Comments on: Remembering the Ad Building fire: 1/16/1984

By: Dorothy Jean Weaver (1972 EMC grad, EMS faculty member from Fall 1984 onward)

Dorothy Jean Weaver (1972 EMC grad, EMS faculty member from Fall 1984 onward) — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 16:43:58 +0000

I was in Richmond, VA during the 1983/84 academic year, in grad school at Union Theological Seminary (now Union Presbyterian Seminary). And I was just eight months shy of coming here to begin teaching New Testament at EMS. My grad colleagues at Union were clearly aware of my upcoming assignment. So as I was entering the library on the morning of January 17, one of my colleagues said to me in passing, “Did you hear? Your school burned down last night.” I thought he was simply making a bad joke. And I must have asked him three times over before I realized that he was relaying actual news to me. When I went into the library, the reference librarian, Dr. Martha Aycock, communicated the same news to me. It was, alas, true. I don’t remember when the gutted building was taken down. But for my first several years at EMS we here on campus lived with an ugly and empty lot at the top of the front lawn, between Northlawn to the North and Lehman Auditorium to the south, before the Campus Center was put up. A huge amount of institutional (and personal!) history went up in flames with the old Ad Building. Thanks for this timely reminder of the building that once and for long years “anchored” the campus of EMC!

By: Ruth Kaufman (my minister husband, passed away February 2017)

Ruth Kaufman (my minister husband, passed away February 2017) — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 15:04:38 +0000

My husband and I were attending “Minister’s Week” and were being housed near the “Ad Building”, when we were awakened by a friend of our daughter Marci, who shouted, “The Ad building is on fire!” So, we joined a host of others, sadly watching the devastating flames! Our hearts were so sad! Later, when the fire had been contained, we joined other pastors in a gathering in Lehman Auditorium trying to console each other. As we joined in the song “Come, Come, Ye Saints”, I remember feeling some sort of solace. “All is well; all is well”. To this day every time I hear that song, I remember the solace it provides.
I an thankful that all 3 of our daughters (LaVonne, Lori and Marci) had the privilege to graduate from the college (now a University) and use what they learned to serve God!

By: J. Lowell Nafziger

J. Lowell Nafziger — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 02:35:44 +0000

Old Ad was where I lived for a year along with a rather colorful cast of characters.
I’m surprised the cause of the fire was never identified. I thought I had either read or heard it started from a “salamander”, a portable kerosene heater with a fan commonly used in construction sites. I guess that must have been speculation.

By: Emma (Longenecker) Frederick

Emma (Longenecker) Frederick — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 17:58:39 +0000

J. Mark and I woke that morning in the house of Sam and Ella Mae Miller, hosted us for Pastor’s Week. When we woke they called us to the front window which had a view from part way up the hill. We stood there horrified. That had been the main hub of student life in the mid-sixties. J. Mark had not only lived there but spent hours in the northeast seminary in corner of the library. It had been our life-line for studies for both of us. We wondered what would happen. Countless stories of campus life live on in so many of our memories of that place. In my mind I see the exact spots where things happened I won’t forget. peering around the library stacks to see who hung out that day, sitting long hours at the table, suppressing an imposible laughing fit with friends, trying to ignore the call of the hill behind the college coming through the high windows. Don’t get me started. We still miss that building.

By: Gene Williams

Gene Williams — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 16:51:01 +0000

I remember taking a class on Romans taught by Myron Augsburger in the ole Ad Building which some of us United Methodist students fondly call “The Alamo.”