Three faculty retire
By: Andrew Young and Deborah Lilly
Dr. Juanita Leonard BA ’61 may be retiring from her full-time position at the Anderson University School of Theology, but she’s not slowing down.
“My mom had to retire when she was 62 to care for my grandmother. She said to me, ‘Nita, if you don’t need to retire at 62, don’t. Just keep going as long as you can.’” Leonard is taking her mother’s advice to heart. “I’ve decided that while I’m still feeling great and doing well, it’s time to have another kind of ministry experience.”
Leonard began her work in ministry as a teenager, working with the migrant ministry of the National Council of Churches of the United States before coming to AU as a freshman. She actually began her career in social service, earning her master’s degree at Indiana University. After graduate school, she worked in Anderson for Family Service Association of Madison County and then joined the social work faculty at AU in 1965. She spent many years teaching and counseling in a variety of settings, interrupted by a three-year assignment with the Mennonites in East Africa and going back to school at different times for more training.
She joined the AU SOT faculty in 1987, working jointly at the SOT and for the Women of the Church of God. She was then offered a full-time position at the SOT, where she taught for 19 years, retiring as the professor of Christian mission. “It’s been 19 years of a really wonderful journey with my colleagues and the students.”
Over the years, Leonard has focused on urban mission, cross-cultural mission, and women in ministry. “My focus for the last four or five years has been on the biblical foundation of missions, along with world religions and pluralism,” says Leonard. And, of course, classes focusing on women in ministry and women’s spirituality.
Leonard’s new ministry will be as a writer, consultant, and teacher for Missionary Ventures, Inc., based in Orlando, Fla. Over the next several months, she will be writing missiological curriculum for the organization’s staff and traveling to Paraguay, then it’s on to extended stays in Lebanon and Equador teaching for Church of God Bible colleges. Leonard leaves the SOT with a full schedule, but she’s not severing her ties with AU. She is the adviser for six students earning their doctorate at the SOT, and she will continue that role. Next spring she’ll be back on campus to teach in the Doctor of Ministry program.
School of Theology professor Dr. Ted Stoneberg is retiring this semester after 25 years of teaching at Anderson University.
Twenty-five years ago, Stoneberg was living in Nairobi and serving as the secretary of marriage and family counseling for the National Council of Churches of Kenya. Fellow AU Professor Juanita Leonard asked Stoneberg if she could submit his name as a possible replacement for a departing AU professor.
“The school flew me here from Africa for a week to interview me,” said Stoneberg. “I asked for a one-year contract, and I’ve been teaching here for 25 years.”
Stoneberg said he is appreciative of his tenure here, in regard to both students and colleagues. “I have great colleagues to work with. Being an ordained Lutheran minister outside of my denomination, I’m impressed and appreciative of their hospitality and the acceptance of who I am, without being pushed to change, to become Church of God.” About his students, Stoneberg said, “In teaching, one of the delights is students who make our hearts warm because of what they do with their work.”
Stoneberg was born in Helena, Mont., and lived there for the first 18 years of his life. After high school he went to college in Minnesota, where he met his wife. He then attended seminary in Indianapolis and became an ordained Lutheran minister. He has two adopted daughters, two grandchildren, and another grandchild on the way.?
“I’m of retirement age,” said Stoneberg. “And I think it is time to move over so that some new blood can come with new ideas. But what I’m hoping to do is have more time with my grandsons.”
He and his wife have bought a house in Indianapolis to be closer to their daughters. “I don’t know what the future holds. In farming terms, let the land lie fallow for at least a year,” said Stoneberg. “There’s a lot to be done with the house — adding a deck, gardening, and other things. I don’t know how long that will take, and there’s no hurry now.”
Spanish professor Judy Zinszer retired in May after 25 years of teaching at Anderson University.
Zinszer was born in Anderson, and from an early age her family traveled a lot. “We were only the second family in town to go to Europe,” says Zinszer. “Back then people just didn’t travel much. We went over on a French ship, and on that ship was Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnez.”
Later they would take another trip to Europe and a trip to Mexico. Zinszer says that those trips gave her a love for travel and an interest in other cultures. In college she majored in French and Spanish and married an American from Saudi Arabia. Her goal was to become an interpreter for the United Nations.
“My husband thought Anderson was pretty exotic, and so he wanted to settle here,” says Zinszer. “So that’s when I realized that if I was going to do anything with language, I was going to have to teach it. And I loved teaching. I didn’t think that was what I wanted to do, but I loved it.”
After having two children, Zinszer didn’t work for quite a few years before coming to AU to teach.
“The infrastructure here is great,” says Zinszer. “You’ve got all kinds of people who are experts in all different fields, so if you need any knowledge on anything it’s just right there at your fingertips.”
Zinszer also owns her own business in Anderson, Zinszer Cookies. For the past 23 years, she has held down two full-time jobs. “I do have a lot of energy, but I would like to have some free time,” says Zinszer. “I need to spend more time on my business.”
She also looks forward to being able to travel more. “I love to travel,” says Zinszer. “My entire family is based here, but the entire world is my stomping grounds.”
