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ALUMNI

A Special University

Still Indebted after 70 Years

By Stan French (‘57)

Editor’s note: Stan French originally wrote the

following post on his blog. It is used with his

permission. French lives in Ormond Beach, Florida.

I arrived on the campus of Columbia International

University (then called Columbia Bible College)

in September 1946 to begin my college career. My parents, who drove me

down from our home in Brooklyn, New York, were not impressed with the

massive pile of coal in front of the men’s dormitory to which I was assigned.

The coal was needed for the open fireplaces in the 100-year-old dormitories.

I also was taken back a little with that ugly pile of coal, but I had become

a Christian the year before, and the fact that this was a Bible college was

what drew me to campus. I quickly forgot all about the pile of coal. I wanted

to learn more about the Book of Books. CIU met my needs pressed down,

shaken together and running over.

I took classes under Robert C. McQuilkin, the school’s first president, and

also sat under renowned professors Frank Sells and James Hatch, men who

lived exemplary Christian lives and had God-given teaching talents that

left deep and lasting impressions. For recreation, I played on an intramural

football team with Robertson McQuilkin, the son of the first president, who later became CIU’s

third president.

I left early in January 1949 to go into Bible

teaching in the United States and later in Japan. I

returned to CIU in 1956 to finish my degree, and

there I met a young lady named Dorothy Scott

who shared my goals. We were married in 1957

and celebrated our 58th wedding anniversary

on this past Feb. 2, Ground Hogs Day. We could

have waited for a more romantic day to be

married such as Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14, but

that seemed too long to wait.

CIU not only provided me with a life-shaping education but also with a girl who

shared the same goals. How much can you ask from any university?

Dorothy and I have come to realize what a difference CIU has meant to us

individually and to our marriage. Also, both of my sisters and their spouses were

impacted for life by CIU. We often reminisce at get-togethers.

In later years I enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs in history and Hebrew culture at New York University, but the time I

spent at CIU shaped my entire life in a way that nothing else has ever matched. I taught for 15 years at what is now King’s College

in New York City, which had the same goals as CIU, and tried in that way among others, to repay all that I had received.

As I look back over almost 70 years since first arriving on campus, I realize how much I am indebted to those faithful Christian men

and women who shaped my entire life. I am even more in debt to a God who blessed me greatly by leading me to CIU.

Stan French

as a CIU student.

CIU not only

provided me with

a life-shaping

education but

also with a girl

who shared the

same goals.

29

ALUMNI

CIU Today

www.ciu.edu