Wilbur & Ardelia Williams
A Legacy That Lives On
Excerpts from an interview with the Williamses originally published in the 1999
President’s Report.
Wilbur and Ardelia Williams are woven into the fabric of our university’s existence. For more than five decades, they poured their hearts into their calls from the Lord at Indiana Wesleyan University. Decades of former students and colleagues consider them mentors, teachers and—most importantly—faithful Christ followers, and generations of students long after them will flourish because of their impact. Wilbur and Ardelia graciously bestowed upon this community immense time, talent, and financial gifts because they were confident in God’s plan for the university and its bright future ahead.
Is IWU where you met and fell in love?
Wilbur: Yes, I cried on her shoulder a lot. I’d talk about the girls I’d dated, and she’d give me advice. But we finally started dating and got married a year later, in 1952, a year after we graduated. She got a job teaching in Carmel, Indiana, and I enrolled at Butler University to work on my master’s degree.
Ardelia: I taught at Carmel for nine years, and then I had the opportunity to exchange teach with a teacher in England under the Fulbright program. They had a girl in England who wanted to come here, and we wanted to go to Manchester University so Wilbur could study there. The Lord just worked it all out.
Was it a goal of yours to return to teach at IWU?
Wilbur: No, I was attending New York University and was the circulation manager of Christian Economics magazine, with 300,000 subscribers. The vice president of advancement at Marion College heard I was graduating, and he came to New York and appealed to me to return to Marion to teach. The timing was right. Christian Economics had decided to move its operations to Los Angeles, but I didn’t want to go there. The magazine offered me an additional $5,000 to stay, but I chose to return to Marion and took a 50 percent pay cut.
Did you ever think when you came back that you would be here 32 years later?
Wilbur: We decided we weren’t going to look back. Really, we’ve never regretted our decision to stay here. We sacrificed in some areas, but we have so much more than we would have it we had gone to LA.
How did it happen that you both got jobs at IWU at the same time?
Wilbur: When I was hired to come to Indiana Wesleyan, I called Anderson College to see if they had a job for a friend of mine. They said, no, but they needed an art instructor, so Ardelia began teaching part time at Anderson and at IWU. The next year she came to IWU full time.
Ardelia: When I came, I was the only art teacher, and there was one art student. Now we have 112 art majors and had 73 new ones this fall. [In 2021, there are 152 art students.]
Both of you have made travel a part of your teaching careers. How important has that been to your students?
Ardelia: Ever since I studied in Italy [after receiving a second Fulbright fellowship], I’ve been taking students to England and Italy, which enriches my artistic teaching and their learning. I took the first trip in 1972.
Wilbur: It’s like the author of “The Fifth Gospel” said. He decided you couldn’t understand the other four gospels fully until you’ve studied geography, which is the fifth gospel. It just opens up a whole new dimension of biblical studies.
When I took my first trip in 1958, I crested the hill and looked at the old city, I began to cry. I couldn’t help it. I made God a promise on that hillside looking at the old city. I said, ‘Lord, this is a spiritual experience like I’ve never had before. I will run tours for you, actually spiritual odysseys, to help people get closer to the Lord.’ I have just completed my 93rd trip to Israel.
How would you like to be remembered by your students?
Wilbur: My favorite hymn is Charles Wesley’s “A Charge to Keep I Have.” For me, I would like for my students to think, ‘He was one who walked close to the Lord.’ The verse I don’t like says, ‘To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill.’ Ardelia and I have both talked that we want to leave a legacy to the University, something that students will remember us by after we are gone. Twenty-five years ago, I went into covenant with God. I said, ‘If you’ll help me Lord, I will invest money for you so that I can help send students to Israel to study.’ The Lord has just put things in our path, such as the two statues that we’ve donated for campus. We wanted to make a specific statement that would speak to the presence of God on campus.
Ardelia: The prayer chapel being built near the center of campus is also a part of our legacy. Although it is gothic architecture, it is its own unique design and not a model of any other chapel. The architect is excited about the chapel because he’s never built anything like it before. Even the man laying the cement blocks said, ‘We’ve never built a building like this before.’
Wilbur: What we’re trying to say with the statues and the prayer chapel is that we’d rather be remembered for how we loved the Lord and not necessarily for our teaching.
Dr. Wilbur Glenn Williams
1929 – 2021
50 Years as Associate Professor of
Biblical Literature (1967-2017)
8 Professor of the Year Awards
156 Trips to the Holy Land
17,250 Students Taught
40 Years of Participating in Archaeological Excavations in Israel and North Africa
Dr. Ardelia Lee (Smith) Williams
1924 – 2021
35 Years as Associate Professor of Art & Coordinator of the Art Department (1967-2002)
6 Stained Glass Windows Designed & Crafted for Noggle Christian Ministries Center
9 Stained Glass Windows Designed & Crafted for Williams Prayer Chapel
40+ Years Leading Student Trips to Italy and England
22 Years Drs. Wilbur & Ardelia Williams Deferred their Salaries to Fund the Construction of Williams Prayer Chapel and Five Sculptures
