HILLSBORO, Kan. – Tabor College announces that alumnus Norman Ewert will be its commencement speaker. Graduation is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, May 23 at the Joel H. Wiens Football Stadium in Hillsboro, Kan.
Jules Glanzer, president of Tabor College, says he asked Ewert to send our graduates into the world with words of encouragement.
“Our tradition at Tabor is to have a successful and distinguished Tabor alum serve as the commencement speaker,” Glanzer said. “It demonstrates to our graduating seniors what a Tabor education can lead to.”
Ewert, an economist and long-time college professor, acknowledges that his undergraduate experience at Tabor was meaningful.
“I’m excited to come back to the place that significantly helped shape me as a person and helped set the direction for my life,” Ewert said.
Ewert graduated from Tabor in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in history, then went onto earn a graduate degree in economics at the University of Kansas and a doctorate in economics from Southern Illinois University. In 2014, he retired after 41 years of teaching economics at Wheaton College (Ill.). His teaching focused on international development, microfinance, a senior capstone course and more recently, energy economics. Ewert participated in initial visioning and subsequent teaching in an international internship program, human needs and global resources. The program has sent well over 800 students abroad on six-month internships.
Upon his retirement, the Wheaton College Alumni Association made him an honorary Wheaton Alum. He is also a member of Mennonite Economic Development Associates.
Ewert says his educational background at Tabor gave him a strong start to his teaching career.
“I’m very grateful for how Tabor helped me grow spiritually and intellectually,” Ewert added. “Coming out of a strong Anabaptist faith background, Tabor helped me clarify my values and develop a curiosity about the larger world. My study of history, for example, developed an interest in seeing the bigger picture, the larger trends and significant dynamics at work in our world. Tabor stretched me in ways that laid the groundwork for my vocational interest in economic development.”
His wife, Sharon, is a Wheaton graduate and chair of Wheaton’s English department. The couple has two sons, Chris and Andy, both of whom are computer science graduates of Wheaton.