), and RolfHovey (music)—and of course, those faculty interviewed here—DorothyTredennick (art) and Bob Menefee (economics).

In 1966, the Chimes yearbookannounced that “1,647 students camewith stuffed teddy bears, letter jacketsand hope… from Appalachia, from theworld, to be one blood.”

Faculty:A Commitment toAppalachia and Beyond

By Normandi Ellis

BEREA COLLEGE

Emily Ann Smith

Berea College Faculty

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Perley Ayer – Inspiring a GenerationBy George Giffin, ‘66

William Gordon RossOne time a large tree behind the librarycame down. I was given a six-foot crosscutsaw and assigned to cut the tree into blocks.. . . Dr. Gordon Ross came along and offeredto help. On the first return stroke, I knew herewas an experienced hand. I suspect some of Dr.Ross’ philosophy and good attitude comesfrom growing up with honest labor.

—Garnie Anderson, ’42

Dean Albert WeidlerHe favored cooperatives and would sometimeschallenge College speakers if they said something that was very anti-socialist, or ifthey espoused views foreign to his thinking.Dr. Weidler was pro-student.

—Joe L. Morgan, ‘54

Mary ElaWe learned to see the beauty around us: tincans, tree trunks, the big plant in the frontroom that grew from the inside out. Welearned: 1) Art is a way of life; it is not justwhat you do but how you do it that counts;2) People don’t stay the same; if you knewsomeone last year, you don’t necessarilyknow that same person today; 3) Art andconservation have much in common: thewise use of natural resources.

—Margaret Hill Cruz, ’42

Rolf Hovey Dr. Rolf Hovey taught us songs I had neverheard before, but he laid the basis for myappreciation of music that has served me ingood stead down through the years…. Musicwas his magnificent obsession.

—Oscar Davidson, ’47

Perley AyerI can still see Perley Ayer with his curly whitehair, flying, smiling, discussing Appalachiawith a friend over on the street.

—Mary Kelley, ’51

Mary Ela


Dorothy Tredennick – Teaching by ExampleBy Libby Falk Jones


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Libby Jones

When I attended BereaCollege in the infamoussixties, I had the goodfortune of taking acommunity development

course under the genius inspiration ofPerley Ayer. Although Perley was widelyknown as a leading authority on communitydevelopment, I was personally impressedeven more so with his capacity for kindness and his mastery of weavinggroup dialog on a host of issues. Thus, in discussing the development of communities with him, you got to literally experience how it works best.

In the field of therapy, we areadmonished to honor each person’s feelings. Whenever I was in class withhim, I was profoundly inspired by howhe honored not only students’ feelings,but their thoughts and their points of viewas well. He was naturally determined togather in the real views of others, andoften asked students to validate or challenge his own views. One always found

deep community and deep democracy inany gathering with Perley Ayer.

It did not befit Perley to lecture andto view students as just listeners. Healways assured a sense of sharing thatenabled students to know that their contribution to the dialog was vital.

Perley was keen to inspire sharing,and his own views were not cast instone. Even the academic grading processwas for the student to decide. Ultimately,as Perley would explain, what mattersmost is your own deep sense of what it isthat you know and what it is that you donot yet grasp. This dynamic and preciousteacher exemplified the best qualities onecould ever hope to bring, not only tocommunity development, but to anyfield of study or to any workplace.

Time spent with Perley Ayer alwaysleft me realizing that this man knew howto recognize the divine in each and everyperson. By exemplifying this trait, hisinspiration was boundless.

A founder of the Council of SouthernMountains, Perley Ayer of Berea College wasinstrumental in developing social programs inAppalachia.

Every dawn brings a newpromise, proclaims a card inthe home of DorothyTredennick, ’46. She says she lives by it.

At age 91, the former MorrisBelknap Professor of Fine Arts continues to work and teach as an artistin the community, just as she has donesince coming to Berea College as a non-traditional student in 1943. Extendingher art school background and her 10years of museum work, DorothyTredennick majored in history andEnglish. As a student worker, she developed a cataloguing system for theCollege art collection. In 1951 sheearned a master’s degree in art history at University of Michigan.

Joining the Berea faculty in 1946,Tredennick taught art history andhumanities to generations of Berea students. Strong women faculty like JuliaAllen (history), Mary Ela (art), HelenDingman (sociology), and Emily AnnSmith (English) influenced her teaching.She found these women creative, dynamic,

and caring. “They spoke up, and theyalso worked behind the scenes,” she recalls.

As a new faculty member, Tredennickmanaged the art building, several laborstudents, and the artcollection – as wellas teaching three courses each term. Twoyears later, she helped develop the interdisciplinary humanities course whichshe taught for 22 years. In teaching art,she says she aimed to stimulate students’awareness of the world and the way artreflects the culture. “Images pack a wallop,” she notes. “Art matters in ourlives.” To experience her subject firsthand,she traveled frequently to Europe andAsia and led a student group to Greeceduring a January term. She hoped also to“teach by example – who I am and whatI think and believe.”

Numerous students testify to herinfluence as a teacher. One is GeorgeLester, ’54, award-winning scientist whoreceived the 2005 Distinguished AlumnusAward. “I find it hard to say just howmuch I owe Miss Tredennick for plantingthe art enjoyment seed that has flourishedand become a very important part of my

Dorothy Tredennick, ’46, a tireless student advocate and mentor, received a Seabury Awardfor excellence in teaching in 1962, a Fulbrightaward in 1963, and was named 1987 Phi KappaPhi Professor of the Year.

One always founddeep communityand deep democ-racy in any gath-ering with Perley

In teaching art,she aimed tostimulate stu-dents’ aware-ness of theworld and theway art reflects

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Retired economics professorBob Menefee, ’40, and hiswife Liz, ’92, know thesecret to staying young.They go parking; that is,

they park their 13-year-old Buick ParkAvenue (named ‘Parkie’) in the lot nearDraper so that, despite rain or snow,they can roll down the windows slightlyand listen to the carillon.

Indirectly, music brought Menefeeto Berea when he was a high school

senior. That spring, he and his mothertraveled with their Methodist ministerfrom Ashland, Kentucky, to visit his son,Karl Vogle, at the College. “I wasimpressed with his son,” Menefee confides. Although radios were prohibitedin the dormitory then, “he had engineereda radio in his dresser drawer, and whenever the door opened, the radioturned itself off.”

He also met Ralph Rigby, directorof music, who was pleased to learn that

Robert Menefee – Living Life Fully EngagedBy Normandi Ellis

Julia F. AllenDean Allen took her social responsibilitiesseriously. I remember how she gathered together a few women to welcome the firstblack female student to Berea after the DayLaw was overturned.

—Mary Kelley, ’51

Helen Dingman(Miss Dingman) gave us an assignment tovisit a local family whose children wereabsent from school. I walked to my family’shome on a cold and rainy day. The yard wasbare of grass—the house on posts and sever-al dogs came out from under the house togreet me. I knocked and was asked in, andshock began as I quietly took in the roomswhere these three children lived. A chickenwas standing on the table where the familyate, the beds had no bed clothes, and themother explained that her children had noshoes for the winter weather and could notcome to school. I talked with her and toldher I would take the information to theschool officials who could get some assis-tance for the family. This one visit was wortha semester of sitting in class with a textbook.

—Juanita Coldiron, ’47

E. J. WeekesProfessor Weekes was probably the personwho more than any other influenced thedirection of my life. He combined encouragement with candid admiration forwhat he regarded as achievements and documented his advice or observations withlong quotes from Shakespeare, Shelley,Keats, or Emerson. (After graduation) I wasnever out of contact with him for more thana few weeks at a time. His letters were testaments to the fundamental importanceof literature as well as affirmations of friendship.

—Willard E. Arnett, ’47

Elizabeth Sinclair PeckDr. Peck had a kind nature about her thatendeared her to me and other students aswell. Even today I can hear her say, “Whatcan I do for you?”

—Joe L. Morgan ’54

being,” Lester notes. Dorothy Tredennickreceived the 1962 Seabury Award forExcellence, the highest award for teaching faculty.

She taught outside the classroom aswell. For 15 years she served as residencehall director in Putnam and Hunting Halls.“I wouldn’t give a million dollars for myexperience in the dorms,” she notes. “Ideveloped close bonds with student residents, many of whom still keep intouch.”

A civil rights and peace activist,Tredennick participated in Berea’sFellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the oldest international interfaith peaceorganization. She supported the students who traveled to Montgomery,Alabama, for the 1965 civil rights march, contributing to help hire the busand also working to convince theCollege to provide food for the trip. “I knew there would be no placebetween Berea and Montgomery where

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(Tredennick continued)

Menefee played the bassoon. “His bassoonist had dropped out that spring. Iwas still in high school, but my folks letme have the family car to come to Bereato play in the spring concert.

“I think that bassoon saved me in1936.”

Although he grew up in Ashland,Menefee was born in Dunleary, aKentucky coal town in the far corners of Pike County. He tried to go back toshow it to Liz, he says, “but it’s been lost in the kudzu.” He describes his background as a good strong, Christianfamily, who were a bit limited in their horizons.

“Berea College transformed me,” hesays. He suddenly encountered literature,theology, history, Biblical studies, and

socialist thought. “My thoughts explodedand I sailed off.”

H is first Bible studies teacher, WalterSikes, “really shook me up. He taughtme how to ask questions—I’m still askingquestions. Because of him, I spent allnight bull sessions with my roommates.Today we’d call what he did ‘an extrememakeover.’” On campus Menefee foundstrong pro-labor sentiments, facultymembers running for state legislature,and, in the 1930s, a rising pacifist sentiment “because we’d just beenthrough World War I.”

Walter Muelder taught philosophy,often assigning lengthy articles to read inthe library that delved into national politics and sociology, and early churchhistory. “He rode me hardest,” Menefee

recalls. “I adopted about nine differentschools of philosophy that semester.”Muelder later became dean of the BostonUniversity School of Theology and mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Although he started to major in history and political science, Menefee’sencounters with economics professor,Albert Weidler, “just blew my mind.”Suddenly Menefee acquired enough economics credits for a major. He callsDean of Labor Albert Weidler “a firecracker. He was a socialist, a pacifist,a feminist, but he just astonished me inhis oppositions. Personally conservative,he was a radical thinker—the most contradictory man I ever knew.”

Dean Weidler and his wife lived inand directed Pearsons Hall, a dormitory

blacks and whites could eat together,”she says.

A founding member of the BereaTask Force for Peace and Justice and ofBerea Friends’ Meeting, Tredennick lobbied legislators to establish MartinLuther King Day in Kentucky, and shecontinues to advocate for safe nerve gasdisposal at the Bluegrass Army Depotnear Berea. “You hope your presence andaction will eventually have some effect,”she notes.

Since 1987, Tredennick has spent herretirement years leading twice-monthlyart classes at the health care center for adecade, teaching 13 Elderhostels, andleading workshops for the Berea ArtsCouncil. She also has rekindled her loveof watercolor and brush painting, enjoying the fluid quality of the mediums,as well as their challenges.

Her art is a form of meditation, shesays. “My art reflects my key life values:balance, simplicity, and living in themoment.”

Robert Menefee, ’40, and his wife Liz Dizney Menefee, ’92, met at Union Church. They share interestsin Appalachia and working for social change.

Alice Ledford, ‘06

“Berea College transformed me.. . My thoughtsexploded and I


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with 135 men and two showers.Menefee remembers that bookcases ranalong every wall of every room in thedean’s living quarters, from the floor tothe nine-foot ceiling. Mrs. Weidler madehis oatmeal in a percolator every morning.

Weidler’s teaching methods ranahead of his time. H is students read anextensive bibliography of five subjectareas, then each class period four classmates presented reports that werethen opened to discussion. While regularclasses met six times a week, DeanWeidler had other responsibilities, so heran his class an extra 10 minutes eachweekday, beginning at 7:20 a.m. H is

economics classes reflected the thinkingof a liberal socialist who was interestedin consumer cooperatives.

When Menefee returned to Berea toteach economics in 1946, after receivinghis MBA at Tulane University, Weidlerwas department chair and became hismentor. Menefee quotes Weidler as saying, “I never worried too much aboutmaking any of my students too radical.As soon as they got out of school, Iknew, they’d get it knocked out ofthem.” Menefee also followed Weidler’sfootsteps right into Pearsons Hall, wherehe found stored in the basement, keyrings with multitudes of keys, 7 cracked

Katherine TrueOne day, Anna Marie Smith and I were walking across the campus. A squirrel suddenly turned and ran up Anna Marie’sleg and under her dress. I was busily trying to extricate it when Dean True camealong. As you may remember, it was againstthe rules to ‘catch’ or play with a squirrel.Dean True reminded us of this in no uncertain manner. We tried to convince herwith our version of what had happened, butshe refused to accept the story and orderedme to place the squirrel on a nearby tree. Idid exactly that, but the squirrel had a mindof its own. It immediately turned and ran upDean True’s dress.

—Pearl Phillpott Rundo, ‘42

Charles Schutt, Dr. John Armstrong, and George Dick

Partially deaf when I entered Berea, I almostwas not allowed back for a sophomore yearbecause my grades were so low. Thanks toDean Schutt, Dr. Armstrong, and Mr. GeorgeDick, who knew of my handicap, I wasreferred to the New York League for theHard of Hearing in New York City where Dr.Armstrong had contacts and I was interviewed there to ascertain my suitabilityfor an aide. . . I never made another D in college.

