[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E354]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    TRIBUTE TO DR. ROBERT H. REARDON, PRESIDENT, ANDERSON UNIVERSITY

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                            HON. MIKE PENCE

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 14, 2007

  Mr. PENCE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a beloved son of 
Anderson, Indiana. Bob Reardon served for 25 years as president of 
Anderson College, which through decades of executive service and 
visionary leadership he built from a relatively small Christian 
university with few resources into the Anderson University we proudly 
know today.
  Robert H. Reardon was born in Chicago on April 27, 1919, but moved 
later that year with his parents and brother to Anderson. Following 
graduation from Anderson High School, class of 1936, he attended 
Anderson College, where he felt the call to ministry and met his wife, 
Geraldine Hurst, whom he married on August 24, 1941. They have four 
children: Rebecca, Constance, Kathleen, and Eugene.
  After graduation from Anderson College in 1940, Bob went on to 
graduate from Oberlin Graduate School of Theology with a Bachelor of 
Divinity and a Master of Sacred Theology. He completed his graduate 
studies at Harvard and the University of Michigan before earning a 
Doctor of Ministry from Vanderbilt University.
  In 1947, Bob returned to Anderson, where he would spend most of the 
rest of his life. He served first as assistant to President John 
Morrison, then vice president of the college, and in June 1957, he was 
chosen by the Board of Trustees to be the successor of President 
Morrison. At the age of39, Bob was one of the youngest college 
presidents in the Nation. He would serve as president of Anderson 
College from 1958 to 1983.
  More than the diverse educational programs and impressive facilities 
built under his watch, Bob will be remembered by generations of 
students and faculty as a gifted leader, minister, citizen and friend. 
His imprint is everywhere after decades of enormously effective 
leadership, deication to Christ-centered education, love for students 
and devotion to the church.
  In his 1968 president's charge to seniors, Bob wrote: ``Never wallow 
in mediocrity. Try hard things--for this is where all the fun is. Try 
to stay green--for this is where the growing is. Once you have heard 
the call--never give up. You will drink the cup of joy and eat the 
bread of sorrow. Do so with forbearance in the knowledge that so to do 
is to be truly human.''
  This was the type of man he was, a servant of the community, whose 
character was a role model for generations.

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