Coolidges honored at AU Heritage Dinner

About 300 people at the Anderson University Heritage Dinner sang together in honor of David Coolidge and his wife, Shirley.

“God our maker, God most holy” rang through the L-shaped Shield Dining Room. The song was most appropriate since the verses were written by David Coolidge in 1962.

Both David and Shirley Coolidge graduated from Anderson University, and both have spent decades of their lives serving the university and the Church of God.

Shirley Coolidge taught music at the university for 37 years.

“Music was in my bones, and I intended to major in church music,” she said. “I did not think how I would support myself.”

When Shirley Coolidge started her schooling at AU, there were few paid musicians for the Church of God, “and even less women,” she said.

After getting some advice from Robert Reardon, who served as president from 1957 to 1983, Shirley Coolidge started taking education classes and became a music teacher.

“I never ever thought I’d teach at my alma mater for 37 years,” she said.

David Coolidge started at Anderson College in 1953.

“The impact Anderson College made on my life was monumental and profound,” he said.

David Coolidge served as an associate pastor and minister of music and worship at Park Place Church of God for 40 years.

The couple’s service to the community is why they were honored Sunday with the 2008 Heritage Award, AU President James Edwards said.

The Heritage Award was established in 1994 to honor people who contribute service, resources and friendship to Anderson University. Bill and Gloria Gaither, Carl and Betty Erskine, Robert and Geraldine Reardon and many others have been honored with the award.

“We are grateful and blessed that David and Shirley Coolidge have invested their gifts with Anderson University, her students and the church these many years,” he said. “Therefore, it is very appropriate that we honor them this evening.”

—Jessica Kerman is a reporter for the Herald Bulletin in Anderson. Story republished with permission.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.