Beech Scholarship

No one in Arden Schmucker’s family had been to college when he and two cousins traveled from Alliance, Ohio to Goshen College in the fall of 1949.  Arden said college helped him find reason in life, develop his relationship to Christ and jump-start his professional life.  Retired from a career in chemical engineering after developing a patented adhesive for automotive fiberglass, Arden and his spouse Anna Belle are the glue that connects Beech Mennonite Church in Louisville, OH to Goshen College.

Since 1993 Arden and Anna Belle have financed the Beech Scholarship Fund set up to aid Beech Mennonite students who choose to attend Goshen College.  Many students have received thousands of dollars in support over the years since 1993.  When the fund was initiated Arden said, “I was disgusted that the kids from our church weren’t going off to church colleges.  They’d always say it’s too expensive and head to state schools.  I wanted to take away that excuse.”  Added Anna Belle, “We wanted them to be taught the values that we believed in.”

Arden majored in biology at Goshen College and also took courses at Mount Union College near his home where he received a degree in chemistry.  He met Anna Belle during his alternative service assignment at Brook Lane Psychiatric Center in Hagerstown, MD where Anna Belle was also doing a year of service at Brook Lane following her graduation from Bethel College, N. Newton, KS.  They married in 1956 and Arden took a “temporary” job at GenCorp in Fairlawn, OH that lasted for 38 years.

Now retired, Arden and Anna Belle still live at Alliance, OH and are still active at Beech Mennonite Church.  They are involved in many volunteer activities in and around the Alliance area.