Bill & Mickey Bender '59
(Email interview - June 2011)
During Freshman Week in Sept., 1955, my husband, Bill Bender and I, Mickey Elder, met on a CA bus tour of the Camden Settlement House. In those days the CA was actively involved in supporting the various settlement houses in the Philadelphia area.
The outcome of the bus tour was two-fold: 1) Bill and I began to date exclusively;
2) I volunteered to teach an afternoon dance class for young girls at the South Street Settlement House since my university housing was on 22nd and Delancy Place. Bill would meet me when the class had ended and walk me back to Yeatman House. He then hiked back to his housing in the Quad at the Penn Campus.
Throughout our 4 years at Penn we attended study groups and socials at the CA. After getting to know Rev. David Seymour, we began to attend Asbury Methodist Church where he served as pastor. We were married in Asbury Church on April 11, 1959.
To us the CA was a haven of Christian friendship that allowed our faith to grow and expand beyond the teachings of our home denominations. Bill was raised as a Presbyterian and I was a Methodist. Our CA study group discussions explored opposing views in a lively and, mostly, civil manner.
In 1988 I was ordained an elder in the United Methodist New Jersey Annual Conference. During my 18 years as pastor to 2 rural churches, one suburban church and one small city church, Bill used his Wharton School business skills and subsequent computer management expertise to automate the management of each church’s finances.
After our retirement to Ocean City, NJ, in 2003 he served as treasurer of the Ocean City Ecumenical Council, the Mission Committee of St. Peter’s United Methodist Church, the Youth Opera and the Ocean City Historical Museum. The last six years I taught a weekly Bible Study Class at St. Peter’s. Last winter we officially became snow birds. While residing in Fort Myers, FL, during the winter, we attend a small Methodist Church.
(What advice do you have for CA students today?)
Your involvement in the CA will have far-reaching consequences. In retrospect, our time at the CA, including service on the Student Advisory Board, set the tone for our involvement in Church activities for the rest of our lives. Through the years, Bill and I have served as youth advisors, Sunday School teachers, study group leaders, and church board members in various Presbyterian and Methodist churches in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
(What advice do you have for the CA?)
Encourage students to open their hearts and minds to the people around them—to see each other with the eyes of Christ. Love makes a better disciple than does principle or doctrine.