—Patricia Williams-Allen Morgan, ‘47

Thomas BeebeDr. Beebe was more than a chemistryprofessor or dormitory director. He was thetour director/photographer of the “SummerWestern Camping Excursions.” He invitedstudents to participate in a month-long,western states adventure while he designedthe itinerary, provided all the equipment,and transportation—all for a nominal individual fee of $50 or less per student.

—Mary Singleton, ‘71

From the unique perspective of former student and current faculty member, Margaret Dodson, Cx ’66,often sees a reflection of her life in her nontraditional students.


Thomas Beebe

Margaret Curd Dotson, Cx ‘66 – Returning to the Source

By Normandi Ellis

“My own experiences as a wife,mother, and student have made memore understanding. . . As a par-ent, one can’t just do college


(Menefee continued)

M argaret Dotson, Cx ’66, attended Bereaduring the crossovergeneration of the1960s. Although she

married her college sweetheart, R. AdrianDotson, ’65, in Danforth Chapel in1964, Margaret never actually graduatedfrom Berea. Still, she describes her experiences at the College as pivotal.

In particular she remembers the performance of Handel’s Messiah atUnion Church in which PresidentHutchins’ wife, Dr. Louise Hutchins, satdown beside her. “I had never heardHandel’s Messiah before and I was totally enthralled.” During the ‘Hallelujahchorus’ Dr. Hutchins suddenly stood,then leaned over to whisper that it wastradition to stand during the Hallelujahchorus. “I stood up and she smiled.Every time I hear the ‘Hallelujah chorus’I remember that performance at UnionChurch and Dr. Hutchins.”

Convocations and humanities classesin art and music opened a whole differentworld to her, “windows I might not havelooked through otherwise.” Had shestayed in her own neighborhood in WestVirginia she says, “I would never havehad the exposure to the arts or gone outof my way in adulthood to continue tofind these experiences.”

During the three years she lived oncampus, Dotson didn’t think of herself asbeing on the cutting edge of history. Sheadmits that women’s interests in science

and math, were not actively cultivated.“You had to be assertive and take theflak, which wasn’t easy for an eighteen-year old,” she admits. Instead she majoredin history.

She recalls Frank Wray, who taughtthe history of the Reformation, as one ofher most influential teachers. Wray wasinfamous for his tough testing, especiallyon multiple choice problems whereinwrong answers earned you negativenumbers. “In retrospect what he meantwas that we should know it. A guess wasnot good enough. You can’t go throughlife just guessing,” Dotson says. Shedescribes Wray as quiet, yet passionateabout his subject. “He made you think,to be always on a quest for understanding,digging deeper and deeper so that yourunderstanding increased.”

After moving to Ohio with her husband, Dotson began working in thelibrary of a Dayton elementary school.She had two daughters, managing to finishher bachelor’s degree at Wright StateUniversity in 1968. After the birth of hersecond daughter, she completed her master’sdegree in 1971. While her daughters wereyoung, she stayed home with them. “Itwas an investment in them, and I grew upin between the feminist movement andthe mothers who stayed home with theirchildren.” After her children began toattend school, she went back to college fora master’s in education at the Universityof Dayton. Then she taught for manyyears (math, English, and reading).

When her husband retired, and afterher own daughters had graduated fromMIT majoring in the sciences, Dotsonreturned to the other side of the classroom.She finished her doctorate at Ohio StateUniversity in 2000—all because of BereaCollege. “I came to Berea in love withlearning, and when I left I was evenmore in love with learning.” One couldsay Margaret Dotson is passionate abouteducation and Berea.

In 2002 she saw an advertisementfor a job in the College educationdepartment and thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to go back?” To her delight, shewas hired.

Teaching at Berea as a newly credentialed faculty member, Dotsonfinds herself remembering what it waslike to learn a college culture for the first time and what it means for her nontraditional students to juggle collegelearning and parenting. “My own experiences as a wife, mother, and student have made me more understandingin helping them stay organized andfocused on their goals. As a parent, onecan’t just do college assignments on thespur of the moment.”

Dotson finds that returning to BereaCollege has felt like a homecoming. “Inmany ways teaching here has allowed meto repay Berea, in a very small way, forall the opportunities I have had becausethe College accepted me as a student.”

toilet seats, and 14 ruined percolators.“He never threw anything away!”

Menefee remembers the graciousnessof the mature students he taught at thattime, many of whom were his age, yetcalled him ‘Mr. Menefee.’ Most hadreturned from the war feeling they hadno time to waste. “I found myself working seven days a week trying to stayahead of my students,” he says. “It wasfearsome. I had to sit down to teach, myknees were shaking so bad.” After teaching a while, Menefee asked the academic dean if he could take a semester off to finish his PhD dissertation.When he told Dean Lewis Smith what he

wanted to do, the dean thought a minute,and said, “You’d better take a whole year.”

Although Menefee retired in 1986,after 40 years of teaching, there is littlethat is retired about him. He workedwith President John Stephenson to conducta ‘listening project’ that surveyed Collegeinterest in and development of itsAppalachian commitments. He conducteda year-long study of high school students’readiness for and interest in post-secondaryeducation. As a member of the KentuckyEnvironmental Foundation, he hasopposed unsafe disposal of chemicalweapons and worked with Kentuckiansfor the Commonwealth on issues

affecting Appalachia. Local hosts forElderhostel, he and Liz bring a richawareness of Appalachian culture, history,and literature.

The former bassoonist (and drummerof the Berea College Glen Miller-styledance band during his senior year)Menefee still makes music, performing inthe Union Church bell choir. One oftensees the Menefees at Berea’s many convocations, concerts, and communityjams. When they arrive, they light up aroom; and surrounding them you findlaughter, intelligent conversation, abidingfriendship—and music.


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H owI Got Here and

WHYInterviews with Remarkable Men and Women

“All this would not be possible,” says Gyudé Moore, ’06, “ifBerea hadn’t given me the opportunity.”

William Gyudé Moore, ‘06

When William Gyudé Moore speaks to you, he holds his gazesteady. He speaks intently, directly, leaning into the conversation.He looks squarely into your eyes, saying in the soft lull of hisAfrican voice that his goal is someday to be a civil servant atthe United Nations, and one day perhaps to be its SecretaryGeneral. And you believe him.

Outside the air is golden with October leaves. Inside the darkened café where we met, the light around Gyudé (pronounced Joo-day) seems golden, too. H is voice in passionate conversation about the ravages of war cuts throughthe kitchen clatter and the buzz of other diners chatting onthis campus. He takes a sip of water, using the time to gatherhis thoughts.

Gyudé has stopped by my table in the midst of one of hisbusiest days on campus, a day before the opening of theSoutheast Global Leadership Conference which he instigated,and has organized and planned throughout the past year. Hehad just excused himself from the table of keynote speakerDavid Beckmann (president of Bread for the World) and others to come to my table so that he could be interviewed.

Within moments of his arrival, we are deeply engaged in aconversation that he seems to have brought with him from theprevious table; yet I have a feeling it is a conversation he has

carried with him from western Africa and has already hadwith many people. He speaks of the global issues facing all

citizens of the world. He urges us to become aware ofthe devastation of AIDS in Africa and elsewhere, ofhomelessness, poverty, and social injustice, of fair trade,of environmental degradation. He urges us to do

By Normandi Ellis


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How I Got Here and Why150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service

something—one concrete thing to makea change.

The phrases of such political anddeeply spiritual thinkers as Robert F.Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., orGandhi roll easily from his tongue.

“Few will have the greatness to bendhistory itself; but each of us can work tochange a small portion of events,” he says,quoting Kennedy—and you believe him.

“If there is no justice, there is nopeace,” he says, quoting King.

Any voracious reader might havecited these words from the Internet, butfew know them by heart, and whenGyudé Moore says them, you believethem because they stir you to the core–and because he has been there.

Since 1994, he and his family fledthe war-torn country of Liberia, andlived as refugees in the Ivory Coast,moving from Cape Palmas to Monrovia,each day hoping for rest and asylum. TheMoore family stayed at times only a dayahead of the marauding army thatburned his father’s home, pillaged his village, and massacred his neighbors.When he was eight years old, a child soldier about his age stuck an AK-47 intoGyudé’s stomach and asked permissionof an officer to kill him. Gyudé remembersthat gut-wrenching moment with tears inhis eyes. Somehow Gyudé and his familysurvived that day. He remembers thecontemptuous child tossing a sneer overhis shoulder as he said, “God blessedyou,” and left.

When Gyudé Moore says, “I wantto spend my life creating a world where

children don’t have to experience what Iexperienced,” you believe him.

He remembers standing in a foodline behind a U.N. truck, watching sacksof grain being unloaded. “Just a little riceor beans that I could carry back to myfamily,” he recalls. “Just enough to survive. It was my first interaction withthe United Nations.” He remembersthinking to himself, “That is where Ineed to be – the U.N. If I am ever goingto change things, it will be there. Notjust to provide beans for people, but tocreate a condition under which peoplewould not need to stand in line for beansto survive.”

Gyudé smiles and folds his hands onthe table in front of him as if he wereabout to pray. The young man who firstwanted to become a journalist, then studied to become a Baptist preacher, hasnow turned his attention to studyingpolitical science and economics at BereaCollege. He remembers thinking that atuition-provided education in Americasounded almost too good to be true.Knowing he had to do something, heapplied to the College anyway.

“I just wanted to be in a place whereI could improve people’s lives.”

He has done that already, receivingthe Seabury Award for outstanding scholarship and leadership on campus.Gyudé graduates May 2006.

As I listen to Gyudé, I discover thathis intentions are personal, but havealways been intended for the elevation ofhumankind. He longs for partners in thequest for peace, justice, and equity; as

the words of his poem Alone-No LongerAlone suggest, he longs to be but “a dropin an ocean of heroes.”

Few students on this campus do notknow Gyudé Moore. He has establisheda student trade justice organization, beenactive in the ONE campaign against AIDSand poverty, and served as a teachingassistant in poverty related courses withDr. Michelle Tooley, the Eli Lilly Chair ofReligion. Gyudé is president of the BereaCollege group of Humanity in Action, an international human rights group. Hespeaks at collegium meetings with residential advisors; professors invite himto speak in their classes; he creates conferences to raise community and individual awareness. He writes editorialsin the student newspaper, The Pinnacle.H is life on this campus is an increasinglegacy of commitment and action.

Berea’s first international BonnerScholar, Gyudé began mentoring teensthrough the Students for Appalachia, agroup supervised by Betty H ibler, associate director of CELTS (Center forExcellence in Learning Through Service).With Betty H ibler as ‘door-opener,’Gydué began a second amazing journey,starting with the 2003 COOL (CampusOutreach Opportunity League) conferencein Cleveland, Ohio. There he heardabout OxFam America, a human rightsorganization that provides humanitarianaid. On the heels of that event, he became1 of 50 students chosen to be trained asan OxFam Change leader and invited tospeak about trade-related issues on thenation’s campuses. Through his OxFam

1901

Archibald Fields, JacksonBrowning, GreensburyMcIntosh, and ArthurFlanery each walked over100 miles to Berea toenroll. (See back cover)

1878

In the fall, 15-year-old JamesBond, born in Lawrenceburg,Kentucky to a slave, enrolls atBerea College, bringing withhim a young steer given to himby his mother to help pay forhis educational expenses. At thetime he graduated in 1892,Bond was one of only about2,000 African Americans in theUS to hold a college degree.

James Bond

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MoreRemarkableArrivals in

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How I Got Here and Why

1925

Berea’s Opportunity Schoolbegins and continues to1950. The school was formen and women who were“dissatisfied with the dullnessof their lives, for plain youngpeople who were not illiterate nonthinkers, butwho vaguely craved stimulation and guidance tonew interests….”

family he gained the backing necessaryto bring Beckmann to keynote theSoutheast Global Leadership conferenceheld at Berea College in October, 2005.

Bringing awareness to others hasbecome his life’s mission. “If peopleknow what to do, they’ll go and do it,”Gyudé says. “But often they don’tknow.” He has lobbied in Washington,D.C. and trains students in ways to maketheir voices heard at state and nationallevels. In 2005 he was the COOLconference student keynote speaker atthe University of California-Berkley.Through his conference work he tries tomake fellow students feel that “here issomething hands-on that we will be ableto do to bring about change.”

He has attended forums in Minnesotasponsored by five Lutheran colleges in the Midwest and the Nobel Foundation

in Norway. In 2004 he was invited tospeak at the Global Leadership Awardsforum at the United Nations. He wasinvited to return to speak in 2005, butwas unable to accept the honor. Heshakes his head ruefully. “I’d just finisheda two-week OxFam training as leadfacilitator in Boston, and I was too tiredto go back again.”

He falls silent and I notice my penhas stopped scribbling. I have forgottento take notes because I have been soengrossed in Gyudé’s eloquence. H isenigmatic smile reminds me of the polished faces of ancient Egyptian royalty.I can imagine him dining with heads ofstate and presidents. He picks up a biteof food and holds it suspended on theend of his fork.

“The way I see myself,” he says, thenpauses looking at the carrot cake hangingbefore his eyes. He lays the fork down—I pick up my pen—and he continues. “Ihave been poor—really, really poor. Iknow lack. Here (in America) when I sayI’m hungry, I haven’t eaten for a while, I can go to Food Service, or cook something for myself. But at home, people are hungry because of a lack ofchoice. You’re hungry because you don’thave any food or any way to get it.”

