This weekend I repeat a 1,000-mile drive to Wheaton College in Illinois, a trip first made in 1935, when, as a young newspaperman recently converted to Christ, I sought out a Christian education. I have always been proud to carry Wheaton’s colors, and to have served a term as president of the alumni association. The school’s banner “For Christ and His Kingdom” is more than a historic motto; it remains an academic motif.
It will be my honor—as the Class of ’38 regathers to share its memories—to bring the commencement address and to receive an honorary degree. I’ll treasure Wheaton’s doctor of letters alongside the doctor of literature from Seattle Pacific.
There’ll be an uneasy feeling, however, that someone, somewhere, is a far more meritorious reaper in the harvest of faith. My literarian wife, Helga, who has had the last word more often than readers know, ought actually to share these colorful hoods.
Syracuse University Library has established the Carl F. H. Henry Papers among its special manuscript collections. These materials will become available to scholars interested in religious journalism and contemporary American history.
