The Arthur L. and Cordelia R. Sprunger Art Scholarship Fund

Arthur Sprunger (1897-1972) was a prominent Mennonite artist whose creative life extended for more than 50 years.  Born in Berne, Indiana, he graduated from Goshen College in 1922, and he taught art at Goshen Junior and Senior High Schools for 41 years, retiring in 1963.  He earned his MA at Columbia University in 1953 and did additional work at the Chicago Art Institute and the John Herron Art Institute at Winona Lake.  Sprunger worked in a wide variety of media.  He was an acclaimed painter and sculptor whose works, many with religious themes, were shown at art exhibitions across the country and won numerous prizes and awards.

In 1927 Sprunger contributed to the development of the new Goshen College program in art, begun the previous year by John F. Slabaugh, by creating eight art courses to be offered in alternate years.  He taught these and other art courses on a part time basis at the College for the following 30 years.

Cordelia Riesen (1897-1992) was born in Berne, earned a teaching certificate at Indiana University in 1916, graduated from Goshen College in 1921, and married Arthur in 1925.  As a married woman, Cordelia could not then teach in the public schools.  She returned to teaching during World War II and continued to teach until her retirement in 1963.  For most of that time she was the elementary art teacher in the Goshen schools, a position she held, beloved by her students, until her retirement in 1963.