Frank and Betty Jo Yoder President’s Leadership Award

For almost 20 years, an endowment that Frank and Betty Jo Yoder established has brought renowned speakers from all across the United States to Goshen College. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, former White House adviser Sara Weddington, former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop and National Public Radio correspondent Elizabeth Arnold are just a few of the guests whom have shared their ideas with the community as part of the Frank and Betty Jo Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Series at Goshen College.

Though they have remained behind the scenes instead of behind a podium, the Yoders have also shared with GC and the community. Born and raised in Goshen, Frank was always interested in giving back to community. Frank always wanted Goshen to be a place that young people would want to come back to if they went away to college. If they stayed in town to attend college, that was all right too because of Frank’s ties with Goshen College.

After he graduated from Goshen High School, Frank worked as an assistant in a law firm during the Great Depression, a time when his father had to sell the family farm. John Umble, GC professor emeritus of English, saw Frank Yoder at the firm one day and asked him why he wasn’t in college. Frank replied that he didn’t have enough money. Upon hearing this, Umble helped arrange financial help for him, and Frank enrolled at GC shortly thereafter. Though he only stayed at GC for a year and later graduated from Indiana University, Frank always remembered his hometown college, according to GC President Emeritus J. Lawrence Burkholder, a good friend of Yoder. “He frequently referred to Joim Umble with great appreciation and he always gave Goshen College a lot of credit for helping out his life,” Burkholder said.

Betty Jo grew up in Bedford, hid., and met Frank at IU, where she majored in speech and drama. They were married Dec. 26, 1942, and had two children, Frank and Leslie. After serving with the armed forces during World War II, Frank returned to the U.S. and spent a year at Columbia University brushing up on his law studies, before returning to Goshen. He practiced law by himself before starting the firm of Yoder, Ainlay, Ulmer and Buckingham.

Both Frank and Betty Jo served the community in various capacities. Frank helped start the Boys and Girls Club in Goshen and served as the first chairman of the board for the Goshen Chamber of Commerce. Betty Jo was the director of deaf ministry for 11 years at First United Methodist Church, where she helped interpret for the hearing impaired during church services, funerals, doctor appointments and in court. She didn’t know any sign language when she started, but she

took a class and stuck with it. “I carried around a sign language book for a full year, Betty Jo said.

As for hobbies and interests, Frank loved gardening. He spent many hours planting, weeding and harvesting vegetables. The Yoders had two large garden plots at Frank’s boyhood farm house, which Frank and Betty Jo owned for many years. “We tried everything. We would freeze all summer long,” Betty Jo said about their vegetable supply. Frank also was an avid golfer, and helped start Maplecrest Country Club in Goshen.

Betty Jo found a new hobby in the early 90s when she started taking tap dance lessons. She and two friends were “Showstopper National Champions” in the American Dance Championships n Indianapolis. The three women won their age division three years in a row.

The Yoders stayed closely tied with Goshen College over the years mainly from their friendship with Burkholder and his wife Harriet. “They’ve been very good to us,” said Betty Jo, noting she and Frank had many dinners with the Burkholders. “Lawrence is a very good cook and so is Harriet.” Frank was also a confidant to three Goshen College presidents through h active membership on the President’s Advisory Board since its formation in the early sixties.

Lawrence said Frank liked to discuss theological and philosophical issues with him. “He was not very expressive, but he would sure get it out of me,” Burkholder said. He described Frank as thoughtful and reserved. “I always thought of him as a gentleman. He was a dignified person.” Betty Jo is as caring as Frank was dignified, said Burkholder. She cared for Frank while he was ill, until his death in 1996. “She took wonderful care of him,” Lawrence said.