He returns to his meal, which hasbecome for me a lesson in povertyawareness that far exceeds my middleclass American mother saying to herchild, ‘Eat your supper, children arestarving in Africa.’

“I thank God for this cake, and forthe opportunity to be where I am,”Gyudé says, finishing his dessert. Hecontinues, “When you hear of Liberia,you hear that 1 in 3 persons in Africa ismalnourished. For you that is a statistic;for me, that’s family. It’s people I know.The difference between them and me isI am here, but I am their representative.”He points to himself, tapping the heartbeneath the white shirt. “This is whatthey look like—people with similardreams and hopes that everybody has.”

I ask Gyudé if he has always beenso clear about his life path. He smilesand shakes his head. “At first it didn’tseem like a pattern, but looking back onthe last 4 years, it feels like everythingwas headed in this direction.”

The one living person who mostinfluenced him, he says, is Betty H ibler,his labor supervisor, because “she let myinterests spread out, and she has createda space for me to grow. I might havegotten the classes somewhere else, but Idon’t think I would have met someonewho was so generous in her time andspirit. Some evenings I just go and sitand talk with her.”

For her part, H ibler says the pivotalmoment she recalls about Gyudé waswhen he first publicly disclosed his goalto be Secretary General of the UnitedNations. “Over time,” she says, “I’vecome to believe that—if he doesn’tchange his mind—he will do just that.”Gyudé Moore and professor Michelle Tooley

co-present a lecture on peace and global economics in the Fireside Room last fall.


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Beth Bissmeyer, ’09

1912

In his application essay a young man wrote:“When I first heard of Berea, it was to meas a dream that was about to come true ora long wishful prayer that was about to beanswered, for I had long hoped that therewas some place where a young man couldget an education regardless of his financialsituation. . . .”

1902

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How I Got Here and Why

Michael Hiltebrand, ‘08Tall, lean, with a hungry gaze, MichaelHiltebrand, ’08, knows what he wantsand what he doesn’t want. At age 24,he’s not your average incoming collegestudent; but maybe he never was, althoughhe doesn’t see himself as that unusual.“The thing I’ve learned from my classesis that everyone has a distinctive Bereastory,” he says. “I’m not sure mine is thatdifferent.”

Admitting that perhaps he had gotten in with the wrong crowd when hewas younger, Michael dropped out ofhigh school as a freshman. Despondent,he spent his time pulling his life backtogether and reading. He read everythinghe could find in the humanities. Fiveyears ago he got his GED and decided to

attend a community college; but that college wasn’t challenging enough forsomeone who had read philosophers likeNietzsche, Russian writers like Dostoevsky,and American luminaries Fitzgerald andSalinger. He craved a classical liberal artscourse of study that might include thehumanities—world literature, philosophy,and languages.

This student is passionate aboutlearning.

“My first smell of freedom was theold dusty library, the musty smell ofbooks,” he recalls. “The summer I wasfive years old, I insisted that my motherlet me walk down to the Maysville libraryby myself.”

Apparently, she refused to let himgo, saying he was too young.

“My papaw said to her, ‘You let himwalk to the library,’ so she did.”

Michael’s grandfather understoodthe importance of getting a good education.He knew because he was illiterate. “Papawis the most important person in my life,”Michael says. The determination to go tocollege, succeed in life, and go for what hewants, Michael says emphatically, “He putthat in me.”

In that same Maysville library Michaeland his mother were part of a summerreading program. “Mom was lookingthrough the picture books trying to findsomething for me to read,” he says. Oneparticular display book on a shelf caughther eye. She took it down.

“‘Here you go,” she said. “Readthis.’” Michael recalls.

H is reply was, “’Okay, I will.’”

It took the first grader about amonth and a half to read Charlotte’sWeb. “That’s where my educational questbegins,” he says. “I was seven years old.”

That vision led him to Berea College,a place he learned about while workingin the library of the community college.He immediately applied, and was put ona waiting list to see whether his creditswould transfer and they could accept them.“I didn’t care if I had to start all over,”he says. “I knew where I wanted to go. Ihadn’t applied anywhere else, or devisedany alternate plans. I didn’t want to breakthe spell. Coming to Berea,” he says,“was a leap of faith.”

That faith was rewarded whenMichael took a creative nonfiction writingclass with Dr. Richard Sears, a class thatforced him to write, even though he realized “I didn’t want to write aboutmyself, but I kept writing.” Dr. Sears, henotes, is the kind of professor who expectswhat you can give. “He knows at thebeginning of the year what you can give.You may not know, but he does.”

The other class that sent him intothe intense literary delight that only bibliophiles possess was a children’s literature class that Michael took duringshort term with Dr. Kathryn Akural,chair of the education department. Heremembers that the first day of class sheasked the students to get down on thefloor. “And she read to us,” Michael says,laughing. “I was in heaven.”

The next day he raised his hand,asking her to read to them again.

She did.

After an interrupted high school, MichaelHilterbrand, ’08, got his GED, read voraciously,and returned to work on a post-secondary degree.

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1942

Like many other students, Aline Goodwin Douglas recalls howshe arrived in Berea from Virginia on a train.

1943

During World War II,Berea hosts 782 Navy-V12students. The Navy V-12program was designed togive officer candidates preliminary training during World War II.

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How I Got Here and WhyBEREACOLLEGEMAGAZINE:S

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Aisulu Masylkanova, ‘06When Aisulu Masylkanova was only six years old, Kyrgyzstan, her mountainouscentral Asian country, gained independencefrom the Soviet Union. One of six sisters,she studied ecology and women’s rightsat thesummer camps run by Peace Corps volunteers—some of whom stayed in herhome. So it seems fitting that the middlechild of a working mother expressed anearly desire to become a peace activist.

After completing her senior year at aNorth Carolina high school in 2001 during a foreign exchange program,Aisulu applied to Berea College, expressing her interest in human rightsand international relations. She wasaccepted, and will graduate with a political science and economics degree in 2006.

It did not take Aisulu long to beginexploring international studies. Herfreshman year roommate, TshewangDorji from Bhutan, sparked her interestin Buddhism; her many exchange student friends shared with her theirJapanese culture and art. Soon after, shejoined Humanity in Action (HIA), an organization that builds global leadershipand improves human rights by giving students an opportunity to interact withhuman rights leaders.

Now, Aisulu, who comes from aMuslim family, is the president of theBuddhist Student Association, helping to plan events for the international community. The conundrum of being aMuslim, attending a Christian school,and studying Buddhism didn’t seem thatunusual for this young woman who oneday hopes to help her developing country with interethnic relations, economic development, and politicalfreedoms.

“There is a Russian proverb that says, ‘Silence is a sign of agreement,’”she says. “Before I joined HIA, I was a quiet protester, comfortable in my position.” She credits HIA with broadening her horizons. “I’ve become

better at involving myself in discussions—whether it is passionately debating anissue or listening to others. I’ve come to realize that I must stand for what Ibelieve and take an active role in promoting human rights.”

At Berea her studies have taken herto Denmark, Holland, and Germany,where she learned about the Holocaustand minority and human rights. Shenoted the connections between the genocide that occurred in Europe andthe genocide that is happening inRwanda. In The Hague, she studied international criminal court trials. InGermany she talked with Turkish immigrants. While in Prague attendingthe American Institute on Political andEconomic Systems through GeorgetownUniversity, she met the former presidentof Latvia and the current president ofLithuania.

It’s a small world, she notes, and wehave to learn to work together.

After earning her degree, Aisuluplans to go home to Kyrgyzstan, work in developing free market competition,and contribute to the improvement ofwomen’s role in society. The main issueshe sees facing women in her country isdomestic violence. Despite the access toeducation and jobs, Aisulu says, she stillsees many women who remain the objectof domestic violence. “They think thatit’s okay, that that is the way it’s supposed to be. They don’t have to go back,” she insists. “They can bestrong and independent.”

Aisulu Masylkanova, ’06, and Palden Kyab, ’06,attended a fundraiser for the Buddhist StudentAssociation this spring.

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1947

Lacy E. Cochran recalls thathe “arrived at Berea earlyone September morningwith about fifty-one dollarsto begin my college classes.. . I am still amazed that Ifound the nerve to goalmost 500 miles fromhome.”

1956

While on a car ride withhis mother, Jack Lewis wasfaced with his motheryelling at him “Young man,next year you’re going tothe Kentucky MilitaryInstitute or Berea.” Hechose to apply to Bereaand it was his “educationalsalvation.”

How I Got Here and Why150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service

John Berry, ‘62 I still remember that September day in1958 when I was sixteen years old sittingon the front porch in a chain link swing.After I had graduated high school, Ithought to myself, there is a whole worldbeyond Williamsburg, Kentucky. Some ofmy white friends had gone to CumberlandCollege, but I thought college was notfor me, even though college was alwaysmy dream.

That day my superintendent, JackMiller, drove by my house, passed me by,then backed up, and said, “John, whatare you doing?”

I said, “I’m sitting here on this porch.”“Where do you want to go to

college?” he asked.At first, I said I had no idea. He

could have said, “John, good luck,” and

gone on his way. I wouldn’t have thoughtany worse of him. I had no money, hadmade no preparations, and had noexpectations. When he asked me thatquestion my only point of reference wasa family acquaintance who had attendedthis school called Berea where you didn’tneed a lot of money. It came to mind.

So I said, “Berea.”Mr. Miller said, “Get in the car.” And I did. H is action that day

changed my life forever. It was a miracle. He drove me to his office at the

high school and he called Berea College.Hanging up the phone, he said, “Theywant you up there.”

I was scared to death. How am Igoing to go up there? I thought. Whatdoes that mean? Back home my Dadagreed to take me and within three dayswe were driving up US 25 some 65 milesto Berea.

School was already in session when Iarrived at the admissions office, but theysaid, “We’ve been expecting you.” With myhigh school transcript and all of my possessions in a ‘matchbox,’ I was given atentative class schedule. I took my entranceexams between classes. I must have made itbecause they didn’t kick me out.

Thanks to the grace of God and DeanOrwig I didn’t have many out-of-pocketexpenses. Every semester I’d go to DeanOrwig, the dean of men, and say I didn’thave money; and he would say, “Noproblem.” To defray those expenses I didincur I worked on campus during thesummer when the pay was considerablybetter.

During my senior year I learned thatmany corporations interviewed Bereastudents on campus for possible positions.They apparently liked the scholarshipand work ethic of Berea students. Myeconomics and business professorsadvised me about which companiesmight grant me an interview—not allwould, and some that did said theywouldn’t consider me for a managementtraining program.

The right job found me nonethelessthe day Charlie Honeycutt (’51) of UnionCarbide came to campus. It almostseemed predestined—similar to the way Ihad come to Berea. I still feel that wayabout it. I returned to my room in DanaHall to find notes posted all over mydoor, saying Call Charlie Honeycutt. Idid. Charlie said, “I’ll be right over.”

I worked for Union Carbide from1962-69. In 1969 I joined Ford MotorCompany in southern Ohio, ultimatelytransferring to Michigan. I stayed withFord for 30 years until I retired.

Thinking back on this, I still appreciatethe kindnesses of Mr. Miller, DeanOrwig, my professors, and other membersof the Berea family. The only way I knowto repay their vital contributions to mylife is to try to help others. In turn, thosewho are helped generally help others.

It’s the ‘multiplier’ effect of a singleact of caring and compassion.

John Berry lives in Ann Arbor, Michiganwith his wife of 38 years, Patricia. They haveone daughter and three wonderful grandchildren.He volunteers as a tutor in the schools.

John Berry, ’62, was the first African Americanstudent to attend both the Lincoln Institute inSimpsonville, Kentucky and Berea College.

1966

Shirley Fessel, ’66,writes: “Here, a visionof justice had beenmade a reality. . . Ikeep a memory ofBerea with me as asource of hope as weface hatred and divi-sions in our countryand our world today.”

2006When Palden Kyab, ’06, was 12years old he, his little brother,and a cousin walked from Amdo,a small northern farm village inthe former Tibet, to Katmandu inNepal. The journey south overmountains and backroads tookthem one month, traveling in themiddle of winter. He is one of sixstudents who come to BereaCollege each year from theTibetan Children’s Village Schoolestablished by the Dalai Lama.

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Service is the rent we owe for our space in the world.

—Douglas Kelley, ’51, (paraphrasing Shirley Chisholm)

By Beth Bissmeyer, ’09

When Troy Price, ’92, entered BereaCollege as a freshman, he had no cluewhat he wanted to do with his life.During his first semester, Price took achild development class and learned agreat deal about families. “I wasimpressed with what we already knewabout parenting,” says Price. “Ithought that if parents learned what Ilearned in just the first three days ofclass, the world would be a betterplace.” That class pointed him to acareer in family services.

After graduating from Berea andearning his master’s degree from theUniversity of Kentucky, Price workedfor the Commonwealth’s Cabinet forFamilies and Children and then as afamily advocate at the Children’sAdvocacy Center of the Bluegrass.

At child advocacy centers, thegoal is to help the families affected byabuse and to also prevent furtherabuse. “Advocacy centers are uniquein that they handle the worst of theworst child abuse cases.” says Price. “Ican’t speak highly enough of childadvocacy centers.”

