By Corrie Dyke | Echo
Taylor President Eugene Habecker defines servant leadership as authority assumed only for the sake of others. It is the kind of leadership that will be celebrated as the theme of this year's Heritage Weekend.
"Servant leadership is for now and it's for our heritage too," said Sherri Harter, Associate Vice President for Advancement and Heritage Weekend planner. "You can see through our heritage the strength in servant leadership."
The celebration kicks off today as an estimated 375 grandparents flock to campus to be with their college-age grandchildren while attending classes, touring campus and hearing from administrators. New additions to this year's schedule include an open house hosted by the Center for Missions Computing and the Writing Wall hosted by the Writing Center.
Today, Gudakunst Field will be dedicated and a service of remembrance will be held at the Memorial Prayer Chapel.
Tomorrow's activities include the annual Taylathon bike race, and the first Young Alumni Personnel Assistant Reunion hosted by Student Development.
"Our generation is different, as a young alumnus I'm excited to hear some of the feedback from my peers about what they are doing and how they want to be reconnected with the institution," said Matt Gin ('05), Director of Scholarships.
An afternoon reception at the Habeckers' home will recognize individuals who have included Taylor as part of their estates as well as the "Council of 100"-those whose lifetime giving to Taylor has reached $100,000.
The President's Dinner in the evening will host nearly 400 donors of student scholarships. The dinner connects student recipients face-to-face with those making their Taylor experience possible. President Habecker will speak on the heritage of servant leadership.
Harter expects 1,100-1,200 guests on campus throughout the weekend.
"We do want to celebrate our heritage, but we also want to be good stewards and say thank you to our donors, the people who have started scholarships and to display to our students the importance of heritage and legacy," Harter said.
Taylor's heritage and legacy starts with its namesake, Bishop William Taylor.
"You talk servant leadership, that man served all over the world ministering Christ's redemptive love," said Nelson Rediger, Regional Director of Development and the William Taylor Fund. "From San Francisco to Africa to Australia, Bishop Taylor was there."
Though a recognized name on campus, few know the character of Bishop Taylor."He just wanted to serve the Lord in everything he did," Rediger said. "He was a renegade missionary Methodist."
Methodists didn't support his work so he wrote books about his travels to raise money for his mission trips.
"He was sent here and there by the Methodist church, partly because he had so much energy and he was kind of a loose cannon and a little difficult to contain," said Diana Chambers, Bishop Taylor's great-great-granddaughter.
What distinguishes the Bishop as a servant leader in Chambers' mind is that his leadership seemed almost incidental."He was truly a servant," Chambers said. "The leadership followed as result of his sincere and fervent servitude."
A number of stories exemplifying Bishop Taylor's servant leadership can be found in University history books.
The Bishop is buried in Mountain View cemetery in Piedmont, Calif. where a TU emblem marks his grave stone. In January, Chambers' father was buried in the same family plot.
Chambers was last on campus for Taylor's 150-year anniversary in 1996. As part of the celebration, Taylor brought in a Methodist minister from California who did biographical sermons. He jumped up on whiskey barrel, just as the Bishop would do to preach outside of taverns in San Francisco.
"He brought to life a version of my relative that I hadn't really picked up from the history books," Chambers said.The minister portrayed him as very loving, according to Chambers who received an impression of that love from the Taylor community while on campus.
"Maybe there is a connection that the Taylor community has carried that spirit forward from the name," Chambers said.
In July, Chambers will be back on campus to present Bishop Taylor's pulpit Bible to Taylor. The Bible has been in her family since the Bishop's son Morgan Stuart presented it to her father. When her father passed, the family felt the Bible should be donated to Taylor.
"Ancestors were living people with personalities that we can take advantage of, or we can just ignore it," Chambers said of the Taylor community learning about her great-great-grandfather.
Chambers wants the community to know the University was named after a passionate and independent man whose devotion was to Christ more than his institution.
"The Taylor experience and who Taylor is has been shaped by servant leaders," Harter said.
