The Esther Showalter Deal Scholarship Fund
Esther Showalter Deal was born in Elkhart County, Indiana on June 18, 1931. She graduated from Goshen College in 1953 with a degree in elementary education. She taught two years at Clinton Community Public School and two years at Topeka Community School.
In 1957-58 Esther spent a year in voluntary service in Phoenix, AZ, teaching in a migrant camp for Navajo children waiting to start public school. Their parents worked in the vegetable fields near Phoenix. Esther met a Goshen College graduate, Trula Detwiler, who had been teaching on the Navajo Reservation, and she asked Esther to join her at Ganado Public School. The superintendent at Ganado was so impressed with Trula’s preparation and dedication that he was eager to hire other GC graduates for his staff. Esther taught at Ganado for five years. Several other GC graduates joined the staff as well.
In 1964 Esther returned to Indiana because of the declining health of her father. She taught in Lake County four years, then returned to the Elkhart-Goshen area for five years. Her last employment was at a Concord School.
During Esther’s life, she remembered the motto, “Culture for Service” which Goshen College instilled in its students. Being a school teacher gave her three months of “vacation” each summer, so Esther chose to use that free time in many ways. The summer of 1951 she was part of a women’s quartet in Hannibal, Missouri with Nelson Kauffman and his wife, Christmas Carol. She spent a summer in Los Angeles with three other women who taught Summer Bible School in the African-American area of the city. They also helped with a week of camping up in the San Bernardino Mountains with John David Zehr, pastor of Calvary Mennonite Church. One summer Esther worked in Chicago at the Spanish church helping Mario and Barbara Snyder with a neighborhood survey and other projects, and another summer in Migrant Ministry work in northern Michigan. Esther also served a summer at Camp Friedenswald where she taught campers to do lapidary work: polishing rocks and using a diamond saw to cut a geode in half. At Little Eden, a Christian retreat center in Onekama, Michigan, she worked on staff for a summer and helped with the craft program. And finally, she spent one summer serving as camp hostess at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp in Divide, Colorado. All of these experiences greatly enriched her life as she lived out the “Culture for Service” motto.
In 1973 Esther married L. Thomas Deal, a business man from Fort Wayne, Indiana. School systems in Indiana at that time were suffering from financial concerns, so she could not find an opening in any school system in Fort Wayne or surrounding county systems. But Esther found many opportunities for service in Fort Wayne. She volunteered for over thirty years at Lutheran Hospital,
sang in a ladies choir which entertained senior citizens in retirement centers and other organizations, and became involved in AAUW, American Association of University Women, where she served in many offices, including President of the Fort Wayne branch in 1982-84. She was named Woman of the Year in 1980-81. She received a Named Grant Honoree in 1979-80, 1992-93, and 1993-94. Esther was named the Eleanor Roosevelt Honoree in 1999-2000. She was also honored in 2003-04 as one of ten Eleanor Roosevelt Players who performed the scripts she wrote to celebrate Eleanor Roosevelt’s 100th birthday anniversary. Esther was honored for 50 years of membership in AAUW in March 2009.
After her husband’s death on March 3, 2007, Esther decided to move to Goshen and make her home at Greencroft. She has become involved in volunteer activities such as the Auxiliary Board of Goshen Hospital and volunteers in Surgical Waiting two days a month. She joined two Lifelong Learning classes offered by Goshen College and Greencroft. She also serves one day a week at Real Meals.
Esther especially enjoys being close to the Goshen College campus and attending concerts and lectures. She belongs to a book club, a knitting class and the Great Decisions discussion group. She attends Waterford Mennonite Church and is one of five persons being trained in Stephen Ministry, which is a lay caring ministry in the congregation.
Esther decided to make a scholarship available because of her deep appreciation for Goshen College and the faculty members. She wants the scholarship earnings to benefit education majors since that was her field of work.