Oaks planted for FPU’s 80th Anniversary celebration assert a strong future

Planting a tree takes faith-will it grow? Who will care for it?

So the planting of three oak trees in honor of the 80^th Anniversary of Fresno Pacific University is a statement of faith by today's university community that there are at least another 80 years ahead.

"We stand in the shade of trees that we did not plant," President André Stephens said at the dedication ceremony. "Countless individuals have studied, encouraged, prayed, invested, donated and worked through the highs and lows of this institution's rich history. We honor our past while eagerly tending the current garden, 'planting' and caring for a fruitful future."

During the December 11 ceremony in the Seminary House Rose Garden on the main FPU campus, students, faculty, administrators and staff past and present warmed the morning chill with music and memories, coffee and doughnuts.

Strength for the future

Symbolizing stability and strength, oak is the traditional gift for an 80^th anniversary, Stephens said. Like a venerable tree, FPU has weathered many seasons, and like a garden, seeds of wisdom and faith were planted by those who came before us, tended with care and nurtured with patience.

Today's faculty and staff nurture that garden in partnership with Jesus, the true vine, and God, the chief Gardener. "Our work in this garden is not our own-it is God's work through us," Stephens said.

Urban forest

One who "worked through the highs and lows of this institution's rich history" as a student and career employee is Kevin Enns-Rempel, retiring director of Hiebert Library, who gave a history of the land as an urban forest.

In 1916 raisin grape tycoon Wylie M. Giffen built what is now the Seminary House and surrounded it with at least 150 trees, including coastal redwoods, live oaks, magnolia, palms, pines, deodar cedar, eucalyptus, citrus, myrtle and cypress.

Finances cost Giffen the home in 1922, Pacific Bible Institute purchased 59 acres in 1955 and Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary moved into the mansion in 1956. Ultimately trees fell to community and campus development. "So may these three trees, the many others already around them, and more to come in the future, all flourish along with the institution of which they are a part," Enns-Remple concluded.

Also at the event student Destiny Rosales read "From Planting a Tree" and Jeff Wilson, D.M.A., director of choral activities, and Jeff Jones, associate registrar, led participants in singing "Trees."

PHOTO: FPU President Andre Stephens speaks with one of the new oak trees in the background. (FPU photo by Megan LeBlanc)

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