The Robert Wert Scholarship Fund

Robert (Bob) Wert was born in Annville, Pennsylvania on August 21, 1939.  He attended Eastern Mennonite College, where he met Esther Glick, a fellow student from Belleville, PA and in 1961, they were married.  Bob graduated from EMC in 1963 with Bachelor’s degrees in Bible and History.

The turmoil of the 1960s drew Bob to service in the city.  In 1966, he and the family moved to inner-city Washington, D.C., for two years of voluntary service with Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions.  After developing an after-school drop-in center for inner-city youth, Bob realized his life-long purpose – helping people improve their lives.  He took a Master’s degree in Social Work at Howard University, a historic Black university in Washington, graduating in 1970.  As part of a mission group of Church of the Savior, Bob helped start the Learning Center as a project of FLOC (For the Love of Children).  He was then employed as a social worker for the District of Columbia for three years.

After experiencing the city, Bob and Esther, along with their two sons, Donald and David, moved to North Newton, Kansas, where he taught Social Work at Bethel College from 1973 to 1975.  Next, the family joined an intentional community of several families in Shepherdstown, W.Va.  During this time, Bob counseled inmates at a Maryland state prison.

In 1978, the family moved to Goshen, where Bob worked as an addictions counselor for Oaklawn Psychiatric Center in Elkhart.  A few years later he switched to the Oaklawn Goshen office, across South Main Street from Goshen College, and focused on counseling children and youth.  After the Oaklawn Hospital was built, he did much of his work there, leading individual and group counseling sessions and working alongside a number of Goshen College students and recent graduates.

In 2004, after 26 years, Bob stopped working at Oaklawn, but didn’t stop working on behalf of people in need.  Bob volunteered with the Outreach Commission and Jubilee Fund program at College Mennonite Church (CMC), where he was a member, did short-term service in Puerto Rico, and enjoyed serving meals at CMC.  During his retirement, he frequently could be found at Goshen College music, drama, and sporting events, Lifelong Learning Institute classes, and the Rec-Fitness Center.  Although they were not alumni of Goshen College, Bob and Esther, having lived close to GC for over 30 years, have felt deeply connected to the college, its mission, and its students.