The Roots of Greatness: A Profile of Dwight David Eisenhower
Researched and written by Dean Curry, Professor of Politics
Dwight David Eisenhower (shown here with President D. Ray Hostetter) is best remembered for his singular achievements as General of the Army and as President of the United States. Often forgotten, however, was his devotion to American higher education. Indeed, Ike’s first civilian job after retiring from active military service in 1948 was that of president of Columbia University.
His longest and closest connection with higher education was certainly his relationship with Gettysburg College from which he received an honorary degree in 1949. After he and Mamie left the White House and moved to their Gettysburg farm in 1961, Ike became a trustee of the college, and established his official post-presidential office on the Gettysburg College campus.
Gettysburg College was not the only local college, however, with close ties to Dwight Eisenhower. Ike’s connection with Messiah College, located twenty miles north of Gettysburg, began back in 1816 when Ike’s great-grandfather, Frederick, became a member of the River Brethren. The River Brethren were a pious and plain people who shared a religious perspective similar to the Mennonites. Eventually the River Brethren changed their name to the Brethren in Christ, the religious denomination that founded Messiah College at the turn of the 20th century.
Frederick’s son Jacob–Ike’s grandfather–was a Brethren in Christ minister. When Jacob and his new wife, Margaret, moved into a new farmhouse in 1854 in the town of Elizabethville, north of Harrisburg, he made sure the living room was long and narrow enough to serve as a Sunday meeting house
In 1878 Jacob and his family moved to Kansas where he was the first Brethren in Christ minister in the state. Shortly thereafter the Eisenhower family would be joined by other Brethren in Christ families who migrated to Kansas. In the early 1880's, however, Jacob Eisenhower’s home was the only meeting place for Brethren in Christ in the Abilene area.
It was on a farm outside of Abilene that Jacob continued his ministry of evangelism and, among other things, wrote regularly for the denomination’s new paper, "The Evangelical Visitor," which is still published today. Here, too, Jacob and Margaret raised their fourteen children, including David, Ike’s father. In this deeply religious and family-centered environment the future thirty-fourth President of the United States was nurtured.
Many years later, in the spring of 1965, Dwight David Eisenhower returned to his ancestral roots to deliver the commencement address at Messiah College and to receive its first honorary doctorate. At that time, Messiah College was a small institution that had recently decided to transform itself from a Bible college to a four year liberal arts college. On the occasion of Dwight Eisenhower’s visit, the graduating class numbered only thirty-five, but more than 1,000 guests turned out, eager to hear one of their own, one of the great heros of the twentieth century.
Ike used his Messiah address to reminisce about his family and the influence that their religious values had on his own life. “The whole family was deeply religious,” Ike remembered, and while their time was less complex than our own, “there was never a day that they did not have to face up to the same human problems that we do today.” They derived their strength from their faith, and in our time, Ike went on to say, we must not lose sight of the fact that we all are spiritual beings, “created by . . . [a] Supreme Being.”
Ike also reminded his audience that America’s Founding Fathers understood the truth that our democratic government “is a political expression of a deeply felt religious faith.” And, “if we recognize . . . this relationship between a deeply held religious faith and [our] duty as a citizen of the United States, I think there will never be any difficulty as [we] approach [our nation’s problems].”
Ike concluded his remarks by returning again to his family. “I think it would be nice,” he said, “if your forbearers, like my grandfather, could just look down on such an audience and say our work is showing great fruition in this college and others like it.”
Following Dwight Eisenhower’s death, Messiah College honored his grandfather by naming its new campus center, the Jacob Eisenhower Center. On the occasion of the center’s dedication in 1972, Ike’s grandson, David Eisenhower, expressed the gratitude and appreciation that Ike felt for his ancestry. “My grandfather used to speak often . . . of Messiah College,” David said, and “in an era where ideals have been lofty in words and short on deeds, he used to take special note of institutions, like Messiah College, which . . . managed to perpetuate a spiritual commitment into a way of life, producing better citizens as a result.”
The very public life that Dwight David Eisenhower lived was in many ways far removed from the private and unassuming lives of his forbearers. Nevertheless, those qualities that contributed to Ike’s greatness–his courage, integrity, and respect for permanent values–were a legacy inherited from these simple-living, pious people.
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