Henry "Hank" David Weaver, Jr.

"Due to a technical difficulty, the livestream of the service was interrupted and some people missed the last half of the service. Fortunately there was back-up. A complete recording of the service can be found at https://youtu.be/x_P2Lplf4bM ."

Henry Weaver, beloved father, friend and former Goshen College professor, provost, and president, died at age 93 on December 7, 2021.

Henry was born May 5, 1928 in Harrisonburg, Virginia to Henry and Sallie (Wenger) Weaver. He was the youngest of five siblings. He grew up in the small village of Parkview, Va, where everyone knew him as Henry Jr.  As a child he attended a three-room school with a “cool outhouse”. Although he traveled the world, he always considered himself a Virginian at heart.

As a 19-year-old in the wake of World War II, he became a “seagoing cowboy” and volunteered  as a hand on a livestock boat delivering donated horses to war-torn Europe. He landed in Trieste, Italy, visited Venice, and was forever bitten by the travel bug.

Henry attended Eastern Mennonite School and College (now Easterm Mennonite University) and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from George Washington University in 1950. He earned a master of science degree in organic chemistry and a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Delaware in 1953.

Henry married Mary Eby on June 7, 1952. They moved to Goshen, Indiana in 1957, where they raised four children. Mary and Hank had a long and loving marriage. She passed away on August 22, 2020.

Henry taught Chemistry at Eastern Mennonite College 1951-1957, then worked for Goshen College for 22 years (1957-1979), as a chemistry professor and provost. In 1996 he returned as interim president. He loved interacting with his students and fellow faculty members. He was instrumental in developing Goshen’s Study-Service Term, one of the first programs in the nation to make international study a graduation requirement. It was one of his proudest professional accomplishments.

He found ways to travel by working as a Fulbright lecturer and other university positions. In this way he took his family to Peru, Nepal, Poland, and Spain, and spent a year of his retirement in Bulgaria. He said, “The close interaction with faculty helped me to see each country from people inside the structure and to see my own country through their eyes.”

In 1979 he and Mary moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he became Deputy Director of the Education Abroad Program of the University of California System. He retired in 1991. He worked all his life to help others have the kinds of life-expanding experiences with other cultures that he had.

In retirement, he continued his passions for photography and ham radio. He and Mary spent time in both Goshen and Apex, North Carolina. He was always full of fun and optimism, had an impish sense of humor, and found ways to make things happen when everybody else thought it was impossible. He was a cancer survivor who taught his family to take joy in each new day.

He was a longtime member of College Mennonite Church in Goshen. During his time in California, he was a member and elder of the Goleta Presbyterian Church. In North Carolina he attended the Kirk of Kildaire Presbytarian Church of Cary.

Henry was preceded in death by his parents and siblings, and his beloved wife, Mary. He is survived by his four children: Sally (John) Weaver Glick of Goshen; Judy (Richard Aguirre) Weaver of Goshen; Debora Weaver of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina; and J. Donald (Rosanna) Weaver of Hyattsville, Maryland; nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild, as well as a large extended family.

Remembrances in honor of Hank can be directed to the Study-Service Term (SST) Endowment Fund in care of the Advancement Office at Goshen College,1700 S. Main St. Goshen IN 46526 or online at www.goshen.edu/give/online or to the EC Hope Immigrant Resource Fund at the Center for Healing & Hope, P.O. Box 195, Goshen, IN 46527-0195 or online at chhclinics.org/donate .