AN INFLUENCER FOR COLLEGE, CHURCH AND COMMUNITY
By Melanie Zuercher
How both Bethel College and the city of Newton look and operate today are in large part thanks to the efforts of Virgil Penner.
Penner, North Newton, is the 2025 Outstanding Alumnus, receiving an honor “given on the basis of character and citizenship, service to church/community or college, or other outstanding achievements, honors and recognition.”
Penner’s citation states “his visionary leadership in developing and expanding Fall Fest and Taste of Newton, his innovative contributions to the Newton Chamber of Commerce, and his steadfast support of Bethel College’s students, staff and faculty. Virgil’s enduring commitment to community engagement and institutional excellence has left a lasting legacy.”
Penner graduated from Newton High School, where he concentrated on physical education, football and track, industrial drawing, and four years of art study with Marie Orr. After graduating from Bethel in 1960 with a degree in industrial arts, he worked for three years as an industrial therapist at the Laure D. Carter Mental Center in Indianapolis, which left him with an abiding interest in the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
He began his high school teaching and coaching career at Walton High School, 1963-64, and then his first period of employment at Bethel. From 1964-71, he chaired the physical education department, coached football and served as athletic director (1965-71). During those years, he earned a master’s degree in education at Wichita State University.
From 1971-81, Penner worked in the Wichita school district, heading up physical education departments and coaching football, track and field, or both, at Wichita North, Wichita West and Wichita Heights high schools.
Penner began his second stint at Bethel in 1981. He served as Annual Fund director and director of alumni relations. One of his first and most important tasks was to coordinate the Centennial capital campaign, leading up to Bethel’s 100th anniversary in 1987. In addition to expanding Fall Fest, he developed a cooperative event with the city, Taste of Newton.
In his nearly two decades in the Bethel alumni and advancement offices, Penner also strengthened, expanded and promoted the Student Alumni Association, the African-American Alumni Association, the Parents Association and the Host Family Program, among many other events and groups that have left their own legacy.
In 2000, Penner took on a new challenge, that of CEO of the Newton Chamber of Commerce. His accomplishments include, among many more: installation of the 4-way stop at 12th and Meridian; moving the Christmas parade from a Saturday daytime event to the current “Parade of Lights” on a weekday evening; pushing for the removal of tin facades and the addition of awnings on Main Street buildings, as recommended by the National Main Street Program.
While racking up accomplishments at Bethel and in the wider Newton community, Penner also remained active in his church, Grace Hill Mennonite east of Newton, and the broader Western District Conference and Mennonite denomination.
For WDC, he served on fundraising and church planting committees. He was a convention planner for Mennonite World Conference’s Wichita gathering in 1978 and for several General Conference Mennonite Church and joint GC/MC conventions around the country.
Over the years at Grace Hill, Penner’s service has included chairing the church board. His contributions to infrastructure range from volunteering as a teenager on construction of the 1952 church building to designing and erecting the brick cemetery entrance in 2011.
Penner has served on the boards (often as chair) of Northview (now ResCare), Harvey-Marion Community Developmental Disability Organization (CDDO), the Newton/North Newton Planning Commission, Newton Tourism (now Convention) & Visitors Bureau and Warkentin House.
Through his working years, Penner occasionally did ink drawings of buildings and homes (his drawing of the Wichita North High School tower still appears on diplomas every spring), but put aside his hobby of painting until he retired in 2009. He has now done more than 900 acrylic landscape paintings, and continues to create more.
Penner and his wife, the late Kaye (Friesen) Penner ’62, have two children – Sondra (Tony ‘89) Otto ‘88 and Tom (Paige) Penner ’91, current treasurer of the Bethel board – and four grandchildren.
The 2025 alumni award winners will be honored and will speak in convocation on April 6, 2026.