The Glanzers are in Tune with Tabor
Tech-Savvy President Dr. Jules Glanzer strikes a chord with traditional-minded, futuristic vision
On his first day as the new President of Tabor College, during an informal get-together with faculty and staff, Dr. Jules Glanzer pulled from his pocket a choir director’s pitch pipe and blew a note loudly enough for everyone to hear. Glanzer then made his point, smiling, “As we work in harmony together, we will make beautiful music at Tabor!”
Glanzer closed by leading the group in singing the Doxology. It was heavenly.
One doesn’t need perfect pitch to know that Glanzer and his wife, Peg, have struck the right chord on campus and with the larger Tabor community since arriving in Hillsboro from Portland, Ore., in late January.
Glanzer (g’ 74), who will be inaugurated on May 9 as the 13th president in the history of the college, says returning to his alma mater “has felt very much like a homecoming.”
“Everyone has been so welcoming and appreciative,” Glanzer said. “I feel like ‘They want me here!’ which is a wonderful feeling as I begin to serve in the presidential role.”
Glanzer spoke to about 300 members of the Tabor constituency at the annual President’s Dinner, Feb. 15 at the new Hillsboro MB Church. He was introduced by out-going President Larry Nikkel, who served from 1998-2007 before retiring Dec. 31.
Nikkel told the audience, “Jules’s agenda, style and urgencies may be different, but his heart is for the same things as mine; his commitment to an education that is Decidedly Christian is the same as mine; and his passion for Tabor College is the same as mine.
We believe that we have been prepared for him and that he has been prepared for us.”
During his after-dinner speech, Glanzer harkened back to his days as a Tabor student when he sang in and managed a contemporary group called “The Commitment”. The group cut an LP record that Glanzer brought with him to show the audience.
Everybody laughed when he held up the faded album cover, offering to autograph any copies that might still be around.
After showing his vintage vinyl, Glanzer held up an old 45 rpm record, an eight-track cartridge, a cassette tape, a CD, and, finally, his new I-Pod.
“We’ve been through many changes in the way we listen to music,” he said. “And just as we’ve all adapted to technological changes in the past, Tabor College must make changes to be relevant in the world in which today’s Tabor students are living, to prepare graduates for a digitally-driven society.”
A Blackberry-using, flash drive-carrying, I-Pod listening, personal blog-writing devotee of the Digital Age, Glanzer still loves the sweet old gospel songs sung by Bill Gaither’s Homecoming singers. He has about 100 Gaither songs downloaded to his I-Pod.
During that first assembly in the Tabor Chapel, Glanzer faced a small camera mounted atop a laptop and waved hello to faculty and staff at the School for Adult and Graduate Studies in Wichita, who were watching a Tabor College president speaking for the first time live in real time via broadband Internet. Glanzer also is the first president of the college to have vidcasts of his speeches posted on YouTube and GoogleVideo.
The significance of Tabor inaugurating a tech-savvy and traditional-minded president on the same weekend as Tabor begins its historic centennial celebration is not lost on Tabor Board Chairman Lyndon Vix.
“Jules combines an understanding and appreciation of what has made Tabor great for the past 100 years with a vision for how it can be great in the next 100,” Vix said. “Everyone who has spoken to me after meeting Jules or hearing him speak has been very enthusiastic about what he brings to Tabor.”
Glanzer was born October 22, 1952 in Mitchell, S.D. and grew up on a traditional Mennonite farm. He married Peggy Todd in 1972 while a student at Tabor College. After graduating in 1974 with a bachelor’s in business administration, Glanzer earned a master’s of divinity in 1978 from Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Calif., and a doctorate of ministry in 2000 from Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif.
He was ordained by Salem Mennonite Brethren Church, Bridgewater, S.D. and later transferred to the Evangelical Covenant Church. His vocational ministry roles included youth director, associate pastor, pastor and church planter for the MB in Houston, Texas, and the Evangelical Covenant. He was founding pastor of Faith Community Church, a creative seeker-driven missional church, from 1987-2001.