In 2000, Price was chosen toserve as the founding director of theBig Sandy Area Child AdvocacyCenter in Pikeville, Kentucky. After

establishing and overseeing the center,Price left in 2005 to work as coordinatorof information services for the NationalChildren’s Alliance. He now offerstechnical assistance to advocacy centersand maintains the organization’s website.

Although different from his former positions, Price loves what hedoes. “I loved being a face-to-facechild advocate. I loved working asdirector in Pikeville. Now, I love thatI make child centers across the nationmore efficient,” says Price. “By havingweekly contact with at least 20 centers across the nation, I know thatmy efforts are having an impact onhundreds of victims a year.”

Service is not just a job for Price;it’s his life. “If you have a heart for service, if you value service,opportunities will present themselves.These opportunities will feed yoursoul,” says Price. One such opportunityPrice was given was in 1999, when heand his wife, Della Mae Justice, ’93,obtained custody of their niece andnephew who had been in foster care.Even in his family life, Price lives upto his own idea that “Service isn’t justa job; service is a lifestyle.”

Troy Price, ’92

Troy Price, ’92, at the 2001 grand openingof the Big Sandy Area Child AdvocacyCenter. Price served as the center’s directorfor nearly five years.

A Lifestyle of Service:Alumni Who Continue to CareA Lifestyle of Service:Alumni Who Continue to CareBE

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If you have a heartfor service, if youvalue service, oppportunities willpresent themselves.

—Troy Price, ’92

O’Neil Arnold, ’85

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150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service A Lifestyle of Service

From working in Cameroon to organizing education programs tovolunteering in politics, DouglasKelley, ’51, has been serving the global community for over 50 years.

While the Peace Corps is mostwidely associated with John F.Kennedy, Kelley was one of the firstto conceive the idea of sendingqualified Americans to work in economically undeveloped countries.Drawing inspiration from historianStringfellow Barr’s pamphlet, Let’sJoin the Human Race, and his ownpast experiences—including his lasttwo years at Berea—Kelley worked tosee his idea come to life.

“During my senior year at Berea,I corresponded with three studentson other campuses about our agreement that there ought to be aprogram placing people in modestlypaid public service jobs with indigenous organizations and governments in Africa, Asia, andLatin America,” says Kelley. “Wewere thinking of jobs for teachers,nurses, agricultural extension agentscommunity development workers,and cooperative organizers. We

wanted people who would live and work closely with their host countryco-workers.”

In the fall of 1951, Kelley sawthe formation of the InternationalDevelopment Placement Association[IDPA]. The nonprofit agency wouldrecruit highly motivated applicantswith skills needed in widely assortedjobs with indigenous organizationsand governments in developing nationsand would then recommend selectedapplicants to those institutions andgovernment agencies.

While Kelley gained support fromsuch people as Supreme Court JusticeWilliam Douglas and InternationalLeague for the Rights of Man founderRoger Baldwin, the agency was notflourishing financially. When theorganization folded in 1954, officefiles held applications from 502potential volunteers, and eighteenpeople had been placed in a varietyof service positions across the world.

Yet this idea of service across theworld did not end with IDPA. Severalpeople who had worked with Kelleybefore the organization met its endbegan to work on Congressional staffs.This helped lead to separate bills inboth the House and the Senate thatpromoted establishing a Peace Corps.When Hubert Humphrey, the manbehind the Senate bill, ran in the 1960Democratic presidential primary andlost, he encouraged Kennedy to establish the program himself. AndKennedy did.

Soon after the Peace Corps wasestablished, Kelley joined the staff ascommunity relations director, but he

wanted to serve in the third world asvolunteers did.

“My family and I signed up fortwo years in West Cameroon, southof Nigeria,” says Kelley. “We were 200miles inland from the hot and humidcoast, in the Bamenda Highlands,with scenery somewhat like theSmokies of Tennessee and NorthCarolina.” In this area, Kelley organized a 1300-member crafts marketing cooperative that doubledthe monthly income of many of itswoodcarver, pottery, and basket-makermembers. The Cameroon HandworkCooperative (which Kelley says hemodeled after the Southern H ighlandHandicrafts Guild in Appalachia)started its sales-shop in a two-room,mud-brick house. “A month later [thecooperative] moved to a $10 permonth four-room house, and startedtrying to export; the first order fromthe United Nations Gift Shop in NewYork was a major thrill,” says Kelley.

Upon arriving back in the UnitedStates, Kelley served for seven years asthe executive director for the multiracial“Encampment for Citizenship” program. Having attended the firstsuch program as a teenager, Kelleysays the program helped shape himand give him inspiration for projectslike the IDPA.

Before retiring, Kelley spent several years as director of extensionand continuing education at theUniversity of Michigan-Flint. In thisposition, Kelley helped organize a wideassortment of new programs, includingretraining programs for displacedautoworkers, a series of monthly public affairs debates, and an annualmultiracial Shakespeare festival.

Since his retirement in 1990,Kelley has done volunteer work inpolitics at the local, state, and nationallevel. He has been a Michigan nationalconvention delegate, and he chairedthe Washtenaw County DefendingSocial Security Committee.

Douglas Kelley, ‘51 Douglas Kelley, ’51,was instrumental inestablishing theInternationalDevelopmentPlacementAssociation, whichbecame the PeaceCorps.

In the early 1960s, Douglas Kelley, ’51,helped organize the Cameroon HandworkCooperative while serving with the PeaceCorps in West Cameroon.


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Ida B. Wells. Frederick Douglass.Shirley Chisholm. ThurgoodMarshall. Harriet Tubman. W.E.B.DuBois. Sojourner Truth. MartinLuther King, Jr. Dr. John Fleming,’66, has spent his life working inmuseums to preserve the legacies ofAfrican Americans.

Fleming has a long résumé,including positions as the foundingdirector for the NationalUnderground Railroad Museum and aPresidential appointee on aCongressional commission to develop aplan for a National Museum ofAfrican American H istory andCulture. He is currently vice president of Museums at theCincinnati Museum Center overseeingtheir three museums.

Before he pursued this career,Fleming saw firsthand the importantwork great African Americans weredoing when, as a Berea College student in the 60s, he actively participated in the Civil RightsMovement, organizing demonstrationsand marches, and participating in themarch from Selma to Montgomery,Alabama. “Berea College helped makeme more socially conscious,” saysFleming.

Fulfilling what he believes is hiscivic responsibility, Fleming serves on

many boards and performs community service. He regularly prepares meals for 50 homeless andmentally ill people each monththrough the auspices of TenderMercies, a Cincinnati social servicesprogram. “I love this service workbecause it helps keep me grounded towhat is important in life.”

Of all of the programs Flemingparticipates in, he is most proud ofthe youth program at the CincinnatiMuseum Center. Under his direction,the program trains teenagers to workat the museum as high school studentsand ensures that each is able to attendcollege. “I love to see the impact ofthe museum on young people’s lives,”says Fleming.

Each spring, the Center has agraduation exercise for the departing students. Recalling lastspring’s ceremony, Fleming says, “Iteared up when a young African

American male got up in front of theaudience and said what an impact Ihad on his life. The young man wasfrom the inner city and was about tobe the first from his family to go tocollege.”

Fleming considers himself ablessed man and wants to share hisblessings through his work, saying “Ibelieve that we should give back tothe community in direct proportion to what we have beengiven in life.”

Dr. John Fleming, ’66

John Fleming, ’66,has been in charge ofseveral museums andprojects, includingthe founding of theNational UndergroundRailroad Museum.

John Fleming, ’66, meets with former presidentGeorge Bush. Dr. Fleming has since beenappointed by the current President Bush toserve on a Congressional committee todevelop a plan for a National AfricanAmerican museum.

courtesy of Dr. John Flem

ing, ‘66

I love this service workbecause it helps keepme grounded to whatis important in life.

—Dr. John Fleming, ’66

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O’Neil Arnold, ’85

150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service A Lifestyle of Service

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She began serving by satisfying children’s thirst for knowledge. Now,Carrie McCormack, ’02, works to feedthe hungry in Chicago’s northside.

As an eighth-grader, McCormackearned her first A+ when, as part of aproject to promote reading, she readto children in her low-income housingcomplex. “This really was a pivotalpoint in my life because it helped merecognize my personal power andresponsibility as an individual, thateven as a child, or a female, or assomeone in need myself, I could stillpromote and start empowering actions,”says McCormack.

After doing river clean-ups andrecycling projects while in high school,McCormack continued doing volunteerwork at Berea College with PeopleWho Care. The group of students visitedweekly with residents in varioushealthcare facilities all over Kentucky,including nursing homes and a children’s

hospital. “I went so often that the coordinators let me introduce the visitation sites to the new volunteers,”says McCormack. Because of her commitment to the organization, shewas awarded the ‘Volunteer of theYear’ award in 2000.

Becoming the first in her family toearn a college degree, McCormackgraduated from Berea knowing that alife of service was what she wanted. “Iwanted a job that was direct service,not just agroup that advocated an issue.

I wanted to be active in my service.”McCormack is now the

coordinator for the Lakeview PantryWest site, which serves thousands ofresidents who are in need. Among hermany duties, McCormack manages theday-to-day operations of the pantry, co-coordinates the Home DeliveryProgram, and trains and supervisesvolunteers.

H aving started working for thePantry almost four years ago,McCormack says she’s still just asexcited about her job as she was at thebeginning. “As a supervisor, I use acomputer a lot, but I’m also unloadingthousands of pounds of food outsideyear-round, and I get to be in contactwith people in many walks of life whichhelps me keep a great perspective,”says McCormack.

One of the most challenging partsof her job is making time for all of herextra goals, she says, “There is just somuch that I want to accomplish.”

Carrie McCormack, ’02

Having volunteered with People Who Carewhile at Berea College, Carrie McCormack,’02, now works as the coordinator for theLakeview Pantry West site in Chicago.

Does a newspaper article have thepower to change your life? For JoeByrd Sr., Cx, ’45, the answer is “yes.”

In 1976, Byrd read an article abouta successful Georgia lawyer who stoppedpracticing law so he could build housesfor the less fortunate. A lawyer himself,Byrd was especially intrigued by this,saying, “It had never occurred to meto cease my chosen profession.” Soonafter, he began sending money to thatformer Georgia lawyer, Millard Fuller,Founder of Habitat for Humanity.

Byrd continued to send checks toFuller until 1988, when a Habitat forHumanity of Burke County, NorthCarolina, was established. From thenon, his money and time went to helpingbuild houses locally, volunteering asHabitat work team coordinator at hischurch.

In 1992, Byrd and his wife startedsupplying another valuable resource toHabitat: land. Having first donatedfive building lots, Byrd has since madelarger land donations. In 2002, BurkeHabitat received an offer to buy sevenacres of land adjacent to Habitat Lanein Drexel. “They wanted and neededthe land, but they did not have pur-chase funds,” says Byrd. “My wife,Gleta, and I discussed the seven acres.We purchased it and had it platted into fifteen house sites for Habitat.” As of

now, ten houses are built and occupied.Five remain to be built this year.

Whenever he gets the chance,Byrd and his wife take a drive downHabitat Lane. “On each occasion Ioffer my prayer of gratitude to God forpermitting us to be a part of theendeavors, and reaffirm my commitmentto continue my efforts so long as Heextends my days.”

Service is a family matter for Byrd.H is granddaughters now make up thethird generation of Habitat volunteers.Byrd credits his mother and BereaCollege for giving him the passion tobe of service to those who are less fortunate. Although he was only atBerea for 18 months (he enlisted in themilitary during his sophomore year),Byrd says, “Berea College became andcontinues to be my major source ofguidance. It expanded my vision ofwhat life could and should be. I shallnever forget its blessing to me.”

Joe Byrd, Sr., Cx ’45 Having donated timeto help constructHabitat for Humanityhouses when he wasyounger, Joe Byrd, Sr.,Cx ’45, now donateshis land.


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Stormy Gillespie Otis, ’92, ajunior psychology major alreadyimmersed in community service

and committed to a counseling career,became one of Berea College’s firstBonner Scholars in 1990-1991. For thedecade following her graduation, sheheld a variety of social service positions,earned a master’s in counseling from theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison, andbecame a licensed professional counselor.The College’s servicecommitment helped herdecide to come toBerea, but

being here made her take a “deeper lookat the choices I made in life.”

In retrospect, Stormy credits Dr. JohnWhite and his abnormal psychology classas influencing her professional and personal commitment to service. “Dr.White gave me a deep passion to workwith the mentally ill,” she said. “His classopened my eyes and heart to a populationthat would not only challenge, but alsobless me.”

While a student, Stormy worked with Students for Appalachia’s (SFA)Community Outreach Program. Underthe direction of social worker JudySingleton, students visited elderly

community members, assistingthem in various ways. Singleton

“took time to answer my questions and challenged

me to think deeper aboutmy relationship with

my clients,” Stormyrecalls. “She

encouraged me tostep outside my com-

fort zone and to stretchmyself in new ways.”

As a volunteer with ParentsAnonymous, an organization that

supports parents who either haveabused or feel themselves at risk of abus-ing their children, Stormy met a childwho left a lasting impression. “One littleboy was so angry that he would fightwith us, spit on the floor, refuse to par-ticipate in any activity (except snack),and disrupt any activity we had planned.Even though this behavior continuedthroughout my first year, I slowlystarted building a relationship with him,”she said.

“He started to trust me. He knewthat I was going to return every Thursdaynight and that I was not going to hurthim even when he made bad choices. Hestopped being so aggressive and began toparticipate in activities. By the end of thesecond year, he was like a different child.”

