Notable Moments

1882-83

The Emmental School was established in the Alexanderwohl community, 10 miles north of Newton.

1883

Sept. 19/20 – The Emmental School closed and transferred its assets to the Halstead Seminary, which opened with a total enrollment of between 72 and 76.

1887

May 23 – Bethel College charter filed with the State of Kansas

1888

Oct. 12 – Administration Building cornerstone laid

1893

Sept. 20 – Ad Building dedicated; classes begin

1923

Arsenic and Old Lace – Joseph Kesselring, an actor in a slack period in his career, came to Bethel from New York to teach voice. He had learned there was a vacancy from his cousins Elda and Elma Ringleman, Bethel grads who lived in Oklahoma. Kesselring, age 20, lived in Goerz House with other young bachelor teachers. He was at Bethel almost three years. His play Arsenic and Old Lace premiered Jan. 10, 1941, at the Fulton Theatre in New York and ran for 1,444 performances. Its first performance at Bethel was in November 1982, with the second one scheduled for April 25-27, 2013. The characters of Abby and Martha Brewster were thought to have been based either on the Ringleman sisters or on Abby Ruth and Martha Goerz. A built-in under-window storage chest similar to one in the Goerz House living room plays an important role in the play.

1924

Commencement speaker was Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, longtime pastor at Central Congregational Church in Topeka and author of the inspirational novel In His Steps (1897), the original source for What would Jesus do?

1934

Commencement speaker was Rev. Albert J. Penner, class of ’27, pastor of Edwards Congregational Church, Northampton, Mass., the church of the late Calvin Coolidge; Penner preached Coolidge’s funeral in 1933 (note: commencement was apparently held outdoors, in the Bethel Bowl).

1948

Buffalo BBQ – Adolph Rupp (University of Kentucky basketball coach and Halstead native)
October – Kansas Gov. Frank Carlson spoke at Bethel’s 60th anniversary celebration and laying of the library cornerstone (what is now the MLA); title of address: Church Colleges – Stronghold of Democracy.

1949

Dec. 6 – Memorial Hall Series lecture with William Shirer (known for his radio broadcasts from Berlin during World War II; would publish The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in 1960)

1952

The April 1 edition of The Bethel Collusion included the following: North Newton to be renamed South Goessel; (Bethel) President Kaufman says he will run for president of the United States; an ad for the Goessel Monestary (sic): Come and join our devoted union of Faithful Friars at the corner of 27th and Main (location of a men’s residence, no longer in existence).

1953

Oct. 17 – Memorial Hall Series lecture with Drew Pearson, muckraking journalist and radio broadcaster

1954

Commencement speaker was Paul Hutchinson, editor of The Christian Century
Oct. 31-Nov. 3 – Menno Simons Lectures, Franklin H. Littell, the father of American Holocaust studies

1955

Jan. 27 – Memorial Hall Series lecture with Norman Cousins (editor of The Saturday Review for almost 40 years; credited with popularizing the concept of the healing power of humor)
Bethel ran a dairy farm, located on the north side of campus about where the stadium and practice fields, Goering Hall, the tennis courts, the barn and Quonset, the Campus Granary and Memorial Grove are now, from 1935-55. The dispersal sale on Aug. 9, 1955, listed 23 registered Holstein cows, 19 cows and heifers and five other cows. There were also seven buildings to be sold, including the dairy barn/cattle shed, chicken house, hog barn and two silos. (The farm house had been moved earlier to make room for the east wing of Goering Hall.)

1956

Jan. 14 – Memorial Hall Series with the Trapp Family Singers (predating The Sound of Music)
Goering Hall dedicated
Nov. 11-13 – Menno Simons Lectures, Martin Niemöller, German Lutheran pastor and internationally regarded anti-Nazi theologian, widely known for the poem First they came …

1959

March 10 – Memorial Hall Series with Hal Holbrook presents Mark Twain (Holbrook, an American actor, originated the one-man show in 1954 and continues to perform it.)
Buffalo BBQ – Dan Devine (University of Missouri football coach)
Vincent Harding, a civil rights activist, Mennonite voluntary service leader and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr., first came to Bethel College as a speaker for Religious Life Week.

