Across the Line: Marian and Bethel, Mishawaka's Schools

1947 – present

The boundary rule: Mishawaka, South Bend's twin city to the east, is a separate city with its own schools, and this history does not absorb them. Two of Mishawaka's institutions draw so many South Bend students, and stand so close to the city's own record, that they are boundary-printed here — named, dated, and left to Mishawaka's own history, the same treatment the Businesses section gives that city's factories.

Marian High School: Marian is Mishawaka's Catholic high school, at 1311 South Logan Street in Mishawaka. Bishop Leo A. Pursley built it as the diocese's second high school for the South Bend area, on more than thirty-six acres at Logan Street and Dragoon Trail donated by the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. Classes began in September 1964 — the school's own history gives Tuesday, 8 September 1964, and a first freshman class of 239: 131 boys and 108 girls — staffed at the outset by Salvatorian priests and brothers for the boys and the Sisters of St. Francis for the girls. Its first class graduated in 1968. It stands open on a campus now of seventy-two acres, enrolling about eight hundred students drawn from Mishawaka, South Bend and the towns around. It is printed here because South Bend families fill its classrooms and the diocese pairs it with Saint Joseph; it remains Mishawaka's school.

Bethel University: Bethel stands at 1001 Bethel Circle in Mishawaka, the Missionary Church's college. It was founded in Mishawaka, not moved there: the church approved its liberal-arts college in 1944, bought the Mishawaka land in 1946, and opened Bethel College in the fall of 1947 with ninety-four students, under a first president, Woodrow I. Goodman, who at twenty-seven was the youngest college president in the United States. Its Administration Building was completed in 1951. The college reorganized on a university model in 2006 and took the name Bethel University on 5 May 2019. The denomination's other college line, Fort Wayne Bible College, was a separate school in a separate city, absorbed by Taylor University in 1992; Bethel's own ground has been Mishawaka's from the first purchase. It is boundary-printed here for the same reason as Marian: its students and its life spill across the city line, and its record belongs to Mishawaka.

Sources:

1. Marian High School, its published history — classes begun 8 September 1964, the first freshman class of 131 boys and 108 girls, the diocesan direction and the two years of planning and construction on the Logan Street campus.
2. Today's Catholic, 10 September 2014 — Bishop Rhoades's golden-anniversary account: Bishop Pursley's building of the school in 1964, the Sisters of St. Francis's gift of the land, the Salvatorian and Franciscan staffing, and the first graduating class of 1968.
3. Marian High School, advancement prospectus (January 2027) — more than eight hundred students on the seventy-two-acre Mishawaka campus as the school stands.
4. Bethel University's history as carried by the Missionary Church and the university's records — church approval in 1944, the Mishawaka land purchase of 1946, the opening of Bethel College in the fall of 1947 with ninety-four students, President Goodman (1947–1959), the Administration Building of 1951, the university reorganization of 2006 and the renaming of 5 May 2019; and the denomination's history for the separate Fort Wayne Bible College line and its 1992 absorption by Taylor University.