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The GēDUNK January 2023
BLESSED BE THE TIES THAT BIND
By Nick Hildebrand
(Pictured above:) Bruce Smith ’58 is flanked by active members of his old fraternity Omicron Xi in Harbison Chapel after he was honored with the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award. Smith’s seven-decade relationship with Grove City College stretches from his undergrad years in the 1950s to a stint as dean of men in the 1970s to his role as an emeritus member of the Alumni Council.
There is something more than nostalgia and the promise of a good time that brings thousands – alumni, students, families, and friends – to Grove City College every year for Homecoming.
The crowd delights in the parade and the floats, the big football game, the Wolverine Marching Band’s halftime show, fun under the tents on the Quad and Greek Village, and reunions aplenty. Everyone enjoys the celebration and the spectacle, but that is not what really draws them to gather “‘Mid the pines in columns growing, By the stream so deeply flowing,” as the Alma Mater says.
They come “home” en masse for a fall weekend for the same reason that they talk up the College to prospective students, come back to speak to a class, volunteer to mentor students, stuff envelopes for the alumni office, write a check, or read this magazine. It is because they continue to find value and meaning in their connection to Grove City College.
Some found it in the classroom, others on the playing fields, in chapel or bible study, in dorm rooms, the Gedunk, during office hours, at Warriors or Young Life, in the lab, the radio station, student government, the Orchestra, the Outing Club, the Touring Choir, the Theatre Program, Greek life, and dozens of other locus points of campus life. The lessons they learned, the people they encountered, the wisdom gained, and the faith encouraged during their years on campus stay with them. Like the Alma Mater declares: “Staunch and true there dwells within us, All the spirit of thy life.”
Senior Director of Alumni and College Relations Melissa (Trifaro ’96) MacLeod said the relationships forged on campus tie alumni to each other and the College. They are foundational to the lives of many Grovers who maintain a connection to their alma mater that is distinctive in American higher education.
MacLeod sees this nearly every day at work. She sees how the connection runs through multiple generations of legacy families that sometimes include great-great-great “grand Grovers,” how it is fostered in churches where alumni congregate, how it is present in businesses and workplaces, and how those who share it work joyfully to strengthen the ties that bind.“We walk through life together,” she said.
The Alumni Office works to deepen the connection between alumni and the College. The effort takes many forms, from sending Wolverine onesies to new alumni parents to designing social media campaigns. It is done on a big scale like Homecoming and Family Weekend and in day-to-day interactions with alums, social media posts, GeMail, and targeted alumni events. In all their efforts, they are supported – formally and independently – by a legion of alumni.
Bruce Smith ’58 is one of them. He said his “love affair” with the College started when he attended a church youth meeting here as junior in high school in the early 1950s. He became so enamored that he encouraged his older brother to attend and followed him the next year in the fall of 1954. College was exciting and transformational, Smith said. “I did as much as I possibly could to enjoy myself and learn things and have experiences.”
Evan ’89 and Pam (Cranford ’89) Homan host incoming GCC freshmen and their families at a July send-off picnic at the Homans’ home in Boyds, Md. They’ve held the picnics annually since 2015, when their daughter was beginning her freshman year.
Smith came back to serve as dean of men from 1969 to 1975 and left the job impressed with how the College handled the issues and pressures of that era that left much of American higher education adrift. The aims and goals of our founders – to provide “an excellent education in beautiful surroundings at a reasonable cost and in a Christian environment” – were maintained steadily, he said, even as the campus and the world changed.
– Pam (Cranford ’89) Homan
Smith has been an integral part of the College community ever since as a longtime and now emeritus member of Alumni Council. Council President Carol (MacGamwell ’79) Yannuzi noted that she can count on seeing Smith in Carnegie Alumni Center anytime there is a need for volunteers and the octogenarian continues to monitor alumni association meetings.
“My love affair has not changed in these 70 years,” he said. “And I will continue to serve my alma mater as long as she has jobs for me to do and as long as God gives me the strength and ability to do it.”
