The Bulletin – Fall 2013
Expanding the Sound Pool…
Expanding the Sound Pool…
A St. Louis-based organization called Project Peanut Butter (PPB), which produces fortified peanut butter for malnourished children in Africa, needed two people with construction experience and the flexibility to spend a year abroad. Mark Histand '08 and Alex Caskey '10 had both.
"As a college whose peacemaking roots run deep, naming one of our core values “peacemaking” seems obvious to me..."
"Mary Oyer’s passionate quest and openness to expanding the musical canon, the 'sound pool,' of the Mennonite church and of Goshen College to be more than mere perfect imitation will prove to be, in my estimation, one of her greatest legacies."
Though it was well known in her family, community and college that Lois Mary Gunden Clemens ’36 (Goshen College French professor 1939-41, 1944-58) had served in southern France during World War II with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), helped many children and had been a prisoner of war for a year, the extent to which she risked her own safety and played a critical role in helping to save Jewish children’s lives during the Holocaust recently came to light with the research of her niece Mary Jean Gunden ’77.
When Isaac Steiner, 7, died on March 6, 2013, after a 21-month struggle with brain cancer, his parents, Rob and Sarah Steiner ’98, were devastated. Though the experience of Isaac’s illness was agonizing, the Steiners found that having meaningful nursing care made a difference. As a tribute to their son and his nurses, they recently established a scholarship for Goshen College nursing students in the hope that recipients will provide the same kind of compassionate care that Isaac received.
Merritt Lehman ’64 won the gold medal at the World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston in February. In the process, he set a new American record in the 2,000 meters for the 70-79 lightweight age group.
The day of March 29, 1921 found Vesta Zook (Slagel), a 1915 graduate, and Vinora Weaver (Salzman), a 1918 graduate, in the New York City harbor boarding the SS Regina d’Italia ship for a 19-day voyage to Constantinople. Three months earlier they had gotten the call to become the first “lady workers” with the fledgling relief organization Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
Few people can say that they created a Tony award-winning costume, but Laura Charles '00 can. Charles, who honed her costume design skills as a Goshen College theater major, lives in New York City and works for a shop called Tricorne that produces costumes for Broadway shows.
It all started when Hannah Sommers '96, of Washington, D.C., landed an internship at National Public Radio (NPR) in 2001. A few years later, Sommers was hired by the organization as an audio archivist. Today, as program manager, she leads a team that develops digital toolsets and workflows.