Bill and Loretta Helmuth, both 1963 graduates, went on to careers in medicine and nursing, respectively. The couple has participated in several volunteer medical missions and spent two years donating their time, money, and expertise to the founding of medical clinics in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Loretta Miller Helmuth ’63 remembers a time when EMC faculty were required to wear “plain coats”: Her father, Ira E. Miller ‘31, was among them. In 1956 he became the second dean of EMC.
Loretta also remembers faculty in cape dresses, black stockings, and prayer covering strings, and some years later, discussions about hair worn under or hair out from under prayer coverings, let alone whether or not they should be worn at all.
Changes from plain to more mainstream dress were a big deal, she notes.
She has memories, too, of controversies in the wider American culture: of going to the Harrisonburg bus station and choosing to drink from the colored water fountain. “Someone said, ‘Little girl, that’s not for you,’ and I told them, ‘I know what I’m doing.’” (Some years later, her father was one of the first pastors in Virginia to marry an interracial couple.)
When changes are made, she reflects, what’s important is how they are made: “deliberately, prayerfully, and carefully.”
Loretta’s husband, Bill Helmuth, had similar experiences. He grew up attending an interracial church in Cleveland in the late ‘40s and ‘50s. When he arrived in Harrisonburg from Ohio to finish out his last year at Eastern Mennonite High School, he found a less open environment and almost left. “It was the civil rights era, and I didn’t see racism on campus, but I didn’t see anybody doing anything about it, either.”
Despite his discomfort, Bill stayed on for two reasons: first (of course), “I met Loretta,” he says, and second, “the pre-med program was excellent.” He would go on to medical school at Case Western Reserve University and a career in neonatology and pediatrics with a sub-specialty in child abuse. Bill started the first non-university-affiliated Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the United States. For many years, he worked in public health and medical administration.
As the couple moved around the country with Bill’s career, they joined churches with social justice at the forefront of their mission. They moved from Cleveland to Atlanta to Elmira, New York, and are now with the First United Methodist Church of Charlotte (FUMC) in North Carolina. FUMC has an active program for the homeless. It is also part of the Reconciling Ministries Network, a group of UM churches that mobilizes UM members of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
Based on their understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, Bill and Loretta decided in 2011 that they could no longer contribute to organizations with what they perceived as discriminatory policies against gays and lesbians. EMU was among those in question.
With EMU’s recent update in hiring policies, however, the Helmuths are able to give enthusiastically, believing that EMU demonstrated prayerful care and thought in discernment around a contentious and controversial topic.
“Bill and I were both blessed to have had wonderful parents who were non-judgmental. All four of our parents taught us to think for ourselves, listening to their guidance and the guidance of others, but first to listen to God. We learned what they lived.”
Those convictions are evident as Bill and Loretta give generously to EMU and numerous other organizations whose missions align with their passion to advocate for marginalized people.