Former Hesston College dean
dies
Paton Yoder, former academic
dean at Hesston College who was instrumental in starting the nursing program in
1966, died Aug. 3 in Goshen, Ind., at the age of 96. Bonnie Sowers, director of
Hesston College's nursing program (1980-83 and 1985 to the present) and
associate academic dean, represented the college at services at Goshen College
Mennonite Church on Saturday. Yoder served as academic dean and professor of
history and political science at Hesston College from 1961 through 1970. (His
son, Jim Yoder, now a chemistry professor at Hesston College, was a Hesston
sophomore in 1961.)
A total of 1,224 nursing
students have graduated from the program since it began in 1966 (the first
class graduated in 1968).
Other accomplishments for
Yoder as academic dean include:
· Assisting in the smooth
transition of the academy as part of Hesston College's program to the high
school in the local public school system.
· Achieving its first
academic accreditation by the North Central Association of Colleges and
Secondary Schools.
· Building a new library
(Mary Miller Library).
· Directing and supporting
faculty in a major curriculum development, which became the innovative
Foundation Studies.
. Acquiring government
funding for the construction of Northlawn Music Building.
While at Hesston, Yoder
completed a book, 'Taverns and Travelers, a History of U.S. Frontier Taverns,'
published by Indiana University Press in 1969.
During a reception
celebrating the release of the book on campus, President Laban Peachey said it
was 'appropriate that the dean should take leadership in such scholarly work.'
Peachey described the book as 'well documented, alive, readable, and contains
an engaging style which history books often lack.'
Yoder left Hesston in 1970 to
pursue another research project and to lead a cross-cultural service term for
Goshen (Ind.) College, commonly known as Study-Service Term. He subsequently
published two books in the field of history: 'Tennessee John Stoltzfus, Amish
Church-Related Documents and Family Letters,' Herald Press and Lancaster
Mennonite Historical Society, 1987; and 'Tradition and Transition, Amish
Mennonites and Old Order Amish 1800-1900,' Herald Press, 1991.