1960

Jan. 21 – Memorial Hall Series with Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking on The Future of Integration

1961

Buffalo BBQ – Bill Forester (linebacker, Green Bay Packers)

1962

Buffalo BBQ – Rafer Johnson (decathlon gold medalist in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome)

1963

Commencement speaker was Franklin H. Littell, acknowledged founder of American Holocaust studies; Mem Hall

1964

Buffalo BBQ – Carl Erskine (pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers)

1965

Buffalo BBQ – Cliff Hagan (forward, St. Louis Hawks)
Sand Prairie Preserve dedicated

1966

Buffalo BBQ – Jerry Stovall (defensive back, St. Louis Cardinals)
Fine Arts Center dedicated

1967

Buffalo BBQ – Bart Starr (quarterback, Green Bay Packers)
Nov. 26-Dec. 17 –exhibition of Marc Chagall Bible etchings; FAC Gallery
Warkentin Court dedicated

1971

One issue of a spoof newspaper, The Liberty Bell (the name has a ring to it), came off the mimeograph machine, produced by Patty Shelly, Bob Mayer, Clint Stucky and others. (It mocked Bethel’s BELL program. BELL, which stood for Bethel Experimental Learning Laboratory, was one of the innovative educational programs popular at American colleges and universities in the ’60s and ’70s and was part of Bethel’s curriculum from 1970-72. BELL was promoted as a learning program for changing times that interdisciplinary, interpersonal, experiential and intercultural.)

1972

Nov. 10 – convocation, Owen Gingerich, Harvard professor, author and Smithsonian Institution astronomer; Krehbiel Auditorium

1973

Feb. 12-13 – Bible Lectures, Krister Stendahl, dean of Harvard Divinity School; Krehbiel Auditorium
Oct. 29-30 – Menno Simons Lectures, William Stringfellow, lawyer, Christian lay theologian and social activist; Krehbiel Auditorium Buffalo BBQ – Tom Van Arsdale (guard, Philadelphia 76ers)

1974

Feb. 17 – Schowalter Peace Lectures, American anti-war activist Philip Berrigan; Krehbiel Auditorium
April 28-29 – Schowalter Peace Lectures, Dorothy Day, American journalist, social activist and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement; Krehbiel Auditorium
Buffalo BBQ – Gayle Sayers (running back, Chicago Bears)

1975

Jan. 12 – lecture on world hunger, Sen. James B. Pearson, R-Kansas
March 16-17 – Schowalter Peace Lectures, Elise Boulding (considered one of the most influential peace researchers and activists of the 20th century, credited with being a major contributor in creating the academic discipline of peace and conflict studies); Krehbiel Auditorium
April 18 – convocation, Emil Haury, Bethel alumnus and the dean of [American] Southwest archaeology
Nov. 14 – convocation, David Brower, prominent environmentalist, first executive director of the Sierra Club and founder of many environmental organizations, including Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters and the Earth Island Institute; Krehbiel Auditorium

1976

Nov. 5 – convocation, American feminist theologian Letha Dawson Scanzoni; Krehbiel Auditorium

1977

Feb. 28 – convocation, Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH (Jackson would run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988); Krehbiel Auditorium
Oct. 24-25 – Menno Simons Lectures, John W. de Gruchy, South African theologian; Krehbiel Auditorium
Thresher Gymnasium groundbreaking

1978

Feb. 27 – convocation, Joan Finney, Kansas state treasurer (she would become Kansas’ first female governor in 1991); Krehbiel Auditorium
March 3 – convocation, comedian Dick Gregory; Krehbiel Auditorium
Commencement speaker was J. Lawrence Burkholder, president of Goshen (Ind.) College; Mem Hall
Nov. 6 – Schowalter Peace Lectures, Daniel Ellsberg; Mem Hall (Ellsberg was the former United States military analyst who precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers.)
Dec. 1 – Peace Lecture, Richard Barnet, American scholar and activist who co-founded the Institute for Policy Studies; Krehbiel Auditorium

