Doug Penner, Bethel president from 1995-2002, died Aug. 29 after an extended illness. He was 77.
Penner was born in Reedley, Calif. After an early childhood in Hillsboro, Kan., Penner grew up in Reedley.
Encouraged by his pastors and Bethel alumni from First Mennonite Church in Reedley, Penner attended Bethel, graduating with highest honors in 1969 with majors in psychology and sociology.
After marrying fellow Bethel student Raylene Hinz from Liberal, Kan., right after graduation, Penner went on to the University of Kansas, where he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in social psychology.
He returned to Bethel in 1972 and taught psychology there for the next 15 years.
Although Penner thoroughly enjoyed teaching, and also coaching women’s basketball, at Bethel, he felt the need to develop other skills, and in 1987 moved into a role as an organizational consultant with Growth Associates at Prairie View Mental Health Services in Newton.
In 1991, Penner became executive director of a regional education consortium that included Bethel, Tabor and McPherson Colleges, Associated Colleges of Central Kansas (ACCK). Then in 1995, he was called to become the 11th president of Bethel College.
Penner would say his seven years as president were the highlight of his professional life. Although he was proud of leading a $20 million capital campaign that culminated in building Krehbiel Science Center and Voth Hall, his greatest satisfaction came from strategic planning, keeping the Bethel community engaged and focused on the future.
Sondra Bandy Koontz, Newton, worked with five different presidents as the head of institutional advancement at Bethel, and says Penner was “without a doubt, the best [one].”
“Not all college presidents can raise money,” she said. “Doug was a pro. He knew how to listen to donors’ wishes. He knew how to best present Bethel’s needs and projects. His skill at developing relationships made every campaign for funds successful.
“Doug’s Bethel legacy is obvious in Krehbiel Science Center and Voth Hall. … Less obvious to the eye but still making an impact is the strategic planning for Bethel’s future that he spearheaded.
“Doug was a man of integrity, someone I deeply respected. It was my privilege to work with him.”
In 2002, Penner left one small private Kansas college to serve all of them (19 at the time) as president of the Kansas Independent Colleges Association (KICA).
For the next decade, Penner spoke for “the Kansas privates” at the statehouse in Topeka, and helped them collaborate to strengthen each other.
Current KICA president Matt Lindsey succeeded Penner in the position. “[Doug] contributed enormously to the vibrancy of the Kansas college landscape,” Lindsey told Harvey County Now.
“His work directly helped ensure so many of these small prairie jewels thrived – tens of thousands of private college students have been able to afford a college degree because of the work he did, in Kansas and in Washington, D.C., to protect and grow student scholarship programs. Many of those students may not know it, but Doug Penner touched their lives for the better.”
Jon Gering, 15th and current Bethel president, graduated from Bethel a year before Penner became president, but has gotten to know him since Doug and Raylene moved to North Newton, and has consulted with him on presidential issues, especially in fundraising.
Penner was “a person of high character” and integrity, supportive and a good listener, Gering said. “He knew what the presidency was about and [what it] entailed.”
The Douglas A. Penner Champion of Character Award goes to one male and one female athlete at Bethel at the end-of-year athletic awards banquet and ceremony each year.
As Penner moved into retirement, he put more energy into a Topeka organization he had helped to start: Justice Unity and Ministry Project (JUMP), a coalition of 36 diverse faith communities with a mission to empower marginalized groups in Shawnee County to fight for affordable housing, mental health services and public school services.
Doug was active in his Mennonite congregations, dating from his youth at First Mennonite, Reedley. He deeply loved his church community of Southern Hills Mennonite in Topeka, and later Bethel College Mennonite Church when he and Raylene relocated to North Newton in 2021.
After moving to Topeka in 2002, Penner was moderator of Western District Conference of Mennonite Church USA for several years. When he returned to the Newton community, he served WDC, based in North Newton, as an organizational consultant.
Penner had a variety of interests and avocations, among them: fishing, especially with family in Minnesota; spending time as “the Four Ds” with his Bethel buddies Dale Schrag, Dave Janzen and Don Schmidt, as well as their spouses, particularly at the cabin at Council Grove City Lake; cooking and eating good food; speaking Spanish, which he learned in high school, when he traveled to Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, and later Chinese when he and Raylene did an educational exchange in Sichuan in 1984-85; music, especially classical, hymns and pop of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s; and growing things, especially in a community garden in Topeka.
Along with Raylene, their granddaughters, his extended family and his church, Penner loved Bethel College.
Current Bethel board chair Wynn Goering first met Penner when Goering was a Bethel student and Penner a young faculty member.
“What I can say with certainty is that throughout his life, Doug cared deeply about Bethel,” Goering said.
“The college shaped him and he the college. He was talented and charismatic, and could have chosen many paths in life, but Bethel was always his lodestar, calling him back as a professor, then president, and finally, in retirement, a keen supporter. He will be missed.”
Penner is survived by his wife of 56 years, Raylene Hinz-Penner; his mother-in-law, Willye Hinz; his granddaughters, Esther and Emmeline, and their parents, Karen Siebert and Timm Walker; two sisters, two brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews and great-nieces and -nephews.
A memorial service will be held at Bethel College Mennonite Church Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. (livestream at https://youtube.com/live/Hy5SRxqRopQ?feature=share). Memorial gifts are designated to Bethel College.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Community Healing and Transformation (TCHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu
[Photo: Doug Penner at the groundbreaking for Krehbiel Science Center in May 2000, courtesy Mennonite Library & Archives]