That experience taught her a deeplesson. “So often we want instant resultsfor our time and effort. When I have beendiscouraged in my career with a clientwho is not making obvious progress, Ioften think back to that little boy.”

Her professional career includeswork as a Head Start director, a counselor at a homeless shelter for runaway teens, and as a mental healthcounselor intervening on behalf of suicidal, homicidal, and psychotic clients.With Community Support Services inNorth Carolina, she provided therapyand case management for clients withsevere and persistent mental illness. Oneof the most fulfilling and challengingendeavors of her life, she said, has been asa therapeutic foster parent.

According to Stormy, being a BonnerScholar helped solidify “my career choiceas a counselor and taught me that thereis more to counseling than listening toyour clients and directing them to usefulservices. It is also advocating for themand championing their cause.”

In 2003, after adopting two daughters,Stormy became a full-time mother andhome-school teacher, but continues toserve. She performs such integral activities as taking a meal to a strugglingor overtaxed family, grocery shoppingwith a depressed neighbor, picking uptrash in the church parking lot, andbabysitting for a struggling young couple.

by Betty H ibler, Director of Bonner Scholars Program

Profiles in Service:Bonner Scholars Stormy Gillespie Otis and Blake Jones

“When we have a heart andmind for service, it will pourfrom us in everything we do.”

—Stormy Gillespie Otis

Stormy Gillespie Otis, ’92, representing Berea College’s BonnerScholar program receives the Pointof Light award from PresidentGeorge H. Bush.

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150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service Profiles in Service

“Volunteering with establishedorganizations is wonderful,” she said,“but allowing service to flow from yourheart in all aspects of your life is evenbetter. When we have a heart and mindfor service, it will pour from us in everything we do.”

Blake L. Jones, ’92, is another of Berea’s first class ofBonner Scholars. He credits Berea

College with changing his life. Althoughhe was one of eight children growing upin a Christian, service-oriented family,Blake found Berea College’s vision ofservice even broader. “When I came toBerea, I learned that service to others can(and should) be part of an all-encompassinglife view.”

He credits a course on Appalachiataught by sociology professor Tom Boydas influencing his career in social work.“I loved Dr. Boyd’s sense of irreverenceand playfulness in the classroom. Hemade sociology come to life and encouraged us to question authority,including his.”

Blake served two years as the SFAStudent Director while at Berea College.During his tenure, SFA carried out eightregional outreach programs with a student staff of 25 and over 100 volunteers. His work with adult literacy isa cherished memory. “I worked allsemester with a man who was a truckdriver. I saw his initial discomfort andembarrassment in not knowing how toread, and we became very close as weworked together that summer. I got toknow him on so many levels, and I lookback and feel that I helped him find agift that he can use every day for the restof his life.”

During Stormy’s and Blake’s senioryear at Berea, SFA became one of twoKentucky organizations to receive anaward from the Points of LightFoundation. In May, 1992 Stormy, Blake,SFA Director David Sawyer, and severalother students traveled to Washington,

D.C. to accept the award from thePresident and Mrs. George H .W. Bush.

Blake reflected on this experience ina 1992 article “Of Kings and Points ofLight,” published in ExperientialEducation, a journal of the NationalSociety for Experiential Education (17: 4)The weekend in D.C. was the sameweekend that the Rodney King incident inLos Angeles led to widespread riots inCalifornia. Caught up in the widelydivergent emotions of joy and despair,Blake’s article ended with this thought:“As we headed back to Berea and ourwork with Students for Appalachia,much of the prestige of our trip toWashington was lost to the desperationof our troubled times. We were soberedby the graphic message of just how farwe have to go to create miracles of justice in America.”

While working on a master’s degreein social work at the University ofKentucky (UK), Blake was a clinicalsocial worker at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky,where he assessed the mentalhealth of adults with chemicaldependency and senile dementia.

Then as a doctoralstudent in socialwork at UK, Blakebecame programcoordinator forKentucky’s CitizenReview Panels in Mayfield, Lexington,Louisville, and Morehead.Citizen Review Panels are federally mandated groups of community volunteers who evaluate the state’s child protective services system. Blake completed his doctorate in 2004 and now looks forwardto sharing his knowledge in the classroom as a professor of social work.

The Bonner Scholars program hasbeen an integral part of his life, Blakesaid. “I chose social work as my careerbecause of Berea College. I have been blessed to find a career that will allow

me to be a professional while also helping others—a perfect blend.”

[Editor’s Note: Betty Hibler interviewed Otis and Jones as part of theBonner Foundation’s 15th anniversarycelebration. The Bonner Scholars program, supported by the Corella andBertram F. Bonner Foundation, began in1990 at Berea College. Currently, 25 colleges and universities participate in theprogram which supports higher educationfor deserving students with a desire tomentor and to serve others.]

Blake Jones, ’92, coordinates the social workcontinuing education program for the Universityof Kentucky.

“When I came to Berea, Ilearned that service to otherscan (and should) be part ofan all-encompassing life view.”

—Blake L. Jones

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College trustee Brenda Larsen has deepfamily ties with Berea. Her motherattended the Berea Academy and BereaCollege. Her father was a member of

the first graduating class of Berea’spublic high school and attended lawschool at the University of Kentucky.

Long before Larsen was elected tothe College’s Board of Trustees in 2004,she supported her mother’s almamater. Larsen and her sister LouiseTodd Taylor established the ElizabethDove Jessee Todd Scholarship in 1998as a memorial to their mother, who, asthe oldest of nine children, came toBerea from Russell County, Virginia.Larsen and Taylor, the first in theirimmediate family to earn undergraduatedegrees, say that “Berea College has

had far more impact on our lives thanour own colleges.”

The Todd Scholarship for the2005–06 academic year was awardedto Megan Naseman, ’07, of Anna,Ohio. An independent major in outdooreducation, Megan, who is studying inAustralia for the spring 2006 semester,is a role model for other students becauseof her deep commitment to sustainabilityand environmental education.

For Larsen and Taylor, helpingstudents honors their mother’s memoryand recognizes Berea’s significance totheir family. “We have learned thatcontributing in some small way is a joyif it can make a similar difference toanother,” Larsen said.

Elizabeth Dove Jessee Todd ScholarshipEstablished by Brenda and Charles Larsen and Louise Todd Taylor

The Face of Berea College’s Tuition Scholarships

The Face of Berea College’sTuition Scholarships

Scholarships tell a tale. Behind eachBerea College scholarship is a donorwho was moved to reach out to Bereastudents by making a perpetual giftto the College. During the ExtendingBerea’s Legacy ComprehensiveCampaign, donors established 133new scholarships. The story of the following four endowed scholarshipsreveals much about the values oftheir donors.

The Pearl Foundation is a labor of lovefor Grammy-winning folksinger JanisIan. It’s a tribute to her mother, Pearl,who entered college after years ofworking full time and raising a family.

Though she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1975, Pearl earnedundergraduate and master’s degreesfrom Goddard College, showing herincredible strength, determination, andlove of learning.

An accomplished musician, Ian ishighly creative in raising money for theFoundation, which in turn establishesscholarships for students returning toschool after several years out. Ian’s

fans contribute to the Foundation byputting money in a “tip jar” at shows.Ian also offers merchandise for purchase on her website, www.pearlfoundation.com, and will

even do “living room concerts” with allproceeds going to the Foundation.

The Pearl Foundation has established two scholarships at Berea.Berea’s first Pearl FoundationScholarship recipient is Cathy (Kit)Cottrell, ’07, an English major andmother of two. Cathy, who was 45when she came to Berea, wants to pursue writing and photography bybecoming a journalist.

“Berea is exactly the kind ofschool my mother would have wantedus to endow,” Ian says. “It seems to be full of folks who aren’t afraid of a littlehard work. My mother would have loved the atmosphere Berea projects,and the sense of community. We’revery proud to be forging this alliancewith Berea.”

The Pearl Foundation ScholarshipEstablished by The Pearl Foundation, Janis Ian and Patricia Snyder

Cathy (Kit) Cottrell,’07


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Elizabeth Dove Jessee Todd

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150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service The Face of Berea College’s Tuition Scholarships

Jacob G. Schmidlapp, a notedCincinnati philanthropist and formerFifth Third Bank president, establishedthe Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund in1908 following the tragic death of hisdaughter, Charlotte, in a car accident.Schmidlapp had already lost his wifeand another daughter.

Schmidlapp wanted to honorCharlotte’s memory and, as he said,“ennoble, uplift, and strengthen thelives of young women who are com-pelled to be self-supporting.” The fundhas become the largest private founda-

tion in the United Sates to supportsolely women and girls.

In 2005, the Fund established theCharlotte R. Schmidlapp EndowedScholarship for single mothers atBerea College. The first scholarshiprecipient is junior Alexis Riley, ’07, aKentucky native and the mother ofthree-year-old Eve. A nursing major,Alexis expects to attend graduateschool to become a nurse practitioner.

Charlotte R. Schmidlapp ScholarshipEstablished by the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund

Endowed scholarship funds are vitalto Berea’s mission. Endowmentfunds, which may be established withan outright gift of $15,000 or with agift of $25,000 over three years,often honor or memorialize individuals. When a fund is established, the gift is placed in an endowment from which income is derived.

Endowment funds provide full-tuition scholarships for Berea students. Each scholarship is valuedat $21,600 in the 2005-06 academicyear. While endowment funds actually provide the full-tuition scholarships for Berea students, itrequires an endowed principal of$432,000 to provide an entire scholarship.

For more information aboutestablishing a scholarship, contact:

Bill Laramee Vice President for Alumni

and College Relations at [email protected]

or 859.985.3005.

Growing up in Berea changed my life,”says Nobel Prize winner and distinguished alumnus Dr. John B.Fenn, who recently memorialized hisparents and brother with an endowedscholarship. The Fenn Family DirectAid Endowed Scholarship Fund wasestablished in December 2005 to provide support for students’ room,board, and other expenses.

Fenn’s association with theCollege began with a loss—that of hisfather’s job on the East Coast. Fenn’saunt, Helen Dingman, already a Bereaemployee, told Mr. Fenn about a jobat Berea. The family moved in 1928,an event Fenn says his parents regardedas “the rebirth of our family” thattook them from “the slough of despairto great happiness.”

Fenn’s father, Herbert, taught automechanics and electricity at Berea’sFoundation School and later taught inthe Physics Department. Fenn’s mother,Jeanette, was also a Berea staff member.

After attending both the Berea Academyand Berea College, Fenn earned a doctorate in chemistry from YaleUniversity in 1940; his brother, Norman,later taught and coached basketball forBerea.

Fenn’s illustrious career includestime in the private sector working forchemical companies and years

researching and teaching at Princeton,Yale, and Virginia Commonwealth universities. The ultimate recognitionof his work, the Nobel Prize in chemistry,came in 2002. His outstanding success,however, has not eclipsed his fond memories of Berea College and its effecton his life and career.

More than 50 years later, Fennrecalls a conversation with some Bereaclassmates. As Fenn tells it, in themidst of a dorm bull session, one man

stood to leave, saying he needed tostudy. Another fellow asked him,“Why are you knocking yourself outstudying when you know you’re justgoing back to work on your daddy’sfarm?” Fenn remembers the reply:“Yes, I’m going back to work on thefarm, but just think of all the things Iwill have to think about while I’mfarming.” To Fenn, this sentiment captures Berea students and the powerof education.

The Herbert B. and Jeanette D. Fenn Direct Aid Endowed Scholarship Fund Established by Dr. John B. Fenn ’37

Dr. John B. Fenn

Kristine Judoyte ·, ’04

Alexis Riley, ’07, with Kate



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4Alumni Connections

Alumni Connections

With more than 17,000 membersaround the world, the BereaCollege Alumni Associationrepresents a diverse yet connectedextended community. We

encourage all our alums to developstrong ties with friends and toBerea by engaging in our many programs, services, and activities.

Berea is Coming to You! Berea College Alumni Chapters areall over the country—one is probablymeeting near you!

For more information, contact the

Office of Alumni Relations at1.866.804.0591, or

e-mail [email protected].

Alumni Executive CouncilOfficers

President: Dr. J. Mark Estepp, ’77President-Elect: Iverson Louis Warinner, ’66

Past President: Dr. Steele Mattingly, ’50Larry D. Shinn

Mae Suramek, ’95William A. Laramee

Alumni TrusteesVance Edward Blade, ’82

Dr. Robert N. Compton, ’60Tyler Smyth Thompson, ’83Janice Hunley Crase, Cx’60

Members-At-LargeKristin Conley Clark, ’92

Pansy Waycaster Blackburn, ’58Rachel Berry Henkle, ’64

Virginia Hubbard Underwood, ’73Rob Stafford, ’89

Dr. Charlotte F. Beason, ’70Marisa FitzGerald, ’99

Eunice Hall, ’78Betty Maskewitz, ’39

Celeste Patton Armstrong, ’90Larry Woods, ’75

James Cecil Owens, ’66Jennifer Jones Allen, ’01

4 Reasons to Return to Campus this Year!Navy V-12/V-5 Reunion June 2-4, 2006

Berea College welcomes back the Navy V-12/V-5 Unit to reminisce with friendsand to celebrate the V-12/V-5 legacy in Berea’s history.