1979

March 29 – Peace Lecture, Mairead Corrigan, winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize; Krehbiel Auditorium
Commencement speaker was Rosemary Radford Ruether, a pioneer of feminist theology in North America; Mem Hall
Aug. 31 – convocation, Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum, R-Kansas; Krehbiel Auditorium
Nov. 16 – Peace Lecture, Richard McSorley, S.J., peace activist and Georgetown University professor of peace studies; Bethel College Mennonite Church
Schultz Student Center dedicated

1980

March 6-7 – Peace Lecture, convocation, Kenneth Boulding (peace activist and economist who came up with the concept of Spaceship Earth); Schultz Student Center and Krehbiel Auditorium
April 10-11 – concert, convocation, folk musician and social activist Pete Seeger; Mem Hall (Seeger visited the Alvin Beachy farm, home to an Amish family, near Hutchinson; Beccy Tanner article and Pete Souza photos in the Wichita Eagle, 4-12-80.)
April 17-19 – Conference on Faith and Learning with speakers Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Oregon, and Martin E. Marty of The Christian Century
Oct. 27-28 – Menno Simons Lectures, leading Latin American theologian Samuel Escobar
Nov. 17 – convocation, Richard J. Foster, theologian and writer on spirituality; Krehbiel Auditorium

1981

Feb. 15-17 – Bible Lectures with Pheme Perkins, Boston College professor and widely recognized expert on the Greco-Roman cultural setting of early Christianity, the Pauline Epistles and Gnosticism
April 28 – Joffrey II Dancers from Brooklyn College; Mem Hall
Sept. 14-15 – Bible Lectures, Mary Cosby, co-founder of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., an ecumenical Christian congregation and a vanguard of the intentional Christian community movement in the United States

1983

Sept. 22-23 – lectures with Waldo Wedel, Bethel alumnus and father of Great Plains archaeology, who spent his career with the Smithsonian Institution

1982

Feb. 20 – Peter Schickele as PDQ Bach; Mem Hall
Nov. 1-2 – Menno Simons Lectures, American Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder; Krehbiel Auditorium

1984

Commencement speaker was J. Lawrence Burkholder, recently retired president of Goshen (Ind.) College; Mem Hall
Nov. 29-30 – Menno Simons Lectures, civil rights activist Vincent Harding; Krehbiel Auditorium

1985

March 26 – convocation, Tony Campolo, pastor, sociologist, prolific author and popular evangelical Christian speaker; Krehbiel Auditorium
April 18-19 – Peace Lecture, convocation, John Stockwell (highest-ranking CIA agent ever to go public; began criticizing the U.S. government after directing covert activity in Angola in the 1970s); Krehbiel Auditorium
Ad Building chapel organ dedicated

1986

April 17-19 – Second Conference on Faith and Learning, with peace researcher and activist Elise Boulding; South African theologian John W. de Gruchy; Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Oregon; American theologian Stanley Hauerwas of Duke University; American Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder
Nov. 24 – Cultural Events Series with Karla Burns (Wichita native and operatic mezzo-soprano and actress who has performed nationally and internationally in opera, theater and TV; first black person, African-American or otherwise, to win the Laurence Olivier Award, Britain’s most prestigious award for theater)
Mantz Library dedicated

1987

March 19-20 – Peace Lecture, convocation, William Sloane Coffin, internationally known speaker, social activist and pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City; Krehbiel Auditorium
April 1 – Peace Lecture, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine artist and peace activist, winner of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize; Krehbiel Auditorium

1988

Commencement speaker was U.S. Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kansas; Mem Hall (After Todd Tiahrt defeated Glickman in 1994, Glickman was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President Bill Clinton, 1995-2001.)
Sept. 25-26 – Peace Lecture, convocation, Elise Boulding, American peace researcher and activist; Krehbiel Auditorium