Smith’s distinguished service was honored at Homecoming (see page 19), and in a sign of how campus connections transcend generations, he was cheered on loudly by current members of his Omicron Xi fraternity and afterward the actives posed for a photo with a brother old enough to be their grandfather.
Pam (Cranford ’89) Homan’s connection also began with a visit and continues to this day. She fell in love with the campus and eventually another student – her husband Evan Homan ’89. In addition to a spouse, she found a deeper faith and “a community of people who really cared about me, invested in me and wanted the best of all that life had for my time there and for my future.”
Since 2015, the Homans have hosted a picnic at their Boyds, Md., home for incoming freshmen and their families. The gettogethers began when their daughter Karina Homan ’19 was getting ready for her first year at Grove City College and they wanted to meet other “freshmen families.” Their son was in his freshman year of high school that first year and put ’24 on his name tag. Jonathan Homan will graduate next year.
The gatherings telegraph for incoming students and families the character of the community that they have joined, one that the Homans’ hospitality embodies.
Freshman Emma Danielson ’26 and Pamela (Fishback ’75) Christie met while playing in the cello section at the Buffalo Niagara Praise Orchestra’s inaugural concert in Clarence, N.Y. Christie encouraged Danielson, then a high school student, to enroll at Grove City College.
“Not everyone’s experiences of their time at GCC are exactly the same, yet the common factor of attending such a special college is what connects us all. I think Grove City stands out as a place where we all received an excellent education, learned to think for ourselves and be a community of people who really care – these are all things that alumni take with them,” Pam said. “When you talk with other alumni about the College, the thing that is mentioned the most are the people - faculty, professors, RAs, and students, among others. GCC has a strong network of people who are connected through their love of the school.”
That love runs strong in Pam (Fishback ’75) Christie, a retired music instructor who taught in New York state public schools for more than 30 years and comes from a family of Grovers – sibling graduates include brother Bob Fishback ’78 and sister Barbara (Fishback ’84) Cross. Christie has stayed in touch with former “roomies,” Gamma Chi sorority sisters, and other friends – when they see each other “it’s like we never left” –and made new connections over the years, including a recent chance meeting with freshman Emma Danielson.
Christie was rehearsing for the Buffalo Niagara Praise Orchestra’s inaugural concert last March when she overheard Danielson, then in high school, say she was thinking about attending Grove City College. “Well, I picked up on hearing that, and told her all the reasons she should go! We had a long conversation that night about my years at GCC … the best years of my life,” she said. Christie told Danielson about the excellent instruction that prepared her for her career, but “mainly I told her about the wonderful people I met.” Christie told her they had to get a picture for the GeDUNK. “Forty-eight years apart in graduation years, and both cellists from the Buffalo, N.Y. area! Cool, huh?”
Alumni, from left, Kristy (Miller ’02) Smith, Ted Blendermann ’80, Amy (Shaffer ’78) Thomas, Craig Cerra ’92, and Mike Ivan ’03 met up by chance in the Dominican Republic last January. They were all on separate trips ministering to people in the sugar cane fields with the organization Meeting God in Mission. A GCC T-shirt sparked the connection and the group talked about their formative experiences on campus.
Christie said she has run into many Grovers over the years, socially and professionally, and they are invariably “just good people with common values.” The school produces “helpful and caring people,” she said. “The connection is we are GCC graduates and we are friendly, helpful, accepting people. We enjoy each other’s company. Again, it’s like we just were at GCC, and yet, it has been a very long time in-between,” she said.
“Grovers are tied together by something lasting, something that is timeless. It is in friendships, fellowship, and shared values. It is eternal,” President Paul J. McNulty ’80 said. “As a result, people care about the College in a way that is different. It’s more than affinity for the team. It’s more than just ‘hanging out.’ It is an inspiring shared experience.”
When McNulty thinks about the connections that Grove City College fosters and how they endure beyond campus, he said the well-know hymn Blessed Be the Tie that Binds comes to mind. The hymn is an ode to a community that shares prayers, hopes, fears, comforts, purpose, and a faith in which “perfect love and friendship reign through all eternity.” Its opening stanza sums up – as much as the Alma Mater does – what connects Grovers:
“Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.” ■
