Ethel Pletcher Nusbaum Scholarship

This scholarship is given in memory of Ethel Pearl Ingleright Pletcher Nusbaum. She was born on Christmas day in 1882 at North Liberty, Indiana and later moved with her family to South Bend, Indiana where she taught music in the public schools and directed the South Bend Junior Symphony Orchestra.

After her marriage to William E. Pletcher, principal of Parkside Elementary School, she moved to Goshen. In their home on South Eighth Street, she taught piano students both individually and in classes. She has a deep interest in her students and was positive and patient in relating to them. She was concerned that young people have an opportunity to develop a love for music and she felt that basic piano knowledge was essential background for playing other musical instruments. She was skilled in developing good hand techniques and also taught rhythm classes using the Dalcroze method. Many of her excellent teaching methods were learned and developed from her study at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago with Louise Robyn, whom she greatly admired.

A few years after her husband died, she married Warren Nusbaum, a retired building contractor, and she continued to teach in their home in Dunlap. It was there, at the age of 92, that she taught her last student. She died in May, 1986 but her deep love for music lives on in the hearts of her son and four grandchildren–three of whom graduated from Goshen College- -and of many of her students who were friends for as long she lived. In awarding this scholarship, it is our desire that the recipient love music and seek to share the joy of music with others.