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An expansive view
From junior professor to president, John K. Sheriff has grown along with his roles at Bethel over 40-plus years.
by Melanie Zuercher
There is, quite literally, no one currently working at Bethel College who has seen as much of its history as John Sheriff, interim president.
With the naming of a new president, John will retire this summer after 43 years of teaching and administration, all (save three years completing a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma) at Bethel.
“There is no one left at the college who was here when I came [in 1967],” John says. “My experience here is always in the context that includes all those faculty and staff with whom I worked – I get a lot of joy out of remembering people and relationships. When I was a young professor, they welcomed and mentored me.”
John got his B.A. at Greenville (Ill.) College, a small church-affiliated liberal arts institution, and had just earned his M.A. at the University of Illinois when he came to Bethel as a replacement in the English department for Janet Juhnke ’64, who left for graduate school. The department then included “Christine Miller, who was known for teaching the short story. Honora Becker ’24 was phasing out. Jean Wedel ’58 came not long after – Raylene Hinz-Penner ’70 was hired after Jean left [in 1976]. Anna Juhnke was in her first year when I came to interview.”
These were John’s colleagues for much of the next 30 years. In 1995, Doug Penner ’69 became Bethel president and Raylene, his wife, “decided to become part of the presidency [as a member of the development staff]. Anna had cancer and decided to retire. We hired Brad Born ’84 and Ami Regier ’85.”
John’s first office at Bethel was “a closet,” he says, “a 6’ x 8’ room on the second floor of the Ad Building. But I didn’t mind – to think of going to work, dressed up, and teaching classes was amazing.” The space beneath the chapel balcony was soon closed in for faculty offices and John had the middle one for the next 29 years.
“The classes I most enjoyed teaching were American Literature, Shakespeare and Modern Critical Theory,” John says. “I don’t think I ever taught a course where I didn’t enjoy the time in the classroom, although I did sometimes get tired of reading and grading papers.
“Relationships with students were always the best part of [teaching],” he continues. “I enjoyed all my students, and many became lifelong friends.”
In 1975, Keith Sprunger, professor emeritus of history, on a Boy Scout camping trip with the men’s sons, encouraged John to begin offering the interterm travel course Literary London. “Elsie and I took 10 groups of students to England between 1975 and 2002,” John recalls.
Another high point during his teaching years, John says, was publication (in 1991 and 1996) of the two-volume set of Bethel faculty and staff essays, A Drink from the Stream. “The books reflected the respect I had for my colleagues,” John says. “I wanted to share some of their thinking and writing [with a wider audience].”
It’s obvious John’s students and colleagues have returned his regard. He received the Ralph P. Schrag Distinguished Teaching Award in 1997, was twice the recipient of the David H. Richert Distinguished Scholar Award (1988 and 1995) and in 1990 was named to the Ernest E. Leisy Distinguished Chair in English.
The “second section” of John’s career at Bethel began in 1997 when, after a national search, he was offered the position of academic dean/vice president for academic affairs. “I was coming off four years as faculty chair,” he says. “I had served on about every committee there was, some of them twice.”
Being dean had the benefit of opening up the Mennonite academic world to John. “After 30 years, my image of Mennonites was Bethel. I had been on no other [Mennonite] campus except Hesston College.” Thanks to the Marpeck Fund, established by Robert Kreider ’39, professor emeritus of peace studies, and his brother Gerald Kreider ’42 to foster interchanges between North American Mennonite college and seminary administrators, John was able to visit all the other Mennonite colleges in the United States and Canada as dean.
John served as dean in the administrations of Doug Penner ’69 (1995-2002) and E. Laverne Epp ’72 (2002-05) and as executive vice president for institutional development in the administration of Barry C. Bartel ’84 (2006-09). He was interim president 2005-06 as well as 2009-10.
In his first term as interim president, he says, “We had done so much [institutional] planning, my goal was to keep the momentum going and possibly speed it up. It was much easier than the second time, when we were facing a loss of students [low enrollment], an unexpected [presidential] transition and not a great sense of community.
“I give credit to the administrative cabinet, faculty and staff who, when challenged [in this past year] to pick up leadership and to get things done, they did. We are moving ahead – with revising the curriculum, restructuring the admissions department, restoring fiscal planning, creating the adventure course and community gardens, opening the Agape Center for campus ministries, adding women’s softball, building new tennis courts and pushing forward the renovation of the Academic Center.
“I don’t want the credit, but I would like this year to be recorded as a year when good things happened. Many students have said it was their best year at Bethel.”
Looking back over 40 years at Bethel, he says he thinks almost exclusively of high points. “I was able to be a teacher in a college. I was able to [get a three-year leave and] complete a Ph.D. I had four sabbaticals and produced a book manuscript after each one, with three published by university presses. Bethel gave me lots of opportunities – I don’t feel like there were any of my academic goals that I didn’t meet. Although I never aspired to be an administrator, as interim president, the great gift has been getting out into the constituency and learning about [alumni feelings of ownership in the college]. My experience of what Bethel is has expanded with every new position.
