Spring 2001 Wheaton Honey Rock at 50 d ear friends— There exists at Honey Rock Camp a president’s cabin called Elim.The name, which means “oaks,” is taken from Exodus 15:27:“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy trees, and they camped there beside the waters.” Built during the tenure of President V.Raymond Edman and then expanded under Hudson Armerding ’41, Elim sits in a secluded stand of hemlock, surrounded on three sides by water. It has become for Sherri and me a wonderful retreat. Many go to Honey Rock for the activities; certainly the kids do all summer. Others go for relationships, spiritual growth, learning, or service. But Honey Rock is also, blessedly, a place where one can still find solitude. There is nothing quite like the quietness of Honey Rock mornings, or the fury of a storm bustling toward you across the lake; like studying close-up the frail forms of the fawns feeding just outside your window at dusk, or drifting quietly on the lake, watching a pair of loons appear and disappear beneath the surface; or spotting the arc of an eagle’s flight, or, as Sherri and I glimpsed this past year, the fleeting form of a mountain lion. Honey Rock has always played a special role at Wheaton College. For a half century its people, programs, and splendid northwoods location have contributed a unique dimension to the College’s life. In this issue of Wheaton, we take the opportunity to look back over those 50 years, and then look forward to what lies ahead for Honey Rock Camp. Duane Litfin President volume 4 number 2 Table of Contents Editor p.20 Aunt Fanny Georgia I. Douglass ’70, M.A. ’94 Managing Editor Michael Murray p.2 The Northwoods Campus Designer ABS Design Group p. 41 Vehicle for Creativity Class News Editor Donna Antoniuk Editorial Advisers Marilee A. Melvin ’72 R. Mark Dillon Alumni Association President A.Thomas Paulsen ’70 President-elect Charles V. Hogren ’58 Features Executive Director Marilee A. Melvin ’72 2 A Classroom in the Wilderness Professor Emeritus Northwoods Campus of Wheaton College is not just a LeRoy H. Pfund ’49 nickname.With more students taking more classes with Alumni Trustee Representatives more professors, Honey Rock Camp looks more like a Ray Carlsen ’60 campus than ever before. Charles V. Hogren ’58 A.Thomas Paulsen ’70 8 No Less a Miracle Board of Directors From the outside, the process of adopting a child Class of 2001 Wesley C. Bleed ’80 looks tedious—an endless list of chores and hoops to Bud McCalla ’59 jump through—but, to the parents who stand on the Elaine Wakefield McCalla ’60 Edith E. Nowack ’49 other side, holding a tiny hand in theirs, it has all Mary Graham Ryken M.A. ’88 Sharen Nerhus Sommerville ’72 been a miracle. David R.Veerman ’65 Class of 2002 Patrick O. Cate ’63 Mary Ann Seume Cate ’65 Departments Robert D. Dye ’73 12 Profile Katherine E. Gieser ’99 Susan H. Grosser ’71 Amy Wang Sit ’49 has set Scripture to a wide variety Janice Stevenson Nickel ’69 of music, from classical and opera to nursery-rhyme Class of 2003 Randal Ellison ’77 melodies and German drinking tunes. Marilyn L. Himmel ’55 Dwight E. Nelson ’72 Shane A. Scott ’96 14 Under the Tower Brian J.Wildman ’85 A different kind of Spring Break road trip.A new Wheaton College honor for an old friend. Peace and the War Requiem. President Dr. Duane Litfin A passion for urban ministry. Provost On My Mind: Dr. C. Hassell Bullock contemplates Dr. Stanton L. Jones society’s moral decline. Senior Vice President Dr. David E. Johnston ’65 Scholarly Pursuits: Dr. Edith Blumhofer examines the Vice President for life of lyricist Fanny Crosby. Advancement Dr. R. Mark Dillon Vice President for 22 Sports Alumni Relations Marilee A. Melvin ’72 Vice President for 24 A Word With Alumni / Alumni News Student Development Dr. Samuel Shellhamer Wheaton is published winter, spring, 40 Letters special (catalog), summer, and autumn by Wheaton College, 501 College Ave., Wheaton, IL 60187-5593, 630-752-5047, 42 The Journal of Jonathan Blanchard and mailed free of charge to alumni and friends of Wheaton College. Periodicals postage paid at Wheaton, IL (USPS016326). Postmaster: Please send address changes to 48 At Last Wheaton College,Wheaton,IL 60187-5593. Opinions expressed are those of the Cover Photo: Ken Kalisch. The 18-day Vanguard Expedition has served as the first impression of contributors or the editors and do not Wheaton College for 3,000 students over the years. Read more about it and other wilderness necessarily represent the official position programs in “A Classroom in the