In 2001 he became Dean of the Seminary at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Ore., where he led a 60 percent increase in enrollment, achieved financial stability, reshaped the Board of Regents, increased the endowment and scholarship funds, was instrumental in leading the seminary in hybrid programming and fostered a high degree of faculty morale.
At the same time, as Associate Pastor of Pastoral Leadership at the seminary, Glanzer taught courses such as The Practice of Spiritual Leadership and Spirituality and Money and served as faculty mentor and dissertation advisor.
To understand Glanzer’s personal philosophy, one needs to go no further than his Personal Vision & Mission Statement, which states: To honor and trust God with my life by being a person of influence, inspiring and impacting with integrity and relevance the lives of those who will influence others. He desires to embody this credo as president of the college.
In his President’s Dinner speech, Glanzer said, “I think the question I’ve been asked most often since assuming this role is, What is your vision for Tabor College? I have to tell you that the mission and vision of Tabor College is still the same; it will not change. The mission is still, To prepare people for a life of learning, work and service for Christ and his Kingdom, and our vision will still be the same: To be the college of choice for students who seek a life transforming, academically excellent, globally relevant and decidedly Christian education.
“For me the ‘Decidedly Christian’ means our graduates will be passionately, whole-heartedly, head-over-heels in love with Jesus. They will know, trust and honor him with their lives and experience how much He loves them. Not only while they are at Tabor, but when they have left. And that they will love his people, the church, wherever they are in the world and give themselves passionately and whole-heartedly to seeing his people become who he wants them to be.
“But even more, ‘Decidedly Christian’ means that our graduates will see their chosen vocations as a way to make the world as God intended it to be — that in the places they work and live and give of themselves, those places would become more the way God wants them to be. That is not any change in direction. President Nikkel and the Board and the faculty and staff have done a superb job in moving Tabor down that path.
“Having said that, of course there are going to be some changes ahead for Tabor, but these changes are not because I think Tabor is broken or needs fixing. Rather, just the opposite is true. I do not see Tabor as broken or needing fixing, but change will be motivated by our need to respond to the changing world around us, and being prepared to live life in this changing world.
“I have a vision for Tabor. I want Tabor College to be the best college for the world. Now notice what I did not say. I did not say the best college in the world. I said the best college for the world. I passionately and deeply believe that is already true. I believe that Tabor is, and I want Tabor to continue to be the best college for the world, because the world needs to be influenced by the things of God…
“We do not live in isolated places in the earth anymore. We are living in a globalized society. Our students and graduates need to be prepared for this globalized world. No matter where we live in this globalized society, be it Peabody, Kan., or New York City, we are connected. We live locally, nationally and globally all at the same time, and the new term to describe this is ‘glocal.’ We are glocal people.
“It’s not only in missions that we are glocal but in business, in education, in the sciences and the arts. No matter where our graduates go, they’re going to be global, national and local citizens, all at the same time. My hope, wish and desire is that as they go to those places, they will see their vocations as making the world more that God intended it to be, so that Tabor can continue to be the best college for the world.
“That’s my vision for Tabor.”
For Glanzer the applause for his futuristic vision by the Tabor traditionalists affirmed that he has been called to lead the college into its second century.
“It was like they were cheering me on,” he said. “It was a very exhilarating speaking experience.”
In the weeks and months leading up to and following his inauguration, Glanzer plans to meet and greet as many constituents as possible, sharing his respect for the past 100 years and his vision for the next 100 years of the college. Whether they listen to their music on LPs or iPods or something in-between, people from all generations will appreciate the fact that, when it comes to preserving the mission and vision of Tabor, the president chosen to lead the college into the future sings from the same hymnal.
“I am hesitant to say exactly what our collective voices are going to sound like at this point,” he said, “because more than anything else, I’d rather let the melody flow out of who we are in harmony with one another and with Jesus.”
First Family: A Big Flock of Bluejays!
Long before Jules and Peg Glanzer became the First Family of Tabor College, the College came first for the Glanzer family. No less than 14 Glanzers related by blood or marriage have attended or are currently attending Tabor – enough to convene a sizable alumni chapter meeting whenever they sit down for dinner.