“When I look back, I don’t think of the challenges. I don’t remember the tensions, conflicts, disagreements. I remember the people – students and colleagues – and I remember them positively, even those with whom I had philosophical disagreements. That’s a part of getting older – you get past your own fears, anxieties and insecurities and you’re much more willing to be open, to listen, to appreciate people.”
As John anticipates retirement – spending more time at the cabin he and Elsie own in Colorado, writing projects that include working with extensive interviews he did with his late father – he still thinks about Bethel’s future.
“I would like to see Bethel with strong leadership into the future, in administration primarily but also in the faculty,” he says, “who understand academia and the changes occurring in academia, and what it means to higher education to succeed as a business.
“I don’t want to lose the quality [and strengths] of this place,” he says, “but I would like to see us increase our willingness to change. I want to see Bethel become more agile in meeting changes.”
Physics, philosophy, synergy: Don Lemons retires from 23 years at Bethel
In 1987, after nine years as a full-time researcher in physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Don Lemons wanted a change.
“I knew I wanted to go into teaching,” he says. “My ideal was a liberal arts college. I had no connections to Bethel – I just saw an ad in Physics Today.”
Don, professor of physics, took early retirement at the end of the 2009-10 school year.
For his first five years, he was the physics department at Bethel. In 1992, Tracy Tuttle came on board, first replacing Don for what became a three-year leave of absence while he was assistant editor of American Journal of Physics and visiting professor at Amherst College.
Don also continued to work summers at Los Alamos – “I’ve only missed one in 23 years,” he says. “There’s a good synergy between Los Alamos [a national security lab] and Bethel, as strange as it sounds. I learned good physics at Los Alamos that helped me create and advise senior seminars, with resources not available here. Teaching made me a better physicist to apply to my work at Los Alamos.”
Starting around 1994 or 1995, after Marion Deckert retired, Don began teaching philosophy at Bethel. He had gone straight through B.A. (1972, University of New Mexico), M.A. and Ph.D. (1974 and 1977, The College of William and Mary) and then, almost 15 years later, completed an M.A. in liberal education at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M. This was a “Great Books graduate program, where you read all original sources, texts that have withstood the test of time,” Don says.
“I’ve always been interested in reading original sources, [especially] in philosophy,” he continues. “I completed the degree in the summers. It has allowed me to do some things at Bethel I wouldn’t have otherwise by giving me the confidence.” In addition to teaching philosophy courses, he has also led the freshman College Issues Colloquy and taught the senior capstone course, Basic Issues of Faith and Life (BIFL) a number of times.
“Teaching BIFL has been a challenge,” he says, “but the kind that allowed me to grow in directions that have been good for me.”
In retirement, he says he will continue consulting at Los Alamos, “maybe a little more [than in past years],” and plans to do more writing. “I do two kinds of writing – research projects and writing for undergraduate physics students. I’ve come to really enjoy that, and it’s been hard to find time for it outside sabbaticals.” Melanie Zuercher
Investment in quality: Richard Zerger retires after 36 years of teaching
An opportunity for professional growth and the chance to teach at his alma mater lured Richard Zerger ’69 to Bethel in 1995.
He had by that time been teaching chemistry at McPherson College for 21 years. “I had tenure there and could have continued,” he says. “I knew of some things going on here at Bethel and at that time there was not a lot of opportunity to stretch myself professionally at McPherson. Bethel was starting to get desktop computers and to network the campus, and it was more progressive in terms of academic support and an emphasis on scholarship.”
“It was a good decision,” says Richard, professor of chemistry, who took early retirement at the end of the 2009-10 school year. “I accomplished and gained what I thought and hoped I would.”
One thing Richard is proudest of is Krehbiel Science Center, completed in 2002. “That was a major event,” he says. “I was significantly involved, as the liaison between the architect and the STEM [Science, Technology, pre-Engineering and Mathematics] faculty.”
He points to a large roll of paper in the corner of his office. “Those are the blueprints – every water faucet, electrical outlet and gas jet. I looked at all of it and discussed it with my colleagues. I ordered the furniture [for offices, labs, meeting rooms and classrooms] in consultation with the faculty. I spent hours with [customer service] reps. It was a major undertaking for about a year.
“I am really invested in this building,” he concludes. “We finally have a building to match the quality of our teaching.”
A class Richard was known for was geology, taught in interterm, which he brought back into Bethel’s science curriculum after many years’ absence and for which he built a significant rock collection. The class included a field trip of about a week to Big Bend National Park on the Texas-Mexico border and other sites of geological interest in Texas. “It gave students an affordable interterm trip,” he says.
Perhaps the biggest change, in addition to KSC, that he has seen in his 15 years at Bethel is the prominence of computers and computer instrumentation in chemistry, which has changed both how and what science faculty teach. “When I was a student,” he notes, “there was not much instrumentation. Now we have to teach students instrumentation to prepare them for jobs and careers in chemistry.”
Retirement for Richard will mean giving more time to farming in the Moundridge-McPherson area with his brother, Joe Zerger ’67, a retired Moundridge school science teacher, who “has been covering for me in the last years.”
Richard is pleased that in his 15 years at Bethel, “we worked not only to maintain but to build up the [chemistry] department. We’ve had stability in faculty. We’ve kept the lab up-to-date. Within the financial constraints we had, we maintained a good department.” Melanie Zuercher