Bethel — a church's founding, and nine presidents

approved 1944 · classes from the fall of 1947 · Bethel University from 5 May 2019

The founding act, by a church: Bethel was founded the way denominational colleges are: by a church's decision, carried by named men. The call for a training institute goes back to the evangelist Daniel Brenneman in 1893; J. A. Huffman pressed the cause of a liberal-arts college and proposed the name Bethel, "house of God." The church's formal approval came in 1944, and land was purchased in Mishawaka in 1946, under Q. J. Everest, Seth Rohrer, and Warren Manges. Bethel College began classes in the fall of 1947 with a first class the college's own history gives as ninety-three students; secondary accounts give ninety-four, and both figures stand with the college's own first. The founding body — the Mennonite Brethren in Christ, the United Missionary Church in the college's first year, today's Missionary Church — is the founder; the men named are its instruments, at the record's strength.

The succession, whole, on the university's own history: Woodrow I. Goodman, 1947–59 — twenty-seven years old at his appointment, then the youngest college president in the United States — grew the school from 93 to 329 students. Ray P. Pannabecker, 1959–74, who had begun as Bethel's first business manager, won North Central Association accreditation on 31 March 1971. Albert J. Beutler, 1974–82 on the university's own dating (a secondary roundup gives 1974–81; the university's stands first), an alumnus of the inaugural class of 1951, eliminated the operating debt. James A. Bennett, 1982–88, began the nursing and adult programs. Walter L. Weldy, a banker, served as interim president 1988–89. Norman V. Bridges, 1989–2004, more than tripled enrollment to about 1,850 and grew the budget from under $3 million to about $30 million. Steven R. Cramer, 2004–13, received a sitting president of the United States on campus. Gregg A. Chenoweth served 2013–21. Barbara K. Bellefeuille, 2021–25 — interim from June 2021, inaugurated 10 September 2022 as the eighth president and the first woman to hold the office — was made an honorary alumna in 2025 and received a key to the city. Dee McDonald, the ninth president, began on 1 July 2025, on the university's own releases — the date the Schools section named as its open pull, settled here from the university's record and flagged for that file's conform.

Sources:

1. Schools & Colleges — "Bethel University" (the founding chain — Brenneman's 1893 call, Huffman's advocacy and the name, the 1944 approval, the 1946 land purchase under Everest, Rohrer, and Manges; the first class at 93 vs 94; the presidential succession on the university's own history, with the Beutler dating carried two ways; Bellefeuille as the first woman president; McDonald named as the current president with the start date expressly not pulled).
2. Bethel University, President's Office releases, read November 2026 — the selection of Dee McDonald (28 April 2025), his beginning on 1 July 2025 as ninth president succeeding Bellefeuille, and his inauguration on 14 November 2025.