J. Lawrence and Harriet Burkholder Merit Scholarship

The J. Lawrence and Harriet Burkholder Merit Scholarship has been endowed to provide scholarships to deserving students who have shown both academic excellence and promise of future service to their communities, their churches and the world.

Lawrence retired in 1984.  But his profound vision as Goshen College’s 10th president and his characteristic leadership live on in a strengthened international program, more solid college/community ties and a closer relationship between Goshen College and the church.

Lawrence began his presidency in 1971 with a simple religious service and the planting of 130-odd trees around campus.  “I wanted to bring beauty to a campus that seemed somewhat barren,  and I hoped to soften and humanize the image of the place in the process.”

Leaving a professorship at Harvard Divinity School for this small college in northern Indiana, Lawrence arrived with the conviction that “Mennonites had something to contribute to the world, and I wanted to be part of it.”  He and his wife Harriet brought a combined world view that has helped shape the curriculum of their alma mater.  They were instrumental in the beginnings of GC’s pioneer exchange program with the People’s Republic of China.

Harriet was born in Calcutta, India to veteran missionary George J. Lapp.  After graduation from Goshen in Bible and biology, she became one of the first Mennonite women in North America to receive a bachelor of theology degree.

In 1944 Lawrence volunteered for relief work in China.  For the next four years his tasks ranged from associate director of Church World Services with Mennonite Central Committee to flying DC-3s over the Himalayas to deliver supplies to Chinese refugees.

The presidency followed more than 20 years of teaching.  Former students still remember his well-attended classes at Goshen in the ’50s.  More recently students in his “Christianity and Modern Thought” course have appreciated his personal relationships with some of the greatest modern thinkers.

Lawrence and Harriet themselves relied on the generous financial support of friends and foundations.  It is in that spirit of gratitude and commitment that Goshen College’s merit scholarship fund has been named for J. Lawrence and Harriet Burkholder.