Burkholder, Harriet Lapp (1915-2007)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2007 Sep 17 p. 12

Birth date: 1915 Mar 31

text of obituary:

Goshen's former first lady dies at 92

By Goshen College

GOSHEN, Ind. —Harriet Lapp Burkholder, a longtime community leader and the wife of former Goshen College President J. Lawrence Burkholder, died Sept. 6 at Greencroft Healthcare Center. She was 92.

Burkholder was a community leader, a Sunday school teacher, a peace activist, a spokesperson for harmonious international relations and a volunteer who spent many decades supporting Goshen College.

A 1937 Goshen graduate, Burkholder was a key supporter of and fund-raiser for the college during her husband's presidency from 1971 to 1984. she hosted many receptions for students, faculty, community members and donors. Along with Naomi Hunsberger and Beth Rieth, she helped establish the college's Afternoon Sabbatical education program for the community.

Goshen President James E.Brenneman described Burkholder as "a great role model and leader who worked for many years to strengthen Goshen College as an alumna, as a key supporter and as the spouse of the president."

President Burkholder, Brenneman said, "had an extraordinary life partner who loved Goshen College as much as he does."

Burkholder was born march 31, 1915, in Calcutta, India, where her parents, Esther Ebersole Lapp and George J. Lapp, were missionaries. Her father was Goshen's third president, serving from 1918 to 1019.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree from Goshen in 1937, she became one of the first women to get a bachelor of theology degree a year later from The Bible School, the forerunner to Goshen Biblical Seminary. She then spent a year in Chicago working in a city mission.

She married j. Lawrence in 1939, and they had four children: Myrna Burkholder of Goshen, Howard Burkholder of Boston, Janet Friesen of Flint, Mich., and Gerald Burkholder, who died in 1981; and two grandchildren.

The family lived in Princeton, N.J., and Gettysburg, Pa., for J. Lawrence's seminary education; Croghan, N.Y., for a pastorate; Shanghai, China, for relief service; and Goshen and Cambridge, Mass., for Burkholder's professorships at Goshen and Harvard Divinity School. They returned to Indiana in 1971 when J. Lawrence became Goshen's 11th president.

The Burkholders were awarded the college's Culture for Service Award in 1990.

Funeral services were held Sept. 9 at College Mennonite Church.