John Bingham '37 celebrates a seventy-year love affair with Kenyon College

John Wethered Bingham Jr. '37, a fit and vigorous eighty-six year-old, has had a good long time to observe the evolution of Kenyon College. When he entered Kenyon in 1933, the College had a total of about three hundred and fifty students, all of them men. There was an intimacy about the place that fostered enduring friendships and close relationships between faculty members and students.

"One of my favorite memories of Kenyon is singing in the Commons on Sundays after dinner," Bingham recalls. "Although most of the men were in fraternities, we didn't sit together as fraternity groups during this meal. We mostly sat with our classmates. We would sing all the Kenyon songs and just enjoy the camaraderie."

Tuesday nights were fraternity meeting nights, and after the meetings, held in the lodges, the groups would congregate on the north end of Middle Path and sing all the way back to the residence halls. "I think more than the addition of women and more than any change in the physical facilities, the thing I notice most is that people don't sing in that particular way any longer," Bingham says.

While cherishing the memories of his days at Kenyon, Bingham nevertheless applauds the direction the College has taken. "The College was a good school then, and I got a first-rate education, yet I have a feeling of great pride in belonging to the Kenyon of today," he says. "It has such a great faculty and administration and an advanced curriculum, and I think the students here today still have a connection to their teachers and to one another."

It was his continuing sense of belonging that led Bingham to establish a charitable gift annuity this year. Working with Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving Russell P. Geiger, Bingham decided to fund the annuity with $20,000. Because of his age, Bingham received an interest rate of 10.8 percent, a rate far above what any other new investment is earning at this time. Eventually, the principal will fund a scholarship at the College.

"My financial advisor was enthusiastic about this investment opportunity," says Bingham. "He had no problem with me cashing in some other instruments so I could put the money here." In addition to an annual income of $2,160, Bingham also receives a charitable income-tax deduction of $10,154. "I have only a very limited income from my earned-income years," Bingham explains, "so in addition to providing something for the welfare of Kenyon, I am achieving a significant benefit to my own welfare as well."

"My days at Kenyon were among the happiest days of my life," says Bingham. "Many of the friendships I formed were lifelong."

Bingham recalls a bike trip he took to England in 1938 with John C. Neff '36, William H. Thomas '36, and Robert W. Tuttle '37. "We took a third-class voyage on the Anchor Line to Glasgow and then traveled around a bit by train. Bill eventually went off to the Olympics in Germany while the rest of us took a train to London and bought bikes. We rode a total of about eight hundred and sixty miles." How does Bingham remember these things in such great detail one might wonder. "I kept a journal," he explains. "In fact, I kept a journal every day until about two years ago."

Bingham also keeps his memories fresh by returning to campus for reunions and other events. He celebrated his sixtieth Kenyon class reunion in 1997 and the end of the "Claiming Our Place" campaign in 2001. While the class did not come together in May 2002 for a sixty-fifth reunion, Bingham did return in October to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon.

Much of Bingham's professional life has been centered around activities relating to education. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II and spending two years at Columbia University on the G.I. Bill, Bingham taught history at the San Rafael Military Academy in San Rafael, California, and then at the Culver Military Academy in Indiana before settling back in New York City. While teaching in the New York public schools, he earned a master of education degree at Hofstra University. But the day arrived, in the mid-1960s, when disciplinary problems in the classroom robbed teaching of the joy it once held for him. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he was employed by the Smithsonian Institution as an education officer.

Although Bingham retired to northern Michigan in 1975 he was far from idle. He worked part time with the planning and zoning department of the fast-growing township where he lived, and he kept up a fitness program of weight training and swimming.

A highlight of Bingham's time at Kenyon was the building of the swimming pool in 1936, when he joined the fledgling swim team. He has maintained a keen interest in the College's program over the years. Until very recently, swimming has been a major part of his fitness regime.

Although a native of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and a Yankee at heart, Bingham decided in August 1998 to abandon the harsh winters of northern Michigan and move to Foley, Alabama, on the Gulf Coast. "At the time, I thought seriously about moving to Gambier or Mount Vernon to be near Kenyon, and sometimes I'm sorry I didn't do that," he says wistfully. "The hurricanes in Alabama are a challenge, and it is a very interesting and different culture."

Bingham would agree, though, that while he may not be physically close to his alma mater, Kenyon is never very far from his heart, even after almost seventy years. And now, with the establishment of the John Wethered Bingham Jr. Scholarship, his name will forever be associated with the College.

-Linda Michaels