George Akers, Dean of the School of Education

While I was in grad school, (1983) I picked up extra work from Dr. Akers. He often had tapes of dictation that his secretary was not able to get to, so I went into the office and typed the letters for him on Sundays. He was very articulate and often made up words that I couldn’t find in the dictionary. I spelled them phonetically.

I also took a Teaching Methods Religion course from him. He told us something like this: “When students come to your Bible class, it should be the “patch of blue” in their day. This should be the class students look forward to the most. When their day is bad, they should be able to say, if only I can make it until my Bible class, I will be okay.” Bible class, above all others is about connecting the heart of our students with the heart of God. In the class room, we want them experience, the joy of being a disciple of Jesus. His words of inspiration stayed with me when I was a Bible teacher, chaplain, and pastor.

I had a lot of respect for George, so in the Winter of 1989, when he learned that I was dating Ron, he said, “Now there’s a man who can’t be bought.” That statement was a reflection on Ron’s integrity, and one more piece of assurance that I was making a good choice.

George Akers died at the age of 90 on February 4, 2017.