1989

Jan. 17 – cosmology lecture series with astronomer Owen Gingerich
April 9-11 – Symposium, Peacemaking in the Middle East: The Role of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, with American feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether speaking April 11
Nov. 16 – convocation, David Brower, prominent environmentalist, first executive director of the Sierra Club and founder of many environmental organizations, including Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters and the Earth Island Institute
Nov. 26 – convocation, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, author and academic with a focus on war, hunger issues, theology and foreign policy

1990

Feb. 15 – Peace Lecture, environmentalist David Brower

1991

Nov. 8 – Symposium on the Recent Russian Revolution with J. Lawrence Burkholder, president emeritus of Goshen (Ind.) College

1992

April 13 – convocation, Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity; Krehbiel Auditorium

1993

Jan. 15-17 –Arts Symposium, Libby Larsen, one of America’s most prolific and most performed living composers
Commencement speaker was civil rights activist Vincent Harding; Mem Hall
Oct. 1 – convocation, Colman McCarthy, Catholic peace activist and long-time Washington Post columnist; Krehbiel Auditorium
Nov. 21-22 – lectures with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., American historian, social critic and Pulitzer Prize winner whose work explored the American liberalism of political leaders including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy

1994

Nov. 3-4 – Menno Simons Lectures, Martin E. Marty of The Christian Century; Krehbiel Auditorium

1995

Feb. 18-20 – environmental conference with Elise Boulding, peace researcher and activist
Feb. 26-28 – Bible Lectures, Walter Wink, American theologian and ethicist; Bethel College Mennonite Church
Greer Lecture with Alice Parker, noted American composer, arranger and conductor (particularly of American hymns and hymn tunes), who often worked with the great American choral conductor Robert Shaw

1996

Nov.3-4 – Symposium: Gordon Kaufman’s Theology as Imaginative Construction, with Kaufman present (Kaufman, a Bethel graduate, was considered one of two premier North American Mennonite theologians, along with John H. Yoder); Ad Building chapel

1997

April 18-20 – Greer Lectures, Augusta Read Thomas, composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

1998

April 17 – convocation, reading by Albert Goldbarth, prolific American poet (the only one to receive the National Book Critics Circle award twice and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Wichita State University) Other poets and writers on campus over the years: Wichita poet Jeanine Hathaway; Mennonite poets Todd Davis, Jeff Gundy, Raylene Hinz-Penner (also a nonfiction writer), Jean Janzen (Menno Simons Lectures), Leonard Neufeldt, Keith Ratzlaff and Elmer Suderman; Mennonite fiction writers Sandra Birdsell, Dallas Wiebe and Rudy Wiebe (also a nonfiction writer; Menno Simons Lectures).
Nov. 15 – Robert Shaw conducted, in Mem Hall, a 500-member choral group as a benefit for Bethel alumna Elvera Voth’s East Hill Singers at Lansing Correctional Institute and the Arts in Prison project. Singers were from Bethel, Tabor, Hesston, Friends, WSU, the Kansas City Opera Chorus, the Kansas City Chorale, the Newton Chorale, the Wichita Chamber Chorale and others, along with the East Hill Singers. Instrumentalists came from the Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony, Fort Hays State University Symphony, Friends University Symphony, Hutchinson Symphony, Topeka Symphony and Kansas City Civic Orchestras. Shaw was an American conductor most famous for his work with his namesake Chorale, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

2000

Feb. 11 – convocation, award-winning poet Albert Goldbarth, professor at Wichita State University
Oct. 29-31 – Menno Simons Lectures, Mark Noll, theologian specializing in the history of Christianity in the United States, considered one of the country’s most influential Christian evangelicals; Krehbiel Auditorium

2001

January – American Mennonite theologian and Bethel alumnus Gordon Kaufman taught an interterm class at Bethel.
Oct. 2 – Hesston-Bethel Performing Arts (HBPA), internationally known a cappella men’s ensemble and prolific recording artists Chanticleer; Mem Hall

2002

Nov. 17 – HBPA, internationally known women’s quartet Anonymous 4; Mem Hall

2003

Dec. 5 – Peace Lecture, Rajmohan Gandhi, journalist, political scientist, historian and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi; Krehbiel Auditorium

2004

April 18 – Peace Lecture, award-winning children’s book author Patricia Polacco; Mem Hall

2005

Feb. 18 – convocation, Jim Wallis, American Christian evangelical leader and author, founder and editor of Sojourners magazine, a founder of the Sojourners intentional Christian community in Washington, D.C.; Mem Hall
Fans at the Fall Festival football game broke the Guinness world record for flying discs thrown in the air simultaneously, with 853.

