Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Autumn 2013 | Page 4

m

letter
from
the
editor

ore than 50 years ago when President V. Raymond Edman walked
across campus, he would greet each student by name. “Prexy”
delighted in seeing his “lads and lassies.”
As a student “lass” in 1966, I opened my CPO box to find a note

from Dr. Edman asking me to come to his office. I went, a bit daunted
by this summons from the former president, now the chancellor. He
quickly put me at ease, handing me a book I had misplaced that he
had found. Granted, he could more easily have sent it through
CPO, but he wanted to chat with me. To this day, I cherish that visit.
I knew even then that Dr. Edman had had problems with his
vision. He was first diagnosed with a detached retina in the right

Editor
Georgia I. Douglass ’70, M.A. ’94
Editorial Consultant
Katherine Halberstadt Anderson ’90
Director of Marketing Communications
Kimberly Medaglia
Design Consultants
Alice Isoz Chrismer ’70
Ellen Mardock
Chrismer + Mardock Communication
Class News Editor
Donna Antoniuk
Contributing Editor
Ruby Thomas

eye in 1959 and for two and a half years endured six rounds of

Editorial Adviser
Dr. R. Mark Dillon

painful eye surgeries to restore his sight. For weeks at a time, he

Wheaton Alumni Association

lay immobile, in complete darkness. At one juncture, the prognosis
seemed hopeless.1 But through what he called the “Discipline of
Darkness,” he learned that “God’s promises shine even more brightly
in the dark as do the stars.”2
A year ago my own eyesight deteriorated. I could not have
completed the previous two issues of Wheaton magazine without
the ability to increase the type size considerably on my iMac.
Georgia I. Douglass
’70, M.A. ’94
Editor

I read paper proofs only with a magnifying glass, a slow, tedious
process. This spring one of the finest ophthalmologists in the country
performed surgeries on both my eyes. Two days following one of
the procedures—a delicate, difficult partial corneal transplant—he
pronounced the results to be “Fantastic!”
In this magazine is an article on miracles (pp. 31-33). Professor
of New Testament Dr. Amy Peeler writes that when we broaden
our concept of miracles, “We might not all have seen the dead
raised, but we have seen . . . bodies healed through the wisdom
of physicians. . . . We begin to realize that our daily existence is
miraculous because without the sustaining power of Christ all
creation would dissipate.”3
I don’t know that Dr. Edman considered the restoration of his
sight a miracle. But now when I awake in the morning to see the

1 V. Raymond Edman, Out

of My Life (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1961), pp. 45-47.
2 Earle E. Cairns, V. Raymond

Edman: In the Presence of the
King (Chicago: Moody Press,
1972), p. 160.

sun’s rays, can drive to Ohio to see my grandchildren’s faces, and
can actually see to read this magazine, I thank the Lord for the
miracle of sight that he gave me.
On September 22, 1967, as Dr. Edman was speaking to his lads and
lassies in the chapel named for him, he collapsed and died. On that day
I was working in the Health Center, and I called the ambulance.
Miracles of this life are short-lived in light of heaven. Dr. Edman

3 cf. Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3

now no longer sees through a glass darkly, for his view of reality is

4 cf. 1 Cor. 13:12

complete—and forever he beholds his Savior, face to face.4

2    A U T U M N   2 0 1 3

President
Christopher A. Jahns ’82
President-Elect
Kurt Tillman ’78
Executive Director
Cindra Stackhouse Taetzsch ’82
Professor Emeritus
Leroy H. Pfund ’49
Alumni Trustee Representatives
Christopher A. Jahns ’82
Kurt Tillman ’78
Timothy A. Stoner ’82
Wheaton College
President
Dr. Philip G. Ryken ’88
Provost
Dr. Stanton L. Jones
Vice President for Finance
Dale A. Kemp
Vice President for Student
Development
Paul O. Chelsen ’91
Vice President for Advancement
and Alumni Relations
Dr. R. Mark Dillon
Executive Assistant
to the President
Marilee A. Melvin ’72
Wheaton is published autumn, winter,
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© 2013 Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
www.wheaton.edu