On a fall morning in 1978, Leonard Dow ’87 left his home in working class Philadelphia and arrived at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, Pa. He was one of 30 black freshmen and sophomores recruited by Lancaster Mennonite Conference to integrate the 400-member mostly white student body. Dow, a ninth-grader, traveled no more ...More
When Chester Wenger ’36 became acquainted with Sara Jane Weaver ’42, he found her “so beautiful and loveable I couldn’t resist,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. Something else beguiled Chester. “It impressed me to see a young woman stand up there teaching the Bible to a whole roomful of children,” holding their ...More
Seven candles were lit at an April 29 memorial service in Martin Chapel: one for Michael Jesse “M.J.” Sharp ’05 and one for each of his colleagues, some like Sharp confirmed dead, others still missing, in the Kasai-Central province area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sharp was on a UN mission when he ...More
In his native Spain and beyond, Anxo Pérez ’97 has become an inspirational speaker and author. His message: “Don’t admire success, admire effort.” Pérez founded 8Belts.com, an internet-based language-learning program centered upon oral repetition and conversation with native speakers, rather than grammar and theory. The company employs more than 100 people in nine countries, with ...More
Laura Rosenberger ’03 was either 4 or 5 when she bounced out of her pediatrician’s office one day exclaiming, “I want to be just like Dr. Kopp when I grow up.” Rosenberger didn’t recall the incident but it became family lore as the years passed and she never wavered in her desire to become a ...More
On April 29, Mark Risser graduated from Eastern Mennonite University. His cousin, Elisabeth Barthlow, 22, of Cleveland, Tenn., officially received her diploma in December, but walked across the stage with him this spring. Touching, but there’s more. The cousins are just two of nearly two dozen family members to attend EMU over the last half-century. ...More
January 13, 2016 – 10:34 am
There is no question that the people and relationships make this work worthwhile. Having done this work at the same organization for almost 20 years, the relationships are what keep me going. I have gotten to know three generations in some families, with donors in each generation. I continue to be amazed at how much ...More
January 13, 2016 – 10:29 am
Cedric Moore Jr. ’99 knows what it’s like to be busy. Since graduating from EMU with a degree in social work, Moore has earned two more degrees, become a father, been appointed by the governor to an advisory board, and started his own business in partnership with his wife, who also holds a PhD. (Here’s ...More
The ink was hardly dry on the law diploma of Donald E. Showalter ’62 when the local court appointed him to defend a young woman accused of murder. In the end, after the jury deliberated for only 20 minutes, the woman was acquitted. “I was instantly Perry Mason,” says Showalter, referring to a lawyer on ...More
January 13, 2015 – 12:50 pm
It all started in a corner of EMU’s old administration building in 1980. Two employees began tinkering – on their own time − with ways for colleges and universities to manage their administrative affairs with a new technology called computers. The employees – Dwight Wyse ‘68, the school’s director of business affairs, and Mark Shank, ...More
