Dolores (Correll) Campbell's Memories of PBTS

Since Reminisce Magazine published back in early February I have had the privilege of getting to know some new Alumni of the college and some people whose parents attended the college. The follow memories below were written to me in an email by Dolores (Correll) Campbell, a member of the class of 1954. I hope you enjoy her memories I know I always enjoy reading and hearing new memories.

Binghamton, NY is a long way from where I lived in the little town of Belvidere, IL in the 1950`s. I grew up in a home with good parents; however, it was not a Christian home. While I was in high school a classmate asked me to attend a Baptist church with her for a youth meeting, and I knew right away that this is what I had been searching for all of my young life. The meetings were held in the church parsonage, and two weeks later the pastor`s wife took me aside and presented the Gospel of Salvation to me. It was the first time in my life that I had ever heard John 3:16 and it was then that I turned my life over to Lord. The pastor`s wife was Marion Blossom, wife of Gordon Blossom who had been a student at PBTS. As a new Christian I was so hungry to know more of God`s word, and so when I heard that two of the young people in our church was attending the Bible school in Binghamton, NY. I prayed that God would show me what He wanted for my life. That`s how I ended up at PBTS where I studied and learned how to serve the Lord.

Each of us were required to spend time in field evangelism work, as I suppose it is still required today. In my first year four of us girls, Marguerite Wheeler, Wilma Snyder, Norma Aughenbaugh and I went each Sunday to the county TB sanatorium where we sang and gave testimonies to the patients. In my second year, the same four girls traveled with Harold Winter & his wife into the outlying hills of NY to help start new churches.

The third year (the one that gave me a real burden for the lost) I spent weekends at the City Mission in Binghamton, working with the children in that area - this is the one that gave me a real burden for the lost. There were many of the students from PBTS, as well as students from the Baptist Bible Seminary, that came to teach, preach, witness, sing and visit for the mission. I was so burdened and also led of the Lord to work there that I and 2 others (Pauline Wells & Rosa Aesch) worked there for several years after graduation.

There are other memories of PBTS. Each spring at graduation time we would decorate the dining room with dogwood flowers that were blooming at Bible School Park. Do you still have dogwoods growing there each spring?

I remember the time Abu Sobha Dass, a student from India, made a special mid-eastern dish for the school as a treat. It was delicious and I have been trying to recreate that recipe all these years, but have yet to make it exactly as it tasted then.

I remember the day they had a band visiting the school and Dale Baker, one of our students, sang "Old Man River" with the band accompaniment. God had blessed him with such a magnificent voice that it brought tears to the eyes of our school president, Dr. Gordon Davis. Dr Davis was the voice teacher for our school at that time.

And there was the day that Dr. and Mrs. Patterson and Dr. and Mrs. Westbrook were traveling together and were involved in an auto accident. Dr. Westbrook was a hemophiliac (a bleeder) and God in His mercy watched over him, and he was the only one in the car that was not injured. God is so good.

I remember the thrill of being asked to give my testimony on live radio, from our school. It was a weekly radio program put on by radio station WPEL in Montrose, Pennsylvania. It could have been "The Little White Church" of Conklin, N.Y., where Rev. Paul Griffis was pastor. So many years have passed that it`s hard to remember everything exactly.

Thank you Mrs. Campbell for your memories. I have a few other Alumni Stories that when I have time I will post as well as the Presidential Interviews which are still in progress.