David Nelson John Dunaway
[Presented by Rae Mellichamp and John Walkup]
Dr. Erick Nilson was a member of the Department of Agronomy faculty at Kansas State University for more than 24 years before his retirement in 1989. He and his wife took on faculty sponsorship of Campus Crusade for Christ in the mid-1960s when it was a relatively new ministry to the campus, opening their home to students on a regular basis.
In the 1980s Erick began a Christian faculty-staff group at KSU. Despite the presence of a relatively large number of Christian faculty and staff at the university, the idea of beginning such a group was not greeted warmly by all.
In the early days there was actually quite a bit of opposition on all fronts. Despite the discouragement, Erick decided to never give up. When nearly everybody else thought it was a bad idea to start the group, Erick concluded that God plus one was a majority, and he served as its first president the year before his retirement.
In 1990, following Erick’s home-going, his family set aside funds for our ministry to recognize “the men and women of God that He is raising up to forward His cause at the university.” The award has been made annually since 1990 and the winners have been outstanding examples of what it means to be a Christian professor.[Former recipients are listed at: www.facultylinc.com/clm/nilsonaward.nsf]
This year, we are delighted to announce that the award will be shared by two outstanding professors: Dr. John Dunaway, Professor of French and Senior Fellow at Mercer University; and Dr. David Nelson, Professor of Economics at Western Washington University.
Dunaway has led the Christian Faculty group at Mercer since its inception and the group has flourished under his leadership; they are actively reaching out to their students and colleagues in a variety of attractive ways. He has been an active participant in regional and national conferences sponsored by Faculty Commons, and he is a member of the Christian Faculty Leadership Network (CFLN).
Nelson was also instrumental in starting the Christian Faculty group at Western Washington, and has given leadership to the group since its beginning. As at Mercer, the Western Washington group under David’s leadership is reaching out to the faculty community and to students there in multiple ways including a lecture series and newspaper ads.
As we were considering the nominees this year, it was apparent to us that these two men were equally deserving of recognition, and that it would be unfair to recognize one of them and not the other. Their service in the cause of faculty ministry at their respective institutions follows parallel tracks—so we determined to have two winners for the 2006-2007 academic year. Both men will receive a plaque and a check for $1000 to be used to support faculty ministry at their universities.
Would you join us in congratulating these outstanding representatives of the cause of Christ in the academy? If you know either or both of them, send an email or give them a phone call to recognize their exemplary service. If we are ever going to significantly impact the great universities of the West for Jesus, it will be as godly professors, men and women, embrace the same call that Erick Nilson answered more than 25 years ago and stand beside John Dunaway and David Nelson and others to challenge our colleagues to make a difference for Jesus through our teaching and research and through our individual and corporate witness and service on our campuses.
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© 2007 Rae Mellichamp and John Walkup
Used by permission of Faculty Commons