Goshen College Mathematics Instructors’ 1950-2000 Scholarship Endowment Fund

During the 50 years from 1950 to 2000, thousands of students enrolled in and completed mathematics courses at Goshen College.  Many of those students were mathematics majors.  They completed their plan of study at Goshen and entered many different professions or places of employment where the problem-solving skills as well as the specific mathematical content learned at Goshen prepared them well for their work.  Others continued their education in graduate school, explored the mathematical world in much greater depth, applied the mathematics learned in new settings, researched creative ways of teaching these ideas to others or pushed back the frontiers of mathematical knowledge.

Many others, although not mathematics majors, studied mathematics in order to reach their professional goals whether in engineering, medicine, chemistry, economics, statistics, computer science, physics, psychology, sociology, teaching math to children at many different levels and many other areas of study.  And, perhaps a few others, engaged in the study of mathematics for the sheer joy of studying one of the classical liberal arts or simply to meet a graduation requirement.

This scholarship is established to recognize, remember, affirm and show appreciation for what those Goshen College mathematics instructors from 1950 – 2000 offered their students.  Their work and dedication is greatly appreciated and, although at times there may have been examinations or ideas that stretched their students to the limit, their encouragement and support enabled many to reach goals not easily met.  THANK YOU!

While there may have been more than 20 individuals who taught mathematics courses during the 1950 – 2000 time period, only six were on staff for at least five years.  Those six, in order of arrival date, were: H. Harold Hartzler, 1937 – 1957; Lester J. Zimmerman, 1947 – 1983; John Nyce, 1966 – 1976; Marion Bontrager, 1968 – 1974; Merritt Gardner, 1969 – 1998; and Ronald J. Milne, 1976 – 2009.

In addition there are two others who joined the Mathematics Faculty during the 1990s and continued beyond the year 2000 to become “long termers”.   They are David Housman, 1998 – present and Patricia Oakley, 1998 – 2013.  Others who were on staff for one to three years include: Carl Metzler, 1960 – 1962; William Freed, 1962 – 1965; Lotus Hershberger, 1965 – 1967; Russell Smucker, 1967 – 1969; John A Beachy, 1967 – 1969; and Carol Smith, 1988 – 1990.

Still others were not mathematics faculty but taught mathematics courses on occasion such as Henry Weaver from the Chemistry Department and Albert Meyer from the Physics Department, or were on staff for a semester to fill in for someone on sabbatical such as Jose Montero (Fall 1987) and Arnold Wedel (Spring 1988).  Adjuncts were also employed to teach courses now and then.

Again, the purpose of this scholarship is to recognize and honor these instructors for the encouragement and support they offered their many students over this half century.