Alumni Profiles
- Kardatzke shares his love of history with his community
- The chapters of a gratifying life
- Learning to Simplify
Kardatzke shares his love of history with his community
By Tom Bruce
The school buses came to a stop on the red brick promenade and some 75 third-graders, their teachers, and parent chaperones approached the historic three-story brick building in “Old Town” Wichita. The doors of the Museum of World Treasures swing open and Anderson University alumni Jon ’56 and Lorna (Smith) ’59 Kardatzke welcome the latest group of students into their museum. Quickly becoming a destination point for both history enthusiasts and scholars from around the nation, the two-year-old 40,000-square-foot museum has been nominated for a National Award for Museum Service. A retired physician, Jon has turned a lifelong avocation into a world-class museum.
The elementary students follow Jon like a pied-piper of history for the next three hours, totally engrossed by his illustrations and references to genuine articles of antiquity.
Back in his director’s office, adorned with ancient manuscripts and relics from around the world, Jon explains that he is using the museum as a teaching lab for students. “We have bus loads of students nearly every week,” he notes. Some schools in Oklahoma are sending students on field trips to the museum.
Leaning back in his chair, Jon reminisces how as a young boy he had been interested in collecting. “I remember as a teenager my parents, the Rev. Elmer E. BA ’35, BD ’37, DDiv ’66 and Vera L. (Stanley) BTh ’37 Kardatzke, visited the Holy Lands and upon their return my father filled my hands with a number of Roman coins, including a coin of Herod the Great. I was hooked on history for life.”
In 1955 Jon traveled with his family to Europe and the Holy Lands. He remembers visiting a tomb that is most often identified as the tomb of Jesus. “I found a small stone and now that stone is a part of one of the hundreds of museum exhibits.” The exhibit, titled the Passion of Christ, features this stone, 30 silver coins, a crown of thorns, crucifixion nails, and dice used by Roman Soldiers, all dating to the time of Christ. Nearby is an intact Roman sword. This is one of only a few in the world that is completely preserved. Jon explains that Roman swords were made of iron and all but a few have been lost to antiquity.
Lorna reflects on how thrilling it is to see both young people and adults visit the museum. The Kardatzkes were approached by community leaders wanting them to create something in the “Old Town” area of the city. By that time, Jon’s collection had outgrown their home. Something had to be done. “We had items everywhere, all over the house,” remembers Lorna, “I came home one evening and there standing in the entryway was a full set of armor.”
The museum includes not only Jon’s collection but items from 40 other collectors.
Jon and Lorna hope many AU alumni and friends will come by and see them and visit the museum. The museum is located at 835 E. 1st St., Wichita, KS. For more information, visit their Web site at www.worldtreasures.org.
The chapters of a gratifying life
By Jack Williams
Ernie Owen ’46 was a student at Anderson University in the ’40s when he read Charles Sheldon’s In His Steps, an 1890s novel about a congregation that struggles with the street level realities of Christian discipleship. Ernie was so impressed with the story that he wrote one of the major film studios and suggested it be made into a movie.
Ernie may have been ahead of his time because, while the studio politely declined, in the years since Ernie first read it, the story has made it onto the silver screen twice and, belatedly, become a worldwide bestseller. The expression “What Would Jesus Do?” was first — or at least most famously — uttered in Sheldon’s book.
Publishing Christian books eventually became Ernie’s professional mission. He went to work as a sales rep for the Gospel Trumpet Company, forerunner to Warner Press, and later with Fleming Revell as an acquisitions editor and, later, as an editorial director. In 1980, Ernie was named senior vice president of publishing at Word Publishing, one of the pre-eminent Christian publishers in the world.
“Christian books are my passion and working with gifted authors is my passion,” says Ernie who has published books by Billy and Ruth Graham, Chuck Colson, Tony Campolo, Max Lucado, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Lloyd John Ogilvie, and John MacArthur.
Ernie also worked with Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch woman who helped establish a network of hiding places for Jews in Holland during World War II. Corrie survived three concentration camps to tell her story of courageous faith, most memorably in The Hiding Place. While giving editorial assistance on several of her other books, Ernie learned how persecution made Corrie a light in prisons such as Ravensbruck.
“Corrie was a saint who spoke to the Lord as if He were present in human form,” remembers Ernie.
Ernie retired from his senior VP position in 1989, and served a consulting role with Word, now known as W Publishing, and its parent company, Thomas Nelson Publishers, until his second retirement a few weeks ago.
After having his hands in several hundred book projects and developing lifelong friendships with evangelical notables in the fields of film, sports, politics, and business, one might wonder if, like most readers, Ernie has a favorite?
“Yes, all of them!” he says. “They’re like your children. I was proud to be in a position to identify new talents who were deeply committed to the faith and publishing and to encourage them.”
