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