Giants Right In Front of You
On May 6, and the weeks leading up to that date, we celebrated the Class of 2023.
There was a flurry of events and convocations.
The tears (of joy, of pride, and of knowing we would miss people) were flowing.
In the fall of 2019, this group of students was in my First Year Seminar.
It was about DreamersAndGiants – WVWC History.
They were all Dreamers.
Some of them did not persist, and did not graduate.
Many of them not only persisted, but became Giants on campus in their own right. No doubt they will make their marks on the world, in their communities, and on their families.
That fall, I told them a couple of other things.
When asked about who has made an impact on them in the last four years, the names that came up definitely belong to some Giants. Among those names: Debra Murphy, Alisa Lively, Joanna Webb, Carol Bowman, Tamara Bailey, Greg Popovich, and various people at Aladdin who gave them attention and advice of various kinds.They also mentioned some of their peers who have risen to leadership positions and active in all aspects of WVWC life.
These two ladies, both from the Class of 1979, played a central role in the celebrations.
These ladies are both Giants. Be sure to click on their names and see how incredible they are.
Angela Gay Kinkead spoke at Baccalaureate, and was honored with the title of Dean of the Chapel, Emerita. She is the first woman to be so honored. And she is incredibly deserving of this honor.
Caroline Rapking gave the Commencement Address. She is the first woman to ever serve as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Her term in this important role took place during one of the most difficult times in school history.
Each of them have been amazing throughout their careers.
Each of them represents what WVWC is all about.
President James Moore and Dean Lynn Linder are a couple of these Giants.
They are bringing new energy and powerful plans to WVWC.
Each of them has been here for many years as faculty members, and they know the strengths and values of the college. Although they are just getting started in their new roles, they have already put plans into motion for new programs which match the mission of the college. They are committed to the success of WVWC and of her students.
Each of them is a Giant already.
It is something for each of us to watch for.
Emeritus is a term generally used as an honorary title for a distinguished career. It is quite often used to honor retiring faculty members with ten or more years of service to the institution.
At student-centered WVWC, we also have an Emeritus Club. Alumni who have graduated more than 50 years ago are invited to join this group. It was organized and established on May 20, 1961 by alumni with a great love for the college and appreciation for the education received here.
The Club was the vision of one of Wesleyan’s greatest leaders and benefactors, Dr. Clyde O. Law 1909, Hon. 1952. It provides members a fellowship for remembering their time in college, a way to express their appreciation and support, a way to honor those who have been important in their lives, and a way to stay connected to each other and to the college. To get an idea of Clyde Law’s state of mind, here is an article he wrote in 1947, entitled Wesleyan, Of Thee I Dream.
Remember – Appreciate – Honor – Connection
These people arrived here as Dreamers, with many questions, plans, options and their whole lives before them.
Their lives after graduation have been full.
Many became Giants in their families, their churches, their professions, their communities, and more.
Many have served as Trustees of the college.
As a group, the members of the Emeritus Club have been generous in their support of building projects and other needs of the school. They have helped to upgrade classrooms, sound systems, and have been major contributors in academic, arts, and athletic areas of the college. They do these things because they want to make sure that the Wesleyan that helped to form their lives always stays relevant for the students of today.
The Emeritus Club Newsletter tells stories of their lives, helps keep them connected to each other and to WVWC. For many years, this newsletter has not been available to those outside of this group. During the summer of 2021, in honor of their 60th anniversary, I scanned and uploaded all of them (166 issues) to PagesInTime. (Many thanks to Brett Miller and Michael Winston for their help!)
Editors who have made these newsletters possible include the following:
Click Here to Browse or Search the Emeritus Club Newsletters from 1973-2021.
You will find out things about the college that you may not have known! Sadly we do not have copies of the first newsletters in our archive. We begin with Volume 3, Number 4 (March 1977). If you have earlier issues, please contact historian@wvwc.edu.
The latest issue has not yet been uploaded to PagesInTime, but you can read it in full by Clicking Here. This issue is a true celebration of all that the Emeritus Club has meant, and a history of the organization is included. Please take the time to read it!
Emeritus Club (By Graduation Year)
Please Note:
Information for these lists has been gathered from Pharos, Sundials, and Emeritus Club Newsletters, by an ongoing process that I call Information Mining. Any further information or corrections you may have can be sent to historian@wvwc to be added to these lists.
We have all been there. That between time.
Not quite away from the familiar, and not quite sure of the new.
It happens at all stages of life, and it happens for everyone.
We are at the threshold of something.
I recently encountered this word on my Facebook feed. It was one I had heard before at the time of the death of my colleague, Professor Robert Hull. One of his former students recalled his talking about liminality and sharing an article with her. Here is her tribute to Rob and to the power of his teaching. When I recently saw the word again, I went back and reread this tribute. In an indirect way, he was still teaching from the grave.
The word Liminality comes from the Latin word limins (threshold) and was the topic for Arnold van Gennep’s work (Rites of Passage) in which he explored transitions during such times. (I believe this is what he gave Krysta that day.)
Liminal Space is a place where great growth occurs and transformation takes place. It is a place where we can think about all we have experienced in the familiar and make decisions about what we want the future to hold.
The more I read, the more I realized that the whole world is experiencing Liminality right now. A couple of examples!
High School students are about to graduate, and are on the threshold between school days and college, work, marriage, or other paths. Maybe they have been accepted to college, but are not yet part of that world.
Likewise, college students are about to cross a threshold into work, graduate school, marriage, or other paths. They are still part of their college world, but are feeling that liminal awkwardness.
Covid seems to be over (oh, don’t we hope), but it is not really gone yet. We still need to be vigilant.
The world is helplessly watching as millions are displaced from their homes in Ukraine. People whose very lives are liminal. Just weeks ago, they were going about their daily lives in places that are no longer inhabitable. Families are torn apart, homes destroyed, an entire nation caught between the before and after.
WVWC is in a liminal space, with an Interim President, and Interim Dean, and is in search of a Director of Library Services and a Director of Alumni Affairs, just to name a few. It is a great time to be thinking about the time ahead.
The United Methodist Church is at a crossroads, and it is not entirely clear how that will all work out. They have been there before. What will 2022 bring?
Just days ago the temperature was in the 70s, and now we’ve had a couple of days of snow. Definitely Liminal Space between Winter and Spring.
Engagement is a time of liminality. You are committed to one another, but not yet married. Many things need to be figured out about the wedding details as well as about priorities for your lives and family priorities.
Pregnancy is a time of liminality. You are very aware that there is a new life involved. Someone for whom you will be responsible and someone that will change your life forever. It is a threshold time not only for the expectant parents, but for the one literally being created in the womb – and who will be crossing over a threshold at birth. We constantly move between stages of life, with liminal space in between them.
Moving from job to job can be a confusing time. You may find that you are a lame duck at your old job, but not yet in a place where you can dive into the new one.
Moving from one house or city to another is definitely a Liminal time. Boxes are packed and things are in flux. If you are going to a new town, you will need to find your way around and learn where things are. Who will cut your hair? Which doctor or bank is best for you? Where did you put the toothpaste?!? So many questions. After a time, you will find all of these things familiar. The time in between is Liminal time.
Retirement is a time of liminality. You knew who you were and what you should be doing each day. Some are almost completely defined by the job that they do, and have a hard time determining who they will be after retirement. Others embrace the opportunity to spend their days in new ways.
Liminality is a time for creativity and growth. Professor Rob Hull said that without liminal space there is no transformation. As difficult as it may be at times, it is a time to be embraced.
Some readings:
March 10, 2022 was a sad day for West Virginia Wesleyan as legendary soccer coach, Gavin Donaldson lost his battle with cancer. Gavin was a respected colleague, mentor to hundreds, and a coach worthy of inclusion with WVWC greats from the past.
In fact, as I think of him today (March 11, 2022) I feel certain that he is surrounded by those long-serving greats and that they are all enjoying a conversation about athletics at WVWC. I would love to be able to listen in on this! Click on each one to learn more!
Harry Stansbury 1891-1966
Cebe Ross 1901-1953
David Reemsnyder 1908-1979
Hank Ellis 1921-2015
Soccer began at WVWC as a club team in 1959, and was given official status as a collegiate sport in 1962. Most coaches averaged 8 years of service. Gavin coached the team for 31 years.
He was elected to be inducted into the West Virginia Soccer Hall of Fame, which was to happen just days after his death. The announcement stated, “Over the course of 36 seasons as a head coach, Donaldson has accumulated 402 wins including 260 victories in his 31-year career at WVWC. In 1994, Donaldson led the Bobcats to an NAIA national title en route to NAIA and NSCAA National of the Year. The West Virginia Wesleyan men’s soccer coaching staff was named Division II National Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches for the 2020 season (played in the spring of 2021)”.
Always a strong advocate for academics as well as athletics, Gavin touched many lives. Alan Riches posted this image on Facebook, and it is a typical sentiment of many. If you have a memory of Gavin or a tribute to him, you can click here to submit it. You can also read things that others have written.
When thinking about the history of West Virginia Wesleyan College, I often wonder about those first students. The ones who graduated from the West Virginia Conference Seminary (the first name of the school).
Who were they? What did they study? Since the school did not offer college level degrees until 1900, it may seem to us that those early students had an easy time of things. The 1890 catalog includes the courses of study for that time. They offered the Classical, Scientific, and Literary Courses of Study as well as Normal School preparation for teachers. The last of the Seminary Graduates were in 1908, as programs transitioned to fully college level over several years.
When looking over this curriculum, I would say that many of us would have a very hard time mastering all of this! The print above is very small, so here is a summary chart. The number after each is the number of terms the subject is required. One thing that stands out to me is that there are courses across all programs that resemble our General Studies curriculum of today.
I found a listing of all Seminary Graduates in the 1947 Alumni Directory, and created a chart of the various information available. In summary:
To see the full list, Grouped by Graduation Year and Sorted by Degrees Earned, Click Here.
Several of these people were very familiar to me. I have written previously about some of them:
Opening Day: September 3, 1890
Roy McCuskey’s First Hand Account of the Fire
Orange and Black Are the Colors of Leadership (Frank Thompson)
Bravo to all of the Seminary Graduates! And to those who have followed their footsteps for 131 years.
The Heavenly Host gained a wonderful soprano voice this week.
That voice belongs to Caroline Dees, who has also been widely known to light up a room with her distinctive laugh. Caroline spent her entire teaching career at WVWC, mentoring and inspiring generations of students from 1969-2006. For 37 years, she shared her wit, humor, and joy of music. And always with a smile.
She also had a love of libraries which started way back in her high school days in in Atlanta, where she was a member of the North Fulton High School Main Library Staff. This love continued throughout her life as she received her MLIS from the University of South Carolina through a distance education program in 1995. She put those skills to good use in the Music Library in Loar Hall.
There are too many stories to even know where to begin. Stories of voice lessons, traveling to far-off places to share music together, and of Caroline singing at the weddings of her students and friends.
For the purpose of this writing, I would like to focus on one event that stands out in the minds of many. Caroline’s role as Satan in The Descent into Hell, which the college commissioned for the celebration of its 90th birthday. It took place in Wesley Chapel on Thursday, October 16, 1980 at 8:30 pm.
The full program for the evening is available here.
This list of musicians represents a multitude of Wesleyan’s finest students and choir alumni who had gathered for this special occasion. I am sure that rehearsals were an amazing amount of fun.
I am sure each of them could tell stories of how Caroline Dees was part of their journey, and I hope that many will click on this link and share them. As they are shared, you can click here and watch the story of the impact of Caroline’s life.
Larry Parsons shared this message on Facebook, and is a beautiful blessing and benediction. It speaks so much about their work together through the years.
In paradisum deducant te angeli: May the angels lead you into paradise.
The Thoughts and Memories collection was started in Spring 2021 in order to give faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the college a place to share their stories of people, buildings, events, groups (or other!) from their time at WVWC. Although many do so on Facebook and other platforms, those are not saved in this more permanent way. Here is a link to the full collection.
You can submit your thoughts and memories about Caroline (and about other people as well) by clicking here. And, you can even add photos if you like!
A beautiful Service of Celebration was held in Wesley Chapel on November 6, 2021. As part of that service, a Reader’s Theater Monologue was presented by Jane Weimer Godwin (1976), Sarah Carr Parsons (1982), Don Gardner (1977), and Dave Carson (1974).
It is August, and school will be starting soon. Students will make their way back to Buckhannon, but there will be a big difference. For the first time in over three decades, Professor Robert O. Rupp will not be there! It hardly seems possible to the many students he has inspired and the colleagues who have depended on his honest and steady leadership.
Talk about a very well-deserved retirement!!
When Rob arrived at West Virginia Wesleyan in 1989, he hit the ground running. That very year he had served as a co-producer of a documentary for PBS (The Front Porch President: Warren G. Harding). This 30 minute documentary can be seen on Turner Classic Movies by clicking here. An article about this documentary can be found in the Spring 1990 Sundial.
In 1990 he Co-Hosted a Symposium, The Primary That Made a President, with the West Virginia Department of Culture and History with assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Kennedy visit to West Virginia in the 1960 primary. The symposium included Kennedy’s campaign manager, Sargent Shriver. (Sundial, Summer 1990)
In 1991, he organized a pair of panel discussions on the Gulf War, bringing in people to discuss Desert Storm from many perspectives including moral and political implications. More than 90 students also signed up for the course he developed on that very current topic.
At the Awards Assembly in the spring of 1991, Community Council awarded him the Outstanding Faculty Award, and he also received the Faculty Excellence Award from the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. (Sundial, Summer 1991, p.13)
Photo by Katie Kuba (2018) Well done, Professor Robert O. Rupp!!! A true WVWC Giant.
As the West Virginia Annual Conference meets this week in Buckhannon (and also virtually through the magic of technology) I am pleased to publish the second part of Jim Watson’s writing about the history of how West Virginia Wesleyan came to be located where it is.
The first part of his writing, published February 3, 2020, can be read here.
THOSE SIXTY ACRES – PART II
So, the Methodist Conference purchased the 43 plus acres over near South Buckhannon instead of the sixty acres over at North Buckhannon.
But why?
When Daniel and Wilbur Carper offered the Methodist Conference sixty acres across from the Buckhannon River it was with the agreement that they would build a good solid bridge across for students to get in and out of town with. When one looks at the river and the existing bridge it is hard to believe that the old bridges in existence in that day were already old and feeble. See above for a view of what was called Waters Street and old East Main.
So, who were these Carpers and where did they come from?
Paul Carper came from Germany to America. The original spelling of his last name is believed to be Kerber. He lived in Reading PA and fought in the American Revolution until he died in 1777.
Abraham Carper was his son. Abraham was born in 1763 and eventually moved to Virginia. He met his wife, Permilia Harris, there and soon moved to an unnamed and untamed region in the western part of the state.
He claimed land that, at the time, looked something like this:
This was the land he built the log house on, after clearing much of it.
He was a hatter; anything dealing with “hats” he could do.
He also built the first church, called the Carper Church, about where the McDonald’s Restaurant is today.
Abraham had twelve children. Daniel was the son who inherited the land.
It became crowded in the log house, and Daniel built a large house at the top of a hill where South Florida Street exists. There is still a much larger house on the site today.
Old Abraham died in that house at the age of 91 years.
Daniel and his son Wilbur owned quite a bit of land in the region in those days. The property over in North Buckhannon was one of them. You may remember that this was the first land that was considered by the Methodist Conference for the location of the future Methodist Seminary.
In the meantime, Daniel and his son Wilbur began selling property. At one point they sold the land the old homestead had been on to another Buckhannonite, Levi Leonard.
Levi Leonard had been married twice, his first wife dying before he considered the land offered to him. He married his second wife Elizabeth in 1871, right before he was offered the Carper land.
He purchased the land but did nothing with it until, in 1887, word came to him that the Methodists were looking for land to build a school of secondary education. A place where students could learn without having to leave the area.
In came the little more than 43 acres, formerly Carper land.
Thus, around in a circle, the Carpers stayed involved with the building of the new Seminary.
Above is how it looked in 1900.
Just a part of a growing Buckhannon community.
Over the years the Carpers and the Leonards have been forgotten by many, although not entirely. Their stories are still continuing in Buckhannon.
The Carpers are mostly buried in the huge Heavner Cemetery, one of the children having been married into that family.
The Leonards were buried on the old Carper Cemetery land, where, ironically, the Seminary would have been built had the first purchase gone through.
Decades later, when Route 33 was expanded into four lanes, most of the cemetery was moved to, yes you got it, the huge Heavner Cemetery.
They lie there still in the shade of a few trees.
Little would they know how big and beautiful the school has grown, and that it is no longer a seminary but a college of liberal arts.
They all died before the name had been changed from the West Virginia Conference Seminary to West Virginia Wesleyan College in June of 1906.
And so, the tradition lives on. For more than 130 years!
The town of Buckhannon has seen history upon history lived out, not only on its streets and avenues but on the campus that exists within its borders.
The Carpers and Leonards still live in the history of both town and college.
The view of both could be from heaven.
It would be curious to know what they would think today.
Carpers and Leonards.
Seminary to College.
The Carpers and the Leonards, the Conference and the College. All connected.
Changes in circumstances, new buildings, new opportunities, and disasters can change the way things are done in any given year.
In 2021, pandemic conditions were somewhat better, but still required some creativity. Commencement was held on Cebe Ross Field. It seems to have gone very well, but because seating was limited it was also streamed online so more family and friends could see the graduates walk across and get their diplomas. 
You can view it here. As a bonus, in the same place you can also view these related events:
I find it interesting to notice how people talk about changes. Although this applies to the topic of Commencement Exercises, the same theory applies to many areas of our lives.
The words that people choose can give clues to how they feel about that change. Take, for example, the words Never, Always, and Usually.
The word never can indicate that we are uninformed or lazy.
The word always can indicate that we are closed-minded and resitant to growth.
The word usually can indicate that we have an understanding of what we have done before as well as a willingness to consider new things.
It is certain that the last two years in particular have not been usual. They have required creativity, flexibiity, and determination when it came to commencement. Many have found them to be frustrating. I tend to think that they have caused some growth in Thinking Critically and Creatively.
Four years pass quickly. A full half of this generation of WVWC students have never known the “usual” commencement. In fact, in other years it was not at all uncommon for students to never attend any of the commencement exercises except for the one when they were graduating. So they had nothing to compare theirs with.
The one thing that has remained constant – no matter what the Commencement Day looked like – is that WVWC students are well-prepared and poised to go out and make a difference in the lives of their families, communities, and the world. They are prepared to live full and meaningful lives. Their preparation has made them ready to commence.
Congratulations to the Class of 2021! Welcome to the Orange Line!!