Decades later, Ernie can still detail the Anderson professors who mentored him. He recalls Dr. Earl Martin’s “knowledge of Scripture and his humor,” Dean Russell Olt’s “fairness, firmness, and encouragement,” Dr. T. Franklin Miller’s “understanding and gentle ways,” President John Morrison’s “vision and leadership,” and Dr. Gertrude Little as “a strong friend, a good listener, and confidante who gave good advice.”
“They were my heroes,” says Ernie. “They set the example of taking the high road in life. This background played a major role in my publishing decisions.”
Ernie’s publishing decisions have not gone unnoticed. In 1994, the Evangelical Publishers Association awarded him the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2000 the Christian Booksellers’ Association honored him with the Life Impact Award.
In February, Ernie, who lives with his wife Pauline in San Diego, Calif., received a retirement “gift” for his career achievements and lifelong passion for the printed page. Christian Retailing, a semi-monthly magazine covering news and trends in the Christian retail market for the publishing industry, selected Ernie to a list of 50 men and women who have had the greatest impact on Christian retailing in the last half century. That honor put Ernie in distinguished company that includes Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Bill Gaither, Rick Warren, James Dobson, Frank Peretti, and Ken Taylor
“If indeed I do deserve this, I am very, very gratified,” says Ernie.
Learning to Simplify
By Cara Warfield
It’s been almost two years since Paul and Anne (Stafford) Stover, both BA ’97, have lived with the conveniences of electricity, running water, and indoor toilets. But they don’t miss it much.
As Peace Corps volunteers in Madagascar, a large island off the southern tip of Africa, the couple is expected to live as the locals do. This means they wake up at dawn every morning to fetch water from the pumps in town. They do their bathing from a bucket. They travel to the market daily to buy food. And they eat rice for every meal. The rest of their time is spent trying to avoid the intense sun and teaching the Malagasy about HIV/AIDS prevention and general health issues.
Believe it or not, this is the type of experience Paul and Anne hoped for when they signed up for the Peace Corps and headed to Madagascar in February 2003.
“I like to travel, and I always considered it an option to do something like this,” Paul says.
Having met at AU on a Tri-S trip to Ecuador, Paul and Anne began to date while at AU and discovered their similar interests in travel and service. They were married in 1999 and after living in Indianapolis for several years, decided it was time to follow their ambitions.
They applied for the Peace Corps, leaving it to the administration to decide where and how they would serve. They were later sent to Madagascar with instructions to promote HIV/AIDS awareness, as well as basic health information, and to “blend in” as much as possible.
“As Peace Corps volunteers, we’re there basically to integrate into the culture,” Anne explains. “We’re almost going as mini ambassadors from the states. It’s a cross-cultural exchange, and the work we’re assigned is the vehicle to this end.”
However, in a completely different culture, blending in has not been an easy task for the Stovers. “It’s really difficult sometimes because Madagascar is so completely isolated from the rest of the world,” Paul says. “Most Malagasy haven’t even seen a white person. And because we are white, many of them come up to us expecting a hand-out or wanting something from us — even the clothes we are wearing.”
Paul and Anne have also been challenged by the cultural differences they’ve encountered in Madagascar, where polygamy is acceptable, prostitution is widespread, and living conditions are extremely unsanitary — all things that make their job as health educators more difficult.
“There’s so much disease there and it’s so dirty,” Paul says. “People defecate in the same water they drink out of. Prostitution is universal. People have about 20 kids and half of them might die, but they don’t see anything wrong with that. They pretty much know what causes AIDS and HIV, they just don’t want to change their behavior. There’s not a whole lot I can say to someone who doesn’t want to change.”
Although they are not paid for their work, the Stovers do receive a monthly stipend of $200 — way above the local average of approximately $500 per year per family. However, because their bank is a 30-hour trip from home, Paul and Anne have become experts in making their money last.
“We’ve found that the less money we have, the happier we are,” Paul says. “When we have less money, we really have to work hard to budget and figure out what we’re going to eat every meal. We are forced to simplify our lifestyle and the challenge in doing that is a lot more fun.”
Overall, their experiences in Madagascar have been good, but challenging, as Paul and Anne have witnessed the country’s poverty and disease, and experienced the occasional unfriendliness from people who are threatened by anyone different from themselves.
“One thing we never really anticipated is for people to be mean,” Paul says. “It’s mostly just ignorance in that they don’t know how to deal with otherness. But there are times when we think, ‘This was such a mistake. Why did we come here?’ And then 10 minutes later we’re convinced that this is the best experience of our lives.”
Their service in Madagascar ends in April and the Stovers are looking forward to coming back to the states, where Paul will pursue a PhD in biology and Anne intends to reenter the corporate world. However, the lessons they’ve learned from their time in the Peace Corps have changed their outlook on the world and themselves.
“Most importantly, we’ve learned that less is more in terms of possessions,” Paul explains. “We like to live simply and that allows us to appreciate the things we do have.”
