Bachman-Springer Business Scholarship Fund

Leland Alvin Bachman, the oldest child of Alvin and Mary (Eigsti) Bachman, was born on the family farm south of Morton, Illinois. on October 8, 1907.  He attended Maple Grove School and then Morton High School, graduating in 1925.  He worked on the farm until he was 21 years old and then attended and graduated from Brown Business College in 1929 after which he began his first job away from the farm at the Johnson Printing Co.  He worked there as an office manager and accountant until 1941.

He was ordained to the ministry at Pleasant Grove Mennonite Church (later to become Morton Mennonite) in February of 1932 and continued his ministry there while working full-time for the printing company.  Later that year, in October, he married Elsie May Springer in Minier, Illinois. and in April of 1934 their marriage was blessed with the birth of a son, David Christian.  From 1935 to 1938 his company granted him a leave of absence and he attended Goshen College, graduating with a Bachelor of Theology degree.

In 1941 Leland was asked to serve as the director of a new Civilian Public Service camp at Henry, Illinois. Which he did and then, later in 1942, they moved to California to direct a camp there.  After serving in a couple of camps in California they returned to Morton in 1944 where he resumed his ministry at the Morton church.  Then in 1947, the president of Goshen College, E.E. Miller, asked him to come to Goshen to serve as the College’s controller.  He served in this role until being named the business manager in 1949 and then later the public relations director.

He continued his work at Goshen College until in 1961, a new president at Hesston College, Tilman Smith, asked him to move to Hesston, Kansas, to become their business manager and public relations director.  They accepted this new assignment and he served Hesston College until 1970.  It was that year that he was asked to move to Phoenix, Arizona to help conduct a feasibility study being undertaken by the Phoenix area churches, trying to determine the potential need for a retirement community there.  Out of this work grew Glencroft Retirement Center and Leland served as its first executive director until his retirement in 1979.

After Elsie died in 1977, he married Ina Springer in 1978.  He remained very active in Sunnyslope Mennonite Church, the Southwest Mennonite Conference, the Glencroft resident’s association and was the first director of the Friendship Foundation.  Between 1989 and 1995, he even spent considerable time in Oregon, helping to establish another retirement community, Hope Village.  In 1995 Leland finally retired fully and he and Ina moved to Denver, Colorado where she died in 1997 and he died the next year on May 23, 1998.