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Messiah Academy Graduates Reunite After Seventy Years

Members of the Messiah College Academy Class of 1941 are (front row, left to right) Pauline Walters, Esther Ebersole and Ruth Zercher; (back row, left to right) Homer Kraybill, Elbert Smith, Erla Stump, Ferne Niesley.

In 1941, seven Brethren in Christ high schoolers from different parts of the United States graduated from Messiah College Academy, the secondary school run by Messiah Bible School and Missionary Training Home in the early twentieth century. Seventy years later, those seven individuals have been reunited at Messiah Village, a retirement community just a few miles away from the school where they first met.

The Messiah Village blog shares the seven residents’ charming reunion story:

When Homer Kraybill recently invited six members of his high school graduating class to his cottage to celebrate their seventieth anniversary, they did not have far to travel because all seven (including Homer) live at Messiah Village. Homer, president of the Messiah College Academy Class of 1941, states that of the twenty-five graduating students, thirteen are still living and, of that number, seven have chosen to retire at 100 Mt. Allen Drive! . . .

As the class reminisced, they all remembered their senior class trip and one amazing highlight – seeing President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s motorcade pass them on the streets of Washington, DC. As the streets were lined with people, these students were excited to get a glimpse of their president. They were, however, embarrassed at the class clown who shouted “We want Wilkie.”

The class discussed old times and expressed appreciation for Messiah Village. They departed the Kraybill home saying, “Who would have thought seventy years ago that we would live so near each other some day?” And one remarked, “Some sort of providential magnet must have drawn us together to this place.”

Read the whole piece here.