Tazewell Co - Obituaries

ELGIN - Judson University's chancellor and former president Dr. Harm A. Weber, who was credited with turning around the struggling young Christian college from financial collapse in the 1970s, died Tuesday in his new hometown of Bradenton, Fla. Judson spokeswoman Mary Dulabaum said Weber died from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 83. A memorial service was to be held at 1 p.m. Central time Saturday in Bethel Baptist Church of Bradenton - ironically, the same time the university's spring commencement was to begin back in Elgin. Dulabaum said a memorial service will be held on campus this fall. It was another Bethel Baptist Church - this one in Detroit, Mich. - that a 42-year-old Baptist pastor named Harm Weber left in 1969 to become president of the struggling young Elgin institution, then known as Judson College. He had been a member of Judson's board of trustees since the college split off from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary and moved to Elgin in 1963. A reminiscing Weber told a Courier-News reporter in 2007 that finances were so bad when he took over, one board member took him aside and said the board really expected no more from him than to close the debt-ridden college as painlessly as possible. But, Weber said with a chuckle, "I didn't leave a great church in Detroit to close this school." When he said that he intended not just to make it survive but to make it thrive, some board members resigned. But by raising money and bringing in more students, Weber brought the college back to life. "In the first year, I didn't know whether we would be open next week," he said. "In the second year, I didn't know about the next month. And the third year, I knew we'd last the year." But, then, Weber was used to facing hard times. Born in Pekin into a family of eight, Weber estimated that he lived in 16 different Illinois cities by the time he was 17 years old. As the Great Depression hit, his father lost his job, their home and most of their possessions. It was a time when "the world fell apart," Weber said in the 2007 interview. Weber said his five sisters sold doughnuts door to door. He struggled through elementary school, not learning to read until the fourth grade. And his mother died when he was just 13. After two years in the Army Air Force, Weber met his wife, Arlie, at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn., and then became a pastor, serving a congregation in Muncie, Ind., before moving to that large church in Detroit. By the late 1970s and 1980s, Judson was on solid enough ground to add buildings. Weber once recalled how he secured money to pay for the chapel and the fine arts building from a Michigan businessman who was unable to speak due to complications from a stroke. The man agreed to Weber's request by nodding his head and shaking Weber's hand. During retirement, Harm and Arlie divided their time between Florida and Minnesota. Judson's newest building, the Harm A. Weber Academic Center along Route 31, was dedicated to the former president. Current Judson President Jerry Cain, who will miss Saturday's commencement to attend Weber's funeral, said Weber would disarm tension during a contentious business meeting by starting to sing some rousing hymn. Dr. James Didier, who was Weber's right-hand man and succeeded Weber as president, said, "I believe that without Harm Weber having served as its president, Judson would not likely exist today."



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