“When we gather around the table, everybody but me and the grandkids are Tabor alums,” said Peg, who unquestionably qualifies as an honorary alumna, considering her husband and all of their children and their children’s spouses are all Bluejays.
And while a birdwatcher might have difficulty counting all the Bluejays hopping on the branches of the Glanzers’ family tree, mother Peg sorts the flock quite easily.
On Peg’s side of the family, Peg’s sister, Shirley (Todd) Nickel, is Tabor alum; Peg’s nephew, Todd Storer, is a Tabor alum, and her nephew, Adam McPeck, a sophomore from Gettysburg, S.D., is currently enrolled at the College. (That’s three Bluejays.)
Jules is a 1974 graduate of Tabor; his brother, Elgin, and his wife, Sheree (Vogt), (graduated) from the College. Their children, Nick, a senior, and Heidi, a junior, from Abilene, Kan., are now attending Tabor. (Five more Bluejays; equals eight so far.)
Jules and Peg’s three children, Jeremy, Nicole, and Matt, all graduated from Tabor, and so did all three of their spouses.
Jeremy, the oldest, graduated in 1998 and is now a business developer with Golf Etc. in Fort Worth, Texas. Jeremy’s wife, Jodi (Seibel), graduated in 1999 and was an elementary school teacher until giving birth to their first child, daughter Avery, last year.
Nicole, the Glanzer’s second child, graduated in 1999 with a degree in Elementary Education and taught until their first child was born. Nicole is married to Jason Quiring, a 1998 graduate, now a youth pastor at South Mountain Community Church, in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the couple lives with their four children, Ian, Carter, Coleson and Tatum.
The Glanzer’s youngest son Matt, a 2001 Tabor graduate, is married to Chrissy (Previtera g’02). They live in Wichita, Kan., where Matt is Brand Manager with Cargill Inc., and Chrissy is a graphic designer .
(Combine three Glanzer children and their three spouses, and there are six
more; added to eight and that equals 14!)
And while it wasn’t a prerequisite for the 13th president of Tabor College to have 14 Bluejays in his family tree, Glanzer’s True Blue devotion to the College made it that much easier to appoint him to the top post, according to Past-President Larry Nikkel.
Introducing his successor at the President’s Dinner in February, Nikkel recalled his first encounter with Glanzer.
“I first met Jules in the late 90s when he came up from Houston to watch his son play basketball,” Nikkel said. “My first sit-down meeting came when he visited me in my office here at Tabor. And he came with an agenda. You don’t have to be a college president very long to experience your hands sweating just a bit when your secretary calls to say that a parent is here to see you!
“Happily, his agenda was to share with me his appreciation for what Tabor had done to contribute to the growth of each of his children who had attended or who were then attending Tabor. One can run for quite awhile on the emotional energy such a visit provides. The next time I sat with Jules and Peg was in their home in Houston. My wife Elaine and I were visiting alumni in the area and we had graciously been invited for a meal in their home.
“To our great pleasure, not only had they invited us, but also the parents of other Tabor students as well as several prospective students and their parents. It was a wonderful evening.”
With so much blue in the bloodlines, it’s reasonable to assume that Tabor College was the only college the Glanzer’s children were allowed to attend. But according to Peg each child was free to make their own choice and all of them looked at other schools. That they chose to be Bluejays makes the all-family alumni reunions even sweeter.
As the First Family of Tabor College, Jules and Peg look forward to introducing a new generation of offspring to the College in May, when their five grandchildren come to Hillsboro for their Gramps’ inauguration. While on campus, the grandparents might consider setting up a meeting between the grandkid’s parents and the College’s Vice President of Enrollment Management, Rusty Allen.
“The oldest one, Ian, will be six this spring, so there’s a chance that Jules will still be president when he’s old enough for college, about 12 years from now,” Peg said. “We think it would be a neat idea if they should choose to come to Tabor, especially when we are here.”
Amanda Wann, (cs’10) Lindsborg, Kan., contributed to this story.
Articles published in the 2008 Spring Edition, Vol. 62, No. 1 of The Tabor College Connection magazine.