Wilderness” on page 2. of the College. © 2001 Wheaton College,Wheaton, IL The purpose of the Wheaton College Alumni Association is to unite all alumni of Wheaton College into a compact organization for effective communication with each other and with the College, to arrange alumni reunions, to encourage www.wheaton.edu the formation of Wheaton Clubs throughout the world, to foster and perpetuate enthusiasm for the College and fellow alumni, and to promote alumni giving. That course changed my life. It really took me to was able to recognize leadership gifts I had—but A Classroom in theWilderness by Michael Murray They don’t tell you this when you sign up, but if you spend enough time at Wheaton College’s Northwoods Campus your eyes start to play tricks on you.You begin to see bald eagles in the trees overlooking Long Lake.You spot a skunk walking five feet from your face when you’re sleeping under the stars.You spend hours watching bright streaks of light dance in the night sky. The ears are the next to go.You stop Fifty years after hearing the endless stream of traffic outside your window, the cell phones beeping in your its birth, the classmates’ pockets, the whining about how “I truly believe in the Honey Rock Northwoods busy everyone is. experience and the power that experience has Campus of You’ll catch yourself doing the strangest on college students,” he says.“I feel that the students who go through Wheaton without Wheaton College things: plucking small berries off a bush and tossing them into your mouth, climbing a wall experiencing at least one event here have is experiencing for no good reason, wondering if anyone back missed out.” renewed life. home would mind if you never returned. More students That’s how they do things at Honey Rock When football coach Harvey Chrouser ’34 are taking more Camp.You fall in love with the place so you returned to Wheaton’s campus following courses from never want to leave. Just ask Rob Ribbe. voluntary service in the Navy during World Immediately after graduating from War II, one of his top priorities was establishing more professors, Wheaton College in 1987, Rob traveled north a youth camp as a leadership training experience and Honey Rock to Honey Rock for a 16-day Wilderness for students. For five years Harve worked to Camp’s director Leadership Seminar. prove the experiential training concept in camps says this is just “That course changed my life,” he says. near Warsaw, Indiana; Little Rock,Arkansas; and “It really took me to a place where my faith the beginning. Williams Bay,Wisconsin.Throughout that time, became owned.And I was able to recognize Harve and the College were searching for a leadership gifts I had—but I also recognized permanent site. my deficiencies in a clear way.” In 1950, the College learned that Honey Later in the summer, he led wilderness trips Rock Fellowship Camp near Three Lakes, for junior-high and high-school students. Wisconsin, was available for rent or purchase. Because of that experience, he says, he kept The Board of Trustees immediately approved going back to Honey Rock and earned an rental of the site for $1,000 a year in 1951 and M.A. in educational ministries in 1990. ’52.After witnessing the effectiveness of the Rob joined the camp staff full time that year, program, the Board agreed in 1953 to buy the and last summer he became the fifth director in property for $18,000.“This idea is 30 years Honey Rock’s 50 years—and the first to live in ahead of its time,” said Chairman Herman Wisconsin’s Northwoods year-round. Fischer ’03. 2 Wheaton o a place where my faith became owned. And I Honey Rock I also recognized my deficiencies in a clear way. The camp at the time consisted of 58 acres of land, mostly shoreline property; nine build- ings; five tent-covered platforms; and, not insignificantly, a name.Two youth workers— recent Wheaton graduate Danny Moore ’48 and Truman Robertson, youth director at Beldon Avenue Baptist Church in Chicago—had been working to convert the Swartz Deer Lodge Resort into a youth camp since 1947. Danny’s wife, Kitty, came up with the name for the camp even before they had a site.“Honey Rock” is derived from Psalm 81:6—“With honey from the rock would I have fed thee”—and 1 Cor. 10:4—“. and that Rock was Christ.” Honey’51 Rock Camp The College Professors from ’57 You fall in love begins with ’53 buys the outside the 165 campers. with the place property physical education Wheaton College so you never for $18,000. department teach rents the site for at Honey Rock for want to leave. $1,000 a year.