Retired fundraiser, traveler and storyteller Gordon Yoder to present Sept. 12 Afternoon Sabbatical

GOSHEN, Ind. – From growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, to traveling to all seven continents, Gordon Yoder, associate director emeritus of college relations for Goshen College, has made life an adventure. He will share interesting stories from his life and work with college relations during the first lecture in the Goshen College Afternoon Sabbatical Series on Sept. 12. The program will start at 1 p.m. in Sauder Concert Hall.

Yoder says he plans to talk about alumni and individuals he has met through working in college relations, as well as what led him to work in this area.

Always with a sense of humor and a good story, Yoder says he wound up at Goshen College as a student “by accident.” After finishing high school, he joined the United States Navy for two and a half years. After, because of the G.I. Bill, which provided college education for returning veterans, Yoder decided to go to Goshen College, his father’s alma mater.

After two years as a student, Yoder got a job at a local bank and dropped out of college to attend banking school, where he would work for the next 19 years. At College Mennonite Church, where Yoder and his wife Esther are members, he met Dan Kauffman, director of college relations from 1971 to 1986. Kauffman invited Yoder to come work for Goshen College in the College Relations Office in 1972. Yoder accepted the position and stayed until his 2004 retirement. “I’ve enjoyed it immensely and met many wonderful people,” said Yoder.

In his role as associate director of development, Yoder developed relationships with a range of individuals interested in giving financially to the college. With no specific territory to cover, his position allowed him to meet with many different people across the country, traveling “wherever there were clusters of alumni,” he said.

Yoder retired completely in August 2004 after working part time for about 10 years, and has been enjoying his free time by traveling, gardening the 12 acres around his house in Elkhart and “drinking a lot of coffee.”

Future lectures in the Afternoon Sabbatical series:

·    Sept. 15-17, Shaw Festival trip to Niagara-On-the-Lake. Cost: $565.

·    Oct. 10, 1 p.m., Sauder Concert Hall, “Growth of a Dream: The Art Department at 50” with the art department

·    Nov. 11, Chicago bus trip to see “The Pirate Queen.” Cost: $105

·    Nov. 14, 1 p.m., Sauder Concert Hall, “Our Community Connection: The River Race Project” with Tom Stark, chair of the River Race committee; Everett Thomas, City Council president, and Mayor Alan Kauffman

·    Dec. 5, 1 p.m., Sauder Concert Hall, “A Baroque and Renaissance Christmas” with Danielle Svonavec, soprano, Amos Burkholder, recorder, Mary Anne Ballard, viola da gamba, Rosalyn Troiano, viola and Kathryn Sherer, harpsichord

·    Feb. 13, 1 p.m., Sauder Concert Hall, “Hand-Me-Down Songs: The Power of Melody,” with Jim Heiks, associate professor of music

·    March 6, 1 p.m., Sauder Concert Hall, “Imagining the Serengeti: Landscape Memory as History in Tanzania,” with Jan Bender Shetler, associate professor of history

·    April 10, 1 p.m., Church-Chapel Fellowship Hall, “International Luncheon: Senegal” with Gwen Miller, assistant professor of art and co-leader Suella Lehman Gerber. Cost: $20

·    May 16, Chicago bus trip to see “The Color Purple.” Cost: $110.

Goshen College’s Afternoon Sabbatical program is in its 29th year of offering rich diversity in programs for the community. A committee of area representatives and college personnel look to the wealth of knowledge and talent at Goshen College and among Elkhart County citizens and selects programs that will appeal to a wide variety of interests. Programs have an integral connection to the college, either through subject matter or in ways in which the campus and community are interrelated.

For more information on the Afternoon Sabbatical series call the Goshen College College Relations Office at (574) 535-7565 or e-mail edutravel@goshen.edu.

– by Megan Blank

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.