This committee, originally consisting of nineteen Hastings professional and business men and women—a roster eventually expanded to include twenty-nine persons—raised funds in support of Doctor Schweitzer’s West African hospital and its program. Specifically, they contributed money to the expansion and rebuilding of the Schweitzer Hospital’s Leprosarium, helped underwrite the cost of shipping the more than 700,000 sewed and knitted items produced for the Hospital by the United Church Women of Nebraska over a two-year period, and sponsored the Schweitzer Hospital Benefit Concert presented in 1955 at the Hastings College French Memorial Chapel by the Alsatian/American organist Edouard Nies-Berger. They also co-sponsored (with the College) the October 29, 1963 Academic Convocation at which time the hand-written autograph letter addressed to the students of Hastings College and the Franz Berko photographic portrait of the Doctor made at Aspen during the Goethe Bicentennial Congress, were officially received. The five-page handwritten letter, its English translation, and the Berko photograph, all beautifully matted and framed, hangs on the East wall of the second floor of Hastings College’s Perkins Library.

THE COMMITTEE ROSTER

(Professors Elinore Barber and Darel McFerren, Chairs)

Elinore Barber, Ph.D., Professor of Piano and Music History and Theory, Hastings College

Warren Berryman, D.M.A., Professor of Organ, Head of the Hastings College Organ Department (1950-1953, 1954-1956)

*Melvin Foote, M.D., Opthalmological Consultant and Surgeon

*William Marshall French, Ph.D., President of Hastings College (1943-1952)

*Hayes Fuhr, Director of the Hastings College Conservatory and Professor of Voice (1913-1961)

*Frank Hewitt, Ph.D., Professor of English, Hastings College

Burt James, Editor-in-Chief, The Hastings Daily Tribune

Tom Jorgenson, B.A., Hastings College student representative, Student Association President, 1952-1953

Silas G. Kessler, B.D., D.D., Minister, Hastings First Presbyterian Church; Moderator, General Assembly, Presbyterian Church USA, 1963

Hal Lainson, A.B., LLD, President and CEO, Dutton-Lainson Co.; Chairman, Board of Trustees, Hastings College

Gretchen Hollman Lainson (Mrs. Hal), A.B., Vice Chairman, Dutton-Lainson Co., President, Nebraska Library Association

Arthur Langvardt, Ph.D., Professor of English and Academic Dean of Hastings College (1965-1984)

*Beth Marvel (Mrs. Archie), A.B., L.H.D., National President, Y.W.C.A.

*Theron B. Maxson, Ph.D., President of Hastings College (1958-1972)

*Darel McFerren, M.A., Professor of History, Hastings College

*The Very Reverend Winfield Post, M.Div., Dean, St. Mark’s Pro-Cathedral, Hastings

M.G. Scarlett, Ed.D., Dean of Hastings College (1962-1965)

Margaret Rickerd Scharf, D.M.A., Head, Organ Department, Hastings College Conservatory (1953-1954, 1957-1965)

Warren Scharf, D.M.A., Director of the Hastings College Conservatory (1961-1965)

*Harrold Shiffler, Ph.D., Professor of Theater Arts

*Lester Stiner, J.D., Attorney at Law

*Malcolm Tinker, B.S., Commander, USN, Executive Officer, Naval Ammunition Depot, Hastings, Nebraska

*Dorothy A. Tirrell, M.Mus., Professor of Piano, Hastings College

*Charles Uerling, Sr., President, Uerling’s Furniture Store, Hastings

*Gerald Walley, B.S., Assistant Cashier, City National Bank, and Treasurer of the Schweitzer Committee

*Raymond A. Watson, Superintendent of the Hastings Public Schools

*Ruth A. Watson (Mrs. Raymond), B.A.

*Dale Welch, D.D., President of Hastings College (1952-1956)

*Frank Weyer, Ph.D., Dean of Hastings College (1918-1961)

*Deceased as of June 2001