{"id":62264,"date":"2024-08-08T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T14:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/?p=62264"},"modified":"2024-08-08T10:46:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T14:46:56","slug":"celebrating-alumni-stories-h-michael-shenk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/2024\/08\/celebrating-alumni-stories-h-michael-shenk\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrando las historias de antiguos alumnos: H. Michael Shenk '49"},"content":{"rendered":"

When one is asked about their teacher from third grade, no matter how impactful or memorable that person may have been, recalling the fuzzy, faraway details can be difficult. Unless, that is, you are H. Michael Shenk II \u201849, a retired pastor, teacher, and school counselor with a penchant for the specific. He remembers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019ll tell you that Ms. Nancy Garrow drove a Chevy Coupe and always had the same license number: 800. He\u2019ll tell you that his old school in Denbigh, Virginia is 178 miles from here, and that Ms. House had a state trooper for a boyfriend and Mrs. Ingram \u2013 a school principal and teacher who did jumping jacks with the students even while in maternity clothes \u2013 kept a brick on her desk to remind students of a fateful fight between two classmates.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just these particular, pointed memories from more than 80 years ago that Shenk holds onto, for he knows details without story can mean very little. Instead, he weaves them into anecdotes full of meaning. And he tells them because he knows no lesson \u2013 like each particularity itself \u2013 is too insignificant to remember and share.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout his rich life, Shenk has built a world of love and care by paying close attention to detail and sharing the encouragement he finds in them with others.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cEMC High School\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Shenk grew up with seven sisters, including his twin, H. Mabel Shenk 49\u2019 Baker, on a fruit and dairy farm. All except one of his siblings attended EMS \u2013 or \u201cEMC [Eastern Mennonite College] high school, as it was known then,\u201d says Shenk \u2013 as dorm students. But back at home, almost every morning during peach season, Shenk drove peaches from Newport News to Norfolk, taking the ferry over Hampton Roads before there was a bridge-tunnel. The sweltering peach season made heading to Harrisonburg in the fall all the sweeter. \u201cIt was like coming to a picnic \u2013 to get out of that hot peach orchard and come to a dormitory where you didn\u2019t have to get up at 5:30 a.m. to either milk cows or pick peaches, and you get to lay in bed until close to 7 a.m. and then run for breakfast,\u201d Shenk recalls.<\/span><\/p>\n

There became another sweet reason besides escaping the heat that Shenk looked forward to returning to EMS each year. Peggy Brackbill \u201849 Shenk, his wife of 72 years \u2013 whom he had noticed in Ms. Kemrer\u2019s Latin class and had asked to walk down the Massanutten slope with him during the annual peak climb of 1946 \u2013 also provided a significant attraction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shenk attended EMS for three years, gaining experiences that would last him a lifetime. Not one to skip daily chapel services like some of his classmates, he worked in the newly-built chapel, Lehman Auditorium, for 45 cents an hour (with a half-cent raise each year) on Saturdays. Or when farmers posted their phone numbers on the bulletin board in need of weekend help, he and his friends cleaned chicken houses. More for leisure than work, Shenk traveled in a 1937 four-door Dodge all the way to Knoxville, Tennessee as part of an a cappella quartet.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it was his spiritual development at the school that Shenk cites as particularly meaningful. He became involved with EMC\u2019s Young People\u2019s Christian Association, and he felt his teachers and the high school staff encouraged him in the right direction. \u201cIt was just a part of the teaching,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was much encouragement to be a witness\u2026to be involved in the work of the church…to live a good life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pastoring and Educating<\/b><\/p>\n

After getting married in February of 1952, the Shenks moved to Sarasota, Florida, where Myron Augsburger \u2013 once president of EMC \u2013 pastored Tuttle Avenue Mennonite Church. Augsburger, a cousin of Shenk\u2019s, trusted Shenk with overseeing the building and pastoring of Newtown Chapel, a Mennonite church in the heart of a Black neighborhood during a time of strict segregation. After a few years, Shenk returned to Tuttle Avenue, where he pastored until 1971.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Shenk\u2019s wife received a work opportunity at EMC, the couple returned to Harrisonburg, and Shenk returned to EMS \u2013 this time as a part-time Bible and social studies teacher. This work would pair nicely with his pastorates at Trissels Mennonite Church near Broadway, Virginia and Valley View Mennonite Church near Bergton, Virginia. Shenk also soon became the school counselor at EMS.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shenk enjoyed his decades of work at EMS, though he admits being a counselor can be a complex job. At one point, he worked with a student who smoked \u2013 a habit the school wished to curb. Each morning, he met with the student to learn how many cigarettes she had smoked since leaving school the day before. Despite some difficulties, Shenk fondly remembers how he became something of a school pastor through his role, planning chapels and having helpful and healthy conversations with students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Education and Legacy<\/b><\/p>\n

While as a student Shenk loved EMS as a way to escape the heat of peach season, education wasn\u2019t simply his way to get out of the orchard. It was also something he deeply desired and, eventually, something he wanted to share with others. During his time in Florida, he earned his bachelor\u2019s degree from EMC through courses at Manatee Junior College and by taking advantage of EMC\u2019s correspondence courses and a year sabbatical from Tuttle Avenue. Upon his return to Virginia, he then took courses at the University of Virginia and earned a master’s degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary.<\/span><\/p>\n

This love of education spilled into Shenk\u2019s work as he helped establish a Christian day school in Sarasota, worked with high schoolers at EMS, and pastored nearly his entire adult life. In elementary school, he was asked by a teacher what he wanted to be when he grew up. He recalls answering, \u201cA teacher or a preacher.\u201d He appreciates that he got to do both.<\/span><\/p>\n

With three children who attended EMS and two of them pastoring their own congregations \u2013 his son H. Michael Shenk III \u201871 even taking over his position at Valley View \u2013 Shenk leaves a legacy of education and encouragement. He continues to use his careful noticing and remembering to share the lessons he\u2019s learned throughout a full life.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuando a uno le preguntan por su maestro de tercer grado, sin importar cu\u00e1n impactante o memorable haya sido esa persona, recordar los detalles difusos y lejanos puede ser dif\u00edcil. A menos que, por supuesto, usted sea H. Michael Shenk II '49, un pastor jubilado, maestro y consejero escolar con una inclinaci\u00f3n por lo espec\u00edfico. \u00c9l recuerda. \u00c9l recordar\u00e1\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":62290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[46,402,320],"class_list":["post-62264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-stories","tag-homecoming"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62264"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}