2006

Feb. 11 – HBPA, Mark O’Connor, American bluegrass and jazz fiddler and composer, with the Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Bethel alumnus Daniel Hege; Mem Hall
March 31 – convocation, Philip Gingerich, internationally regarded paleontologist (as seen in National Geographic); Krehbiel Auditorium
April 3 – KIPCOR Peace Lecture, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, American attorney, former lieutenant governor of Maryland and oldest daughter of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy; Krehbiel Auditorium
Fans at the Fall Festival football game broke the Guinness world record for most basketballs dribbled at once, with 1000 basketballs.

2007

Nov. 3 – HBPA, American-Israeli violinist Gil Shaham; Mem Hall

2008

March 7-8 – HBPA, convocation, Canadian vocal trio The Wailin’ Jennys; Mem Hall
March 14 – Allen Vizzutti, jazz trumpeter and educator, artist-in-residence; Krehbiel Auditorium
Oct. 7 – Peace Lecture, Father Roy Bourgeois, peace activist and founder of School of the Americas Watch; Krehbiel Auditorium
Dec. 1 – convocation, astronomer Owen Gingerich; Krehbiel Auditorium

2009

Feb. 10 – HBPA, British a cappella men’s ensemble The King’s Singers; Mem Hall
March 5-6 – Peace Lecture, convocation, Shane Claiborne, nationally known speaker and author and co-founder of The Simple Way, an intentional Christian community in Philadelphia; Mem Hall and Krehbiel Auditorium
March 17 – Bobby Watson, world-renowned jazz saxophonist, composer and producer, artist-in-residence; Krehbiel Auditorium
April 14 – NPR reporter and substitute host Jackie Lyden; Ad Building chapel
Sept. 29 – convocation, Sister Helen Prejean, anti-death penalty activist and author of Dead Man Walking; Krehbiel Auditorium
Nov. 29 – convocation, Wayne Simien, former power forward and member of 2005-06 NBA championship team Miami Heat; Krehbiel Auditorium

2010

Jan. 16-18 – Civil rights activist and author Vincent Harding visits Bethel College for the fourth time as a speaker and resource person for activities in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
Jan. 18 – A packed house in Krehbiel Auditorium hears the only known recording of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Jan. 21, 1960, address in Mem Hall, recovered from a reel-to-reel tape that was considered lost for almost 50 years.
Feb. 18 – HBPA, South African men’s a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who first gained international attention by appearing on Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland; Mem Hall
April 12 – convocation, internationally known prize-winning composer and Bethel alumnus Paul Rudy; Krehbiel Auditorium
Oct. 21 – HBPA, The Wailin’ Jennys; Mem Hall

2011

Feb. 8 – HBPA, Chanticleer (despite record-breaking snowfall); Mem Hall
Feb. 21 – convocation, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Christian speaker and author, co-founder of Rutba House, a new monastic community in Durham, N.C.; Krehbiel Auditorium
March 11 – convocation, concert, Bob Mintzer, jazz saxophonist, composer and big band leader; Krehbiel Auditorium
April 15 – convocation, Tracy Silverman, the world’s greatest living proponent of the electric violin; Krehbiel Auditorium
May 6 – convocation, Margaret Edson, author of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit (Edson also attended the Bethel College performance of Wit that evening); Krehbiel Auditorium
Aug. 29 – presentation by Father Roy Bourgeois, peace activist and founder of School of the Americas Watch; Kaufman House

2012

Feb. 24 – convocation, Carl Brewer, mayor of Wichita; Krehbiel Auditorium
March 30 – convocation, Robin Macy, former Dixie Chick and current caretaker of Bartlett Arboretum, Belle Plaine, Kan.; Krehbiel Auditorium

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