On Friday, Oct. 4, during Homecoming weekend, Southwestern College dedicated the Dr. Wallace and Ina Gray Garden in the courtyard at Winfield Hall.

President Liz Frombgen led the dedication and spoke of the love and spirit that the Grays provided, having spent their professional lives growing the students of Southwestern.

Photo: The Dr. Wallace and Ina Gray Garden in the courtyard at Winfield Hall was officially dedicated during Homecoming festivities at Southwestern College.  Pictured are (from L-R) Toni Gray, Ina Gray, and SC President Liz Frombgen.

“The Grays have offered Southwestern College so much – their time, talent, and resources,” Frombgen said.  “They’ve done this with intention and with love. And today we get to honor their graciousness. For years to come, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members who interact with this space will get to feel the welcoming and accepting spirit of Ina and Wallace.”

In addition to the engraved limestone marker which will be set in concrete, there are additional plans for the garden, which include planting more flowering plants.

Dr. Wallace Gray earned his doctorate from Vanderbilt University before beginning his teaching career in 1954 in the undergraduate religion department of Southern Methodist University. Two years later, the family arrived in Winfield. An ordained Methodist minister, Wallace became the Kirk Professor of Philosophy and Religion. One tribute described how his courses “opened the minds of Kansas farm boys and girls to modern historical and literary interpretations of the Bible.”

By the time he retired from Southwestern 40 years later, he had taught more than 5,000 students, but not all were Builders. He had