In its second year, the Dr. Ruth Gunden and the Dr. Roman Gingerich Champion of Character Awards, presented by the Maple Leafs Athletic Club, annually honors a male and female alumni athlete who exemplify the college’s core values in their lives. Gunden and Gingerich were two pioneers in Goshen College’s athletic history.

This year’s recipients:
Sue Conrad ’92 – Dr. Ruth Gunden Champion of Character Award

As a student, Sue Conrad was an All-Conference tennis player, and an NAIA All-District 21 team member and NAIA All-American Scholar Athlete. She graduated in 1992 with majors in communication and Bible, religion and philosophy. After receiving a master’s degree in speech communication from The Pennsylvania State University, Conrad returned to Goshen College as an assistant professor of communication from 1998 to 2002. Her former colleagues describe her as enthusiastic, engaged and interested in learning, and a teacher who always invited her students to excellence.

“I had a very personal call from God that encouraged me strongly to go to seminary,” she said. “Pastoring was something I had thought about earlier in my life, but sort of disregarded as I hadn’t seen a lot of women in that area and I wasn’t sure I was up to the challenge … and now I can’t imagine doing anything other than pastoring.” Conrad studied at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and earned a master’s of divinity degree in 2005. She now is associate pastor at East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa.

Henry Zehr ’78 – Dr. Roman Gingerich Champion of Character Award

When Henry Zehr was a student at Goshen College, he played soccer with the team that went to the NAIA national soccer tournament in 1977 and participated in a campus wrestling club. He graduated in 1978 with a degree in elementary education and went on to earn a master’s degree in education from Ball State University. Zehr found a professional home in the Warsaw Community Schools, where he taught for 30 years. He was head wrestling coach and soccer club coach, has led many soccer clubs and camps for children in the Warsaw area and continues to referee soccer games across Northern Indiana.

Zehr chose to step down as coach to devote more time to his youngest daughter, Kailey, who suffered from a genetic disorder called Turner Syndrome. Zehr and his wife Sherry and their oldest daughter, Abby, supported Kailey as she struggled with decreasing health. Before Kailey died in October 2005 at the age of 15, she won her school’s outstanding character award and was baptized. “Kailey was a true reflection of the type of person her parents are,” said Henry’s brother, Clifford Zehr. “Henry cried along with his wife and family and friends and continued to lean on God. His servanthood in his daily walk, I believe, is what leads to all the core values this award represents.”

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