Summer Reunion June 9-11, 2006Classes celebrating special reunions: 1941, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966,

1971, 1976, Academy, Knapp Hall, and Foundation. Come share fond memories with dear friends during your class reunion and celebrate your

alma mater’s Sesquicentennial!

Foundation ReunionOctober 6-7, 2006 Berea College Campus

All classes and years are invited. Mark your calendars to join us for aweekend of reminiscing and reconnecting right where it all started!

A registration form can be found at www.berea.edu/alumni.For more information please contact Eddie and Hosea Pullins

by electronic mail at [email protected] or by mail at 117 Lakeshore Drive, Richmond, KY 40475.

Homecoming November 10-12New Homecoming Date!!! Mark your calendars for the second weekend inNovember! Classes celebrating special reunions: 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996,

2001, and 2006. Join us on campus to reconnect with old friends and reliveyour college days!

Those Were the Days

37

150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service About Berea Preople

Bill Welsh, ’49

1930Donnell H. Gould celebrated his 96th birthday

and continues to play golf.Lois Dunkle Weiss retired in 1973 after teaching

for 19 years. She resides in Ida, MI and has three sonsand one daughter.

1931Virginia Lucille Auvil, retired College registrar,

has moved from Berea to Russell, KY.

1937James G. “Pop” Hollandsworth received the

Award of Merit from the Asheville School in Asheville, NC,the school’s most prestigious prize. He worked at theschool for 30 years, founding a modern-day mountaineerprogram.

1941

Lizzie Allen Barrett was inducted into theEducation Hall of Fame in May 2005 by the Fayette CountySchool Corporation of Indiana.

1942Hazel Irene Hughey Canon is a retired public

health nurse. Her husband, Cham, is a retired Episcopalminister. Both are involved in volunteer activities.

Eugene Smith and Virginia Cooper Smith,’43,recently became permanent residents of Barefoot Bay, FLafter only being winter residents. They sold their home inSalem, VA.

1944The Rev. Dr. Annabel Brake Clark and Robert

(Bob) Clark recently celebrated their 60th weddinganniversary with their four children, grandchildren, greatgrandchild, and extended family.

1945Frances Zicafoose Kleinman enjoys reminiscing

about time spent at Berea College. She resides inHartford, CT.

1946

Cecil R. Jones retired in 1988. He resides inFlorida and in Louisville, KY.

1947Garneta Shannon Derian resides in Midlothian,

VA and spends winters in Palm Harbor, FL.

1949Rosa Case Baldwin is a retired high school

teacher living in Skyland, NC.Reva McMillian Crabtree is retired. She is a

board member of Habitat for Humanity in Beattyville, KYand enjoys gardening, quilting, and reading.

Robert C. Vandivier is grateful to the annualrecipients of the Frances Finnell Vandivier ScholarshipFund who are able to continue their education in childdevelopment, childcare and/or advocacy for children,youth and families.

Bill Welsh, first president of the National StudentAssociation, served on a project committee that compiledAmerican Students Organize: Founding the NationalStudent Association after World War II. Over 90 authorscontributed to the 1244-page landmark study of Americanstudent history, including Doug Kelley, ’51, and GalenMartin, ’51.

Robert P. Williams and Georgia WalkerWilliams celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary withtheir three children, eight grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

1950Minnie Lea Sanders Abell and Joseph C. Abell, Jr.

celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary in February. Theyvolunteer in their church and reside in Beavercreek, OH.

Steele Mattingly was honored December 16,2005 at the University of Cincinnati’s Animal MedicalServices Department, which he started and led for 20years. He was named the department founder and a painted portrait of him will be hung in the main area ofthe department.

1951

1952William (Bill) Bryson and Peggy Brown

Bryson are retired and reside in Virginia Beach, VA. Gaylyn Price Cumming and William Stoner

Cumming recently moved to a retirement ccommunity.

1953Frances Austin Day and Randall C. (R.C.) Day,

Jr., ’54, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary inAugust 2003. The event was hosted by their two sons,Scott and Stephen, their wives, Vivian and Sarah, and theirfive grandchildren.

Phyllis K. Lisi resides in Las Vegas and enjoyshearing from friends.

Doris Martin Michael was honored with a lunch-eon by Salem Fork Christian Church (Disciples) for 60years of music. She lives in Elin, NC.

Dorothy Schmidt Obi has four children and eightgrandchildren. She resides in Patriot, OH.

Charles Bishop Spangler and Bettie SmithSpangler, ’54, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaryin 2005 in Danforth Chapel. Last year they explored aportion of Baja California-Mexico Peninsula.

Ronald K. Walthall and Camille ChamberlinWalthall celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary onFebruary 20, 2006.

1954Delphine Cody Moser Deaver is married to

Frank Deaver. She is a commissioned lay pastor for thePresbyterian Church, USA. They live in Northport, AL.

Elwood N. Harper recently retired from his second career after more than 51 years in naval aviation.He and, Gloria, his wife, currently reside in Lillian, AL.

Marvin Hutchins and Leona Dobbins Hutchinscelebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on December18, 2005.

Dr. Joe Morgan has recently been nominated forthe North Carolina Republican Party’s 11th District Award.He will be admitted into the NCGOP’s Hall of Fame.

Sam Turner, Cx ’54 and Ann Skidmore Turner,’56, celebrated their 50th anniversary on June 4, 2005with family and friends. Their daughter presented themwith a cake which was a replica of Danforth Chapel. Theyreside in Hazard, KY.

About Berea People

Robert and GeorgiaWilliams, ’49

Foundation ReunionAll Classes and Years!

October 6-7, 2006Berea College CampusMark your calendars to join us for aweekend of reminiscing and reconnectingright where it all started! There will besomething for everybody, including toursof campus, an evening dinner, music anddancing, and shuttles to area attractions.A registration form can be found atwww.berea.edu/alumni. For more information please contact Eddie andHosea Pullins by electronic mail [email protected] or by mail at 117Lakeshore Drive, Richmond, KY 40475.

Franklin andBetty Parker, ’49

65thSUMMERREUNION

Chairpersons June 9-11, 2006James T. and Eileen McDaniel Prewitt

60thSUMMERREUNION

Chairpersons June 9-11, 2006Helen Davis Hieronymus and Mary Kay FielderKauffman

55thSUMMERREUNION

Chairperson June 9-11, 2006Pete McNeill

Doris MartinMichael, ’53


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About Berea People

1955Drs. Merrell Jenkins Riddle and Winston

Riddle, ’57, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaryon August 28, 2005 in Bryson City, NC. Both are retiredMcDowell County, NC educators. They have four childrenand six grandchildren.

1956

Erma Jo Reedy Fielden and Marvel L. Fielden areliving in a Baptist retirement community in Richmond, VA.

1957Joanne Austin Condra and Earl Condra of

Whitwell, TN, retired in 1991. They stay busy with theirchurch activities and enjoy spending time with their fourgrandchildren.

Jack M. Grayson, Sr. and Patricia Ann MorrisGrayson, ’59, reside in Rockfield, KY. Jack wasemployed with Southern States Cooperation for 40 years.They have 6 children and 26 grandchildren.

1958Married: Betty Stephens Lamb to Steven Lynn

on September 2, 2005 at Berea Church of Christ. Royce Miller and Evelyn Miller enjoy living in

Sarasota, FL.

1959Dr. Rachel Hickman Keen received an award for

Outstanding Achievement in Research and Creative Activityat the fall convocation of faculty at the University ofMassachusetts.

Rev. Reginald Martin is serving as the interimpastor of First Baptist Church, Zanesville, OH.

Alice Whitaker is the director at Lotts CreekCommunity School, Hazard, KY, a settlement school inKnott County founded in 1933 by Alice H. Slone, her aunt.

1960Jay Richen retired after 30 years of teaching at

Grossmont College in El Cajon, CA.

1961

Howard Hicks and Carolyn “June” DavisHicks celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on December 19, 2005.

Ival Secrest retired after 31 years of designingsoftware for the Department of Defense. He is travelingthe United States and Canada in an RV while serving onthe Board of Directors for Friends of OstomatesWorldwide.

Blue Wooldridge was elected to the NationalAcademy of Public Administration, a nonpartisan organi-zation that gives policy advice to local, state, national, andinternational leaders. He teaches at the VirginiaCommonwealth University.

1962Linda Lethgo retired after tutoring part-time for

two years in Middletown, OH.

1963Ladell Simmons Powers, Cx’ 63, has recently

been a contributing columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He lives in Corbin, KY.

David Sutton retired after 35 years as professor ofagronomy with the University of Florida. His retirementactivity includes beekeeping, gardening, and woodworking.

1965Garnett Slone retired after 25 years as pastor in theUnited Methodist Church. He resides in Danville, KY withhis wife LaVerne and their children. He teaches art andSpanish in the Central Kentucky Christian School inHarrodsburg, KY.

1966

Dr. John Fleming authored A SummerRemembered, a memoir, and Barbara Durr Fleming,’68, authored the mystery Murder on the Gold Coast.Both were published by Silver Maple Publications in Fall2005. He delivered a lecture at Berea on “Writing theBlack Experience” this April.

1967Yukiko Suzuki Kong retired in July 2005 after

working 35 years at an advertising agency in NY. She nowresides in NJ.

Roberta Schofield, Cx ’67, finished a successfulshow at Clayton Galleries in Tampa and is exhibiting abody of work at Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta.She is planning a three-person show in Rotterdam, theNetherlands.

1968Dr. Freida Hopkins Outlaw was recently

honored in the American Journal of Nursing for herefforts in the mental health field. A child and adolescentspecialist, she is assistant commissioner for the specialpopulations and minority services at the Tennesseedepartment of mental health in Nashville.

1970Fred T. Marcengill and his wife, Lavelle, reside in

Westminster, SC.Glenn R. Tankersley practices law in Virginia

Beach, VA. Debbie, his wife of 33 years, is his officeadministrator. They are the new grandparents of LucySamantha Tankersley, born November 17, 2005 to theirson, David Glenn, and his wife, Melissa.

1971

The Berea College AlumniAssociation enjoys hearing fromBereans from all over the U.S. andthe world. The “About BereaPeople” section of Berea CollegeMagazine reports verifiable newsthat has been sent to the Associationby the alumni/ae. BCM reports thenews you wish to share with youralumni friends and associates.“About Berea People” reportschanges in careers, addresses, weddings, retirements, births, andother items of importance to ouralumni/ae. Please include yourclass year and name used whileattending Berea. Notes may beedited for style and length. Formore information on how tosubmit class notes and photographscall 1.866.804.0591, [email protected], or logon to www.berea.edu/alumni.

Keep in Touch

50thSUMMERREUNION

Chairperson June 9-11, 2006Barney Davis

45thSUMMERREUNION

Chairpersons June 9-11, 2006Marlene Ellis Payne and Truman Fields

40thSUMMERREUNION

Chairpersons June 9-11, 2006James (Bones) and Rachel Upchurch Owens andIverson Warinner

35thSUMMERREUNION

Chairperson June 9-11, 2006Mary Ann Daniel Singleton

Dr. Rachel HickmanKeen, ’59

Howard and Carolyn“June” Davis Hicks, ’61

John Fleming, ’66Roberta Schofield, ’67

Barbara Fleming, ’68

39

150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service About Berea People

Robert D. Stephens and his wife, Mary, recentlyreturned from Russia with their adopted children, Jaclyn-Marie Svetlana, age 10, and her brother, Robert Igor, age 7.

1972Earlene Hawks Prokopec lives in Lexington, KY

and is employed part-time by St. Joseph Home Care as asocial worker.

1973Ulanda Kay Stumbo Larson teaches at Symmes

Valley High School. She resides in Patriot, OH.Linda McDaniel helped edit the first statewide

encyclopedia devoted to black history, the KentuckyAfrican-American Encyclopedia. Linda is director oflibrary services at Kentucky State University in Frankfort.

1974Larry Alan Reeves is the director of admissions

and social services of Silver Bluff Village, a long-termhealth care community, in Canton, NC.

1975Dr. Gary Mellick serves as co-director of the

Sleep Disorders Center and is a neurologist for AshtabulaCounty Medical Center in Ashtabula, OH.

Margaret Martini Mishra is employed at YaleNew Haven Medical Center in New Haven, CT as a pediatric nurse practitioner. She and her son, Benjamin,reside in New Haven, CT.

1976

Bill Daugherty runs one of the largest drillingcompanies, NGAS Resources Inc., which was recentlyranked the third fastest growing small business in theUnited States by Fortune magazine.

Fred Lane retired in July from auto supplier ArvinMeritor where he had worked since 1979. He lives inCary, NC.

Linda Mullins retired after 27 years of teachingsecondary math. She spent the last 17 years teaching atMadison Southern in Berea, KY.

Dorothy Louise Lively Tatum, Cx ’76 resides inTazewell, VA. She works weekends at Northern Hospital ofSurry County in Mount Airy, NC.

1977Dr. Susan Price Dodd, of Knoxville, TN, was hon-

ored last fall as the YWCA Human Services Award winnerat the 2005 Tribute to Women.

Anna L. Leavell retired from teaching at GarrardCounty High School in Lancaster, KY in May 2004.

1979Gerald Evans is a professor of business at Breyer

State University in Kamiah, ID.

1980Roma Charlotte Cline lives in the Seattle, WA area.

1981Susan Jordan works for the Department of Mental

Health as a clinical therapist in Florence, SC.

1982Terri Fluker was recently an artist in residence at

the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She completed a banana costume for a European Pepsi commercial and is working on the next Chronicles ofNarnia installation.

Cathy Baker Mahoney appeared for the secondtime in Who’s Who among American Teachers. Cathy is aspecial education teacher in the Madison County SchoolSystem in Richmond, KY. Donald Mahoney, son of Cathyand Gary Mahoney married Kelle Patrice Shaw, ’06.

1983David Meier published The Toyota Way Field

Book with Dr. Jeffrey Liker of the University of Michigan.David helps companies improve their operations byimplementing the Toyota production system.

1984Cynthia Barker Adkins teaches in the Business

Education Department at East Rowan High School. Sheand her husband Michael reside in Salisbury, NC.

Lisa Hargis is a physical education teacher andathletic director at a private school in Sarasota, FL.

Tim Matney is vice president and chief financialofficer for the Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center inRichmond, KY.

Sherri Smith Reasner has worked for theHershey Company in Hershey, PA for 20 years. She andher husband, Edward, have been married 15 years.

1985Jeff Adkins and Lori Stumbo Adkins,’84, reside

in Antioch, CA with their twin seven-year-old sons,Benjamin and Jonathan. Lori is a homemaker and professional photographer. Jeff is a physics and astronomyhigh school teacher at Deer Valley High School inAntioch. He was selected as the Antioch Unified SchoolDistrict teacher of the year in 2003-04.

1986Correction: Lisa M. Banks completes her master

of arts in education in April 2006. She resides inHuntsville, TN.

James Holloway is vice-president of global editorial operations at Standard & Poor’s in New YorkCity. He resides in Brooklyn, NY with his wife.

Donna Baker McClure is the field representativefor U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell’s office in easternKentucky.

Married: Marcia Lynn Updike to William DavidMongelli on July 30, 2005. The couple lives in Norton, MA.

1987Pete Foley resides in Winchester, OH where he is

a financial planner. He is working on his master’s degreeand has two sons, PJ and Doug.

1988Rodney Griffin and Regina Griffin reside in

Morristown, TN with their two daughters. Rodney writesand sings gospel music full-time. For the last seven yearshe has been voted the favorite songwriter of southerngospel music.

1989Jamie Dockery is the new Fayette County cooper-

ative extension service agent for horticulture. He previ-ously managed Hillenmeyer’s garden shop and King’sGardens in Lexington, KY.

Teresa Paulina Ramey appears in the 9th editionof Who’s Who among America’s Teachers. Teresa is themusic teacher at Clay City Elementary and resides in SaltLick, KY.

Stephen Shackelford is a financial analyst at HostCommunications, Integrated Media Group in Lexington, KY.

David Shehee served for the past six years as awater quality specialist with Kentucky American Water. Hewas recently named water quality supervisor.

1990John Burch completed his doctoral program in

history at the University of Kentucky in December 2005.He is currently employed as director of library services atCampbellsville University.

Julie Deanne Ramey Bush of Grayson, KY worksas an independent sales representative for H2A, Inc., a wholesale gift market, representing Kentucky and southern Ohio. She is also an independent beauty consultant with Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Married: Dean Croft to Tenver Jones Croft onAugust 31, 2005. Dean works in Manchester at theDepartment of Highways. Tenver works for the Knox CountyBoard of Education. The couple resides in Corbin, KY.

Sherri Newton Givens and Dan Givens have fourchildren, Beth, age 12, Will, age 9, Lee, age 6 and John,age 4. Sherri homeschools three of their children. Danteaches at the Auburn University College of VeterinaryMedicine.

Andrea L. Pike-Goff resides in Brandenburg, KYwith her husband, Gregory, and children Alexandrea andIsabella. Gregory is currently serving with the 2113thTransportation Company with the Kentucky NationalGuard in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Anita Absher Swanson is an instructor ofSpanish at Ohio State University and Otterbein College inColumbus, OH.

Mylinda Howard Turner resides inHarrisonburg, VA.

1991Sheeny Liu Behmard and Hamid Behmard,

’93, reside in Salem, OR.

1992Birth: A daughter, Sylvia Anne, to Tony Haden, Cx

’92, and Vanessa Stark Haden on September 3, 2004.Birth: A daughter, Elizabeth Parker Justice, to

Della Justice, 93, and Troy Price.

1993David Hay and Hope Wells Hay, ’96, reside in

Winchester, KY. They have one son, Nick, age 6. Hope is a

30thSUMMERREUNION

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registered nurse and David is a lieutenant with theKentucky State Police in Dry Ridge, KY.

1994Celita Sexton-Eden is a guidance counselor at

Lexington Christian Academy in Lexington, KY. She earnedher master’s degree in school guidance at EKU. Celita and

Darrel Eden, Cx ’95 serve as foster parents inMadison County, KY.

Laura Manning Evans works for Child Focus as afamily advocate. Laura and her husband, Chris Evans, currently reside in Amelia, OH with their 3 children.

Timothy Jones and Melissa Jennings, ’95,adopted a son, Peyton Brant Adrian Jones, born January6, 2005 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Grandparents areGlenn Jennings, ’72, and Linda Jennings of Berea.

Wayan ‘Mas’ Mastriyana and Wati Mastriyana,Cx ’98, reside in Richmond, VA. Mas is working withVirginia Commonwealth University as international credentials evaluator. They have a son, Vidyaprojua.

1995Kelly Kissick Overstreet, Cx ’95, and John

Overstreet, Cx ’96, reside in Mt. Sterling, KY with theirson Gaerik Caeian, born July 30, 2004.

1996Birth: A son, Jude Eron Brown, to Jason E.

Brown and Jennifer L. Kolkhorst Brown, ’98, on May30, 2005. They have two other sons, Jeb and Jaron.

Lyn Grotke works as trip coordinator for theAugusta Recreation Bureau. She has a daughter, Rhianan,and a son, Ridge. They reside in Augusta, ME.

Tara Welch Okullo, Cx ’96, and Pele Okullo, Cx’96, celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. Theystarted their own company, PSC Engineers.

Michael D. Thiel II and his wife Lisa celebratedtheir 8th anniversary. He is a director with AutomatikEducation, an automotive manufacturing consulting firmin Phoenix, AZ.

Renee Hood Yarhouse is married and has adaughter, Kaitlyn. She works part-time at Indian RiverCommunity College in Fort Pierce, FL.

1997Kristi Parker Hargis is a second grade teacher

with Campbell County Schools in Tennessee. Ross, herhusband, teaches preschool at Eagle Bluff Daycare.

Mark Williamson currently works for WyethPharmaceuticals as a territory manager. He received amaster’s of business administration from Ohio Universityin 2001.

Abe Douglas Wireman is employed withKentucky Division of Waste Management as an inspector.Crystal Wireman is a registered nurse. They have one son,Connor Douglas.

1998Birth: A daughter, Lauren Grace “Gracie” Eldridge,

to Laurie Goodwin Eldridge and Jay Eldridge onJanuary 2, 2005.

Nathan Hauke teaches physical education atHomerville Elementary and Middle schools. He is in his

8th year of teaching and serves as athletic director at theHomerville Middle School in Winchester, OH.

Birth: A son, Nathin Alexander Hicks, to LibbyClabo Hicks, ’00, and Derek Hicks on March 15, 2005.Libby received her master’s ranking one from CumberlandCollege in 1998. She is employed at Bell Elementary in WayneCounty, KY. The family currently resides in Bronston, KY.

Birth: A son, Ross Matthew Knight, to Erin RossKnight and Jim Knight on November 23, 2004.

Amy Hammond Ward is married and has twochildren. She teaches family and consumer sciences at thehigh school level.

1999Birth: A daughter, Katherine Elizabeth, to Cynthia

Andrade-Chyobotov and Maxim Chyobotov on May 7,2004.

Amanda Ott Armstrong and her husband Johnhave two children, Reily and Grace. Amanda is the child caremanager at Rainbow Children’s Center in Coshocton, OH.

Birth: A son, Timothy Ryan Delano, to DanielMartin Delano and Stephanie Hillen Delano, ’00, onOctober 5, 2005.

Gerald Hevener, Jr. will complete his master’sdegree in information systems from Marshall University.He plans to attend a doctoral program.

Birth: A daughter to Courtney Dike Moore andScott Moore, ’00 on September 16, 2005.

Birth: A daughter, Aravis Caniad Wilder, to AngelaIsaacson Wilder, Cx ’99, and Javari Wilder on March20, 2005.

2000Birth: A daughter, Caroline Grace Ballard, to

Jeremy David Ballard and Rachel Scudder Ballard,’02 on February 26, 2005.

Birth: A daughter, Sophie, to Wesley ‘Tad’ Brewerand Natalie Smith-Brewer, ’01, on December 6, 2005.They also have a son Drake. Tad works in Somerset atSherwin Williams and Natalie works in Lexington at St.Joseph East Hospital. They reside in Berea.

Vanessa Jones Bullock and Dr. David Bullockreside in Mt. Vernon, KY with their daughter, Bailey Lynn.

Reverend J. Curtis Goforth currently resides inBadin, NC.

Married: Jeremy Grant to Maggie Brewer inBerea on October 8, 2005. He is employed at MadisonSouthern High School as an English teacher.

Birth: A daughter, Addison Laurel McLaughlin, to Melissa Homan-McClaughlin on November 25, 2005.

Kortney Carr Johnson completed a master ofarts in secondary education in history at the University ofAlabama.

Married: Dana Wadsworth Seymour to GregMencer, Cx ’01, in August 2003. The couple resides inLittle Valley, NY. Dana is a plant protection and quarantineofficer with the USDA. Greg is a home energy auditor fora nonprofit human services agency. They are certified fos-ter parents.

Married: Asala C. McCoy Willis to Patrick Willison April 30, 2005.

Married: Jennifer Wooten, Cx ’00, to Matt VanNostran. They reside in Nelsonville, OH.

2001Andrew Hogue, Cx ’01, is employed as a

bookseller at The Book Gallery in Bowling Green, KY. Heis a member of the Cedar Cross Missionary BaptistChurch where he is a licensed minister. He does historicalresearch into Appalachian United Missionary BaptistChurches and has prepared a manuscript for publication.

Soneath Hor was in Cairo, Egypt duringNovember and December 2005.

Ashley Matthews graduated from Wright StateUniversity with a master’s of science degree in communitycounseling. She is a therapist working with children andtheir parents.

Married: Dolly Wilson Relford to Brian KaseyRelford on November 11, 2005. Noah Arevalo, ’02, wasgroomsman and Ali Arevalo, ’02, was the matron ofhonor. Kasey works for IBM and Dolly is an accountantfor a health care company.

Lauren Roth served two years with AmeriCorpsservice after graduation, and is in her first year of medicalschool at the University of Vermont.

Married: Michelle L. Van Vleet, to Jeffrey A.Webb on July 30, 2005. They reside in San Antonio, TX.

David Wilson received his master’s degree in education from Mount Vernon Nazarene University in thefall of 2005. Nicole Black-Wilson works for theElectronic Classroom of Tomorrow, an e-school in Ohio.They reside in Bexley, OH with their son, Isaiah Henry.

2002Gretchen Bolton is currently serving as a Peace

Corps volunteer in Portland, Jamaica working on literacy,small business development, and computer training withthe community of Windsor Castle.

Rick Branham resides in Brodhead, KY andrecently accepted a position with the Hertz RentalCorporation. He is the branch manager for theWinchester location.

Married: Dana Mason Carrera to AndrewCarrera on July 30, 2005.

Catherine Morgan is attending Harvard DivinitySchool in Cambridge, MS. She resides in Berea during thesummer.

Renata Montgomery Farmer is employed at theUniversity of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service as afamily and consumer science agent. Adam Farmer, ’04,is employed by Wayne’s Supply as an engine mechanic.The couple resides in Barbourville, KY.

Deborah Payne will complete a master’s degreeof public health at the University of Kentucky in May 2006.

Melissa Cromer Renner is married and lives inMt. Vernon, KY with her two-year old twin daughters, Laraand Lizabeth. Melissa plans to begin graduate school atEKU this spring to earn a master’s degree in teaching.

2003Bethany Herman Archer and her husband reside

in Findlay, OH. Bethany is teaching health and physicaleducation at Van Buren local schools in Van Buren, OH.She also is the varsity cross country coach.

Jeremiah K. Duerson is a programmer/analyst atEastern Kentucky University.

Miranda Gibson is in the doctoral program forpharmaceutical sciences at the University of Kentucky.

41

Passages150 Years of Labor, Learning, and Service

Married: Joe Bob Thompson to MelissaMitchum on July 8, 2005. They reside in Louisville, KY,where he is a supervisor at RJF International.

Brandy Shawn Adkins Whisman is working asan outpatient therapist with Cumberland RiverComprehensive Care in McKee, KY. In August, Brandygave birth to a daughter, Cameron Grace. She and herhusband also have another daughter, Allora.

2004Crystal Baldwin was named Vermont TRIO

Achiever at the Vermont Educational OpportunitiesPrograms annual conference. The award is given to theVermont TRIO student that most exemplifies a commitmentto their education. Crystal serves as assistant to the president at Berea College.

Mary Drewnoski is working on her master’sdegree in animal science at North Carolina StateUniversity in Raleigh, NC.

Laura Heaberlin is a sales manager at an S & KMenswear in Nashville, TN.

Juli Kiddle is the controller for Embassy SuitesHotel. She lives in Hampton, VA.

Married: La’Quita Middleton to Azizi A.Singleton on March 1, 2005 in Birmingham, AL. La’Quitais employed at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute as agroup tour coordinator.

2005Tiffany Love Clark is currently a graduate stu-

dent at Indiana University. Birth: A daughter, Kaylee Nicole Garrell, to Diana

Brock Garrell and Richard Garrell, on November 30, 2005.Ravi KCis a graduate student at Purdue University.Birth: A son, Jeremiah Durand McKinzie, to

Samantha Stowers McKinzie and Xavier McKinzie,’03. They currently reside in Grayson, GA.

Katrina Neal works as a family advocate for AHelping Hand, a nonprofit, Christian international adoption agency that places infants from China.

Hallel Parsons is working on a master’s degreein social justice and intercultural relations.

Ashley Hall Rotty and Jeremy Rotty married inJune 2005 and reside in Baltimore. Ashley is a kinder-garten teacher pursing a master’s in education atHopkins. Jeremy is in the doctoral program at JohnsHopkins Medical School.

Emerald Skirvin is working on a master of artsin marriage and family therapy at Louisville PresbyterianTheological Seminary.

Rebecca Wheat resides in Berea, KY. Kim White received a master’s degree in general

psychology in the summer of 2005.Baron Wolf resides in Lexington, KY and is working

as a research analyst at Eastern Kentucky University.Michael Woodall is a chemical analyst with Alcan

Rolled Products.

1920s Kathryn Dick Christopher, ’28, of Merrillville,

TN, former admissions counselor, died February 2003.

1930s Selma Downs Smiths, Cx ’30, of Willow

Ridge, NC died on January 19, 2006. Lillian Johnson Cope, Cx ’34, of Lexington,

KY died on January 13, 2006. She was retired from theBlue Grass Army Depot.

Annie Lee Goins Green, ’35, of Morganton,NC died on January 9, 2006. She was retired from theU.S. Navy after an enlistment of 26 years in the medicalfield.

Colfax Christian McDaniel, Cx ’35 of Arab,AL died on July 12, 2004.

Susan Lillian Arthur, ’36, of Barbourville, KYdied on November 15, 2005. She was a librarian forBerea College.

Hollis Henson, ’36, of Liberty, KY died onDecember 19, 2005. He is survived by his wife of 65years, Louise Mountz Henson, and children.

Sallie Yale Lycan, ’37, of Black Mountain, NCdied on November 19, 2005.

Bessie Hale Witt, ’37, of Frankfort, KY died onDecember 26, 2005. She was a consultant nurse withthe Kentucky State Department of Health.

Virginia Slagle Butler, ’38, of Conway, SC diedon October 22, 2005.

Estelle Arms Emshoff, ’38, of Robstown, KYdied on December 7, 2005. She is survived by her sonCarl of Grand Prairie, TX and her brother Fred SevierArms, ’38, of Danville KY.

Robert Galloway, ’38, of Centerville, OH diedon March 16, 2005. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Arlene Spriggs Galloway.

Wayne Odell Lowman, ’38, of Forest City, NCdied on September 13, 2005. He is survived by his wife,Agnes Lowman.

Rubye Wilson Stover, ’39, of Mooreville, NCdied on October 23, 2005. She taught for 33 years.

1940s Jeff Burden, ’41, of Powell, TN died on

November 22, 2005. He is survived by his wife, LeonaPatterson Burden and children.

Mary Rector Haltom, Cx ’41, of Ukiah, CA isdeceased.

Dr. Onnie M. Hartsell Jr., ’41, of Tuscon AZ,died December 1, 2005.

Ruth Rominger Davis, ’42, of Berea, KY diedon January 1, 2006. She is survived by her daughtersMina Davis, ‘79, and Vicky Roark.

Gladys Franklin Houck ’42 of Raleigh, NCdied on December 12, 2005.

Helen Patrick Kinner, ’42, of Ashland, KYdied on October 18, 2005. She taught at Charles RussellElementary School for 35 years.

Verva Coleman Rocke, ’42, of Hazel Crest, IL,is deceased. She is survived by her husband, Sol Rocke.

Louise Monical Zimmerman, Cx ’42, ofLexington, KY died on November 6, 2005.

Kate David Dotson, ’43, of Forth Worth, TXdied on January 10, 2006. She was a teacher for 35 years.

Kathleen Stevers Whittaker, Cx ’43, ofEggleston, VA on December 16, 2005.

Dr. Thomas P. Hubbard, ’44, of Richardson,TX died on October 19, 2005. He served as a treasurerfor his church for 33 years. He is survived by his wife,Pearle Scott Hubbard, ’43.

Eugene E. Roth, Navy V-12 ’44, of ArlingtonHeights, IL died on October 25, 2005. He was a 31-yearmember of the First Presbyterian Church of ArlingtonHeights. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, DorothyRoth, and his children.

Calvin Orr West, Navy V-12 ’44, of Kenner, LAdied on September 30, 2005. He was a retired ownerand manager of Codman Transmission Franchise. He issurvived by his wife of 57 years, Edythe West.

Frank M. Heinze, ’45, of Prestonsburg, KYdied December 10, 2005.

Bertha Loretta Inman Herd, ’45, of Hamilton,OH died on January 19, 2006.

John Heinze, Cx ’47, of Prestonsburg, KY diedon July 31, 2005. He was a U.S. Air Force, World War IIveteran.

Alice M. Russell, ’47, of Hadley, MA died onDecember 12, 2005.

Marjorie Lee Davenport, ’48, of Flemingsburg,KY died on November 5, 2005. She is survived by herhusband Ray B. Davenport and children.

Ervin Connelly, ’49, who retired from theCollege purchasing department in 1990 died February2, 2006. He is survived by his wife, Helen BarnesConnelly, ’48, and three children, Sarah Vaughn,’77, Steven Connelly, ’74, all of Berea, KY and ClarkConnelly, ‘80, of Atlanta.

June Allen Fisher, ’49, of Lakewood, OH diedon December 26, 2005. She is survived by her husband, Douglas Fisher.

Flo Fugate Stafford, ’49, of Johnson City, TNdied on October 6, 2004.

Eleanor Panter Wiegand, ’49, of Mentor, OHdied on October 6, 2005. She taught at Addison,Collinwood, and Euclid high schools.

1950sFrances Kiely Prince, ’51, died April 5, 2004.

The “Passages” section of the BereaCollege Magazine honors Bereanswho have passed away. If you knowof a Berean who has died, please letthe Alumni Association know bycalling 1.866.804.0591, or [email protected]. Pleaseinclude the person’s class year orconnection to Berea, and the dateand place of death.

Passages

Estella Arms Elmshoff, ’38


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Dr. Harry Donald Nash, ’56, of Covington, KYdied on January 4, 2006. He was a U.S. Army veteran, amicrobiologist, and researcher for 28 years with the U.S.Public Health Environmental Protection Agency.

James Dan Skean, ’56, retired microbiology professor at Western Kentucky University, died on January26, 2005. He is survived by four sons, Danny, Mark, Tim,and Tom, and by his wife of 17 years, Barbara Whites-Skean of Alvaton, KY. He was preceded in death by hisfirst wife, Nellie Ann Sherill, ’52.

Louis M. Godbey, Cx ’57, of Antioch, TN died onFebruary 8, 2001. He was a retired assistant state conservationist from the U.S. Department of Agricultureafter 37 years.

Willard Aubrey Etherington Jr, Cx ’58, ofSpringfield, KY, died on November 3, 2005.

Reverend Joy Dedman Gasta ’59, of Nashville,TN died on October 2, 2005.

1960sVirginia Neal Lee, ’60, of Oak Ridge, TN died on

October 13, 2005. She worked at Oak Ridge Laboratoryfor 34 years. She is survived by her husband, Elmer Lee.

Darrell Glenn Davis, ’61, of Columbia, MO diedon December 23, 2005. He worked with USDA for 26years. He is survived by his wife Bonnie Finley Davis, ’63.

Robert Lee Polk, ’62, of Clifton, VA died January22, 2006. He was a retired general counsel with theMetro transit agency. He is survived by his wife of 31years, Barbara “Bobbie” Polk.

Richard Pendleton, husband of Edney Pendleton,‘63 died on October 3, 2005.

1970sGene Hampton Amos, ’70, of Martinsville, VA

died on November 8, 2005. He retired from the VirginiaCooperative Extension after working 26 years. He is survived by his wife, Mary Amos, and a daughter, TonyaMichelle Amos Estores.

Nancy Meade Bowens, ’71, of Gray, KY died onDecember 30, 2005.

Dr. Michael Mauk, ’73, of California died onJanuary 13, 2006. He is survived by his mother, companion Dave McKague, and two sisters.

1980sDoster John Esh, ’85 of Richmond, KY died on

October 22, 2005. He taught English at Eastern KentuckyUniversity for 20 years. He is survived by his son, DosterJ. Esh, and companion, Diane Wright.

Faculty/StaffHelen Barlow Baucom, mother of Jane B.

Stephenson and resident of Banner Elk, NC, died Wed.,Jan. 25, 2006 at the Hospice Care Center at St. JosephHospital in Lexington, KY. She was preceded in death byher husband, Braxton L. Baucom and is survived by herdaughter, and grandchildren, Jennifer McLamb, RebeccaStephenson, David Stephenson, and Victoria Stephenson,all of Lexington, KY. An avid gardener, Helen Baucom wasa member of the Banner Elk Garden Club and a lifelongactive member of the Banner Elk Presbyterian Church.

Owen Presley, who was associate vice presidentof business at the College until 1991, died in Ft.Lauderdale, FL in February 2006. He is survived by hiswife Margaret, daughter Roxanna, and three grandchildren.

College OfficersM. Elizabeth Culbreth, ’64

Chair of the BoardDr. Larry D. Shinn

PresidentDr. Carolyn R. Newton

Academic Vice President and ProvostDr. Stephanie P. Browner

Dean of the FacultyGail W. Wolford

Vice President for Labor and Student Life E. Diane Kerby, ’75

Vice President for Business and Administration

Jeffrey AmburgeyVice President for Finance

Dr. William A. Laramee Vice President for Alumni and College Relations

Judge B. Wilson II, ’78General Counsel and Secretary

College TrusteesM. Elizabeth Culbreth, Arlington VA

Chair of the BoardDr. Larry D. Shinn, Berea KY

President of the CollegeVance E. Blade, ’82, Louisville KYNancy E. Blair, Stamford CTAnn Bowling, Vero Beach FL Dr. Robert N. Compton, ’60, Oak Ridge TNMartin A. Coyle, Sonoma CAJan Hunley Crase, Cx’60, Somerset KYDr. Chella S. David, ’61, Rochester MNPhilip D. DeFeo, New Canaan CT Glenn R. Fuhrman, New York NY James P. Gray II, Lexington KY Hon. William R. Gruver, Eagles Mere PAHeather Sturt Haaga, La Canñada CADonna S. Hall, Lexington KY Marian L. Heard, Natick MA Dr. Geneva B. Johnson, Brookfield WI Rev. Canon Lucinda Rawlings Laird

Louisville KYBrenda T. Larsen, Kiawah SC Dr. Eugene Y. Lowe, Jr., Evanston IL Dr. Elissa May-Plattner, Camp Springs KY Dr. Harold L. Moses, ’58, Nashville TN James E. Nevels, West Chester PADr. Charles Ward Seabury II, Westlake

Village CADr. David E. Shelton, ’69, Wilkesboro NC Mark Stitzer, Greenwich CTDavid S. Swanson, Walpole METyler S. Thompson, ’83, Louisville KYDavid O. Welch, ’55, Ashland KYDawneda F. Williams, Wise VADrausin F. Wulsin, Cincinnati OHRobert T. Yahng, ’63, Kentfield CA

Honorary TrusteesAlberta Wood Allen, Bethesda MDDr. John Aulden Auxier, ’51, Lenoir City TNJames T. Bartlett, Cleveland OHBarry Bingham, Jr., Glenview KYJack W. Buchanan, ’46, Jensen Beach FLFrederic L. Dupree, Jr., V-12, ’45, Lexington KYKate Ireland, Tallahassee FLDr. Juanita M. Kreps, ’42, Durham NCDr. Alice R. Manicur, ’54, Frostburg MDThomas H . Oliver, Dataw Island SCKroger Pettengill, Cincinnati OHWilma Dykeman Stokely, Asheville NCR. Elton White, ’65, Sarasota FL

Berea College Alumnireceive a 20% discount

on all rooms. For reservations please call

1.800.366.9358.

Enjoy the essence of Southern hospitality

at the historic Boone Tavern

of Berea College.


H I S T O R I C Experience elegant Southerncharm and hospitality at Historic Boone Tavern

of Berea College.

Since 1909 the historic Boone Tavern has served both locals and traveling guests with its beautifully decorated guest

rooms and its traditionally elegant dining room. The dining room features the exquisite culinary artistry of Boone Tavern’s

award-winning Chef A.J. Caudill. You will enjoy newly created entrees, as well as delicious time-honored recipes, such as

homemade spoon bread and chicken flakes in a bird’s nest—all served by attentive students and staff.

COLLEGE MAGAZINEPeriodical postage paid at Berea, KY and additionalmailing offices. Send address changes to BereaCollege Magazine, c/o Berea College AlumniAssociation, CPO Box 2203, Berea, KY 40404

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