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Dennis M. Scott
20th April 2007, 11:15 PM (23:15)
The last couple days I have enjoyed having my parents with us for a visit. They brought with them some copies of ONU's yearbook, the Aurora, from 1917-1922. In the 1917 edition are pictures of my grandfather, R. L. Scott, who married Naomi Schlagle, who is also pictured. She died shortly after having my father. My grandfather shortly thereafter remarried, and his new wife became the grandmother I knew. The Aurora picture of my dad's blood mother is the only picture of her I have ever seen. Two photos away from her is the picture of Byron Nease, one of her classmates, and brother to Linda's grandfather, Floyd William Nease. Consequently, family members on both sides of my children are seen in that yearbook from so many generations ago. Small world, the COTN.

On another page in that yearbook is a picture of Dr. R. Wayne Gardner, who later became President of ENC, serving just prior to Linda's grandfather. This Sunday at the Wollaston Church, I am to assist in the dedication of infant Jered Edward Gardner, the son of my niece and her husband, Edward Gardner IV, who is the great grandson of Dr. R. Wayne Gardner.

Also in that yearbook is highlighted the ministry of Elmer Kaufman, who was grandfather of the late Sally Zink, as well as Dr. Tim Kaufman, presently pastor of the Cambridge, Ma, COTN. Seems like maybe many of those frequently thought to be Easterners had roots deep in Midwest Nazarenedome.

Class president that year was Hugh C. Benner, later to become NTS president and General Superintendent. Another faculty member in those days was Rev. E. M. Borders, who later pastored the Malden, MA, COTN, where several generations later I served, as did in the thirties Orval J. Nease, the third of the Nease brothers. That Dr. Nease eventually also twice served as General Superintendent.

Speakers in revival and lectureships that year were R. T. Williams, Hiram F. Reynolds, and J. W. Goodwin, all of whom eventually served as GSes.

Undoubtedly there were other significant members of that class, known better to others than me. The combined total college and academy graduates that year was apparently 27.

I've been of the opinion for years that there really are only about a dozen Nazarenes. They just keep moving around and changing their names.

Barb Bouldrey
20th April 2007, 11:27 PM (23:27)
I love looking at old yearbooks and old materials from our history.

We pastored in Danville, IL, in the early 70's. There were 26 Nazarene churches within a 10 mile radius. T.W. Willingham had sent his preacher boys out to start churches on every crossroads in the area...when Olivet was at Olivet, IL.

I love reading about our heritage.

Barb

Dennis M. Scott
20th April 2007, 11:28 PM (23:28)
In light of a couple recent NN threads, I found it interesting that by far the largest organization on campus in 1917 was the International Prohibition Association. An equally interesting article was one entitled, "The Unconstitutionality of the Saloon."

Dennis M. Scott
20th April 2007, 11:34 PM (23:34)
I love looking at old yearbooks and old materials from our history.

We pastored in Danville, IL, in the early 70's. There were 26 Nazarene churches within a 10 mile radius. T.W. Willingham had sent his preacher boys out to start churches on every crossroads in the area...when Olivet was at Olivet, IL.

I love reading about our heritage.

Barb

We this evening put the move to Bourbonnais at about 1941. Perhaps others could help correct that. For several decades my grandfather was one of those who went out not only planting churches, but raising funds for Olivet.

Edith K. Thurmond
20th April 2007, 11:48 PM (23:48)
,Another faculty member in those days was Rev. E. M. Borders, who later pastored the Malden, MA, COTN, where several generations later I served.

Do you know if he was the Rev. Borders who was one of the founders of Little Rock First Church of the Nazarene in downtown Little Rock? Lots of interesting stories there, too.

So glad that the old yearbooks are a blessing to you. That's what they are for: to be a formal place for those memories to be held in deposit for future generations. As one who worked on yearbooks for seven years, it is a joy to see the joy you are having now with the 1917 Aurora.

Enjoying your smiles through the years,

Nelson Bradford
21st April 2007, 05:52 AM (05:52)
My mother, Marvel Irene Israel (later Bradford), graduated from the "Olivet College Academic Department" on May 23, 1929.

Her graduation certificate is signed by T. W. Willingham, President of the College, Edwin Burke, President of Trustees and E. O. Chalfant, Secretary of Trustees.

Mom told us of living in the home of the college president
where she cooked meals and baby sat for them to pay her way through school.

I wish now, 7+ years after her going to see Jesus, I had asked more questions about Olivet in the old days. Especially since we now live approx a mile away from the campus and I drive for them.

I wish I knew more about the Academy. Was it equivalent to a high school education, or step higher than that.

Oh well.

Dennis M. Scott
21st April 2007, 07:47 AM (07:47)
It appears that the Academy was what we likely would today call a private boarding high school. Good church folk who cared about their children would see to it that they had the benefit of such an education. Holiness preaching pretty much maintained that separateness from the world would mean not having one's children attend public schools, which were a hotbed of all kinds of sin. Consequently, Nazarenes sacrificed to send their children to Nazarene academies, similar to today's sacrificing to send them to a Nazarene college. In the yearbooks we've been viewing, the population of the academy was larger than the college. My grandfather graduated from the academy, but found it necessary to leave college following his junior year, due to the death of his wife and responsibilities of his newborn son, my dad.

At ENC, the academy was very similar. There, very early on, the school attempted to recruit a young teacher named Bertha Munro. She told the President she would be willing to come to ENC when they determined to be a "real college", and dismiss the idea of being primarily an academy. They did, and she did, serving as academic dean for decades. In the church I now pastor is a retired pastor whose initial contact with the COTN came when he returned from military service to his home in Malden, MA, and was told by a man he met on the street that he should attend the academy at Eastern Nazarene College to obtain his diploma. Like many in those days, he arrived on campus without a penny in his pocket, but was accepted and worked his way through not only the academy, but the college. Pastor John Noftle spent his entire ministerial career in the Boston area, and at age 78 completed his 29th consecutive running of the Boston Marathon. That's not required to pastor here, but noteworthy.

John Kennedy
21st April 2007, 02:30 PM (14:30)
You mentioned Bertha Munro. I from time to time have lunch with a retired Congregational minister (a former Nazarene pastor) who never fails to credit her with being the single most influential person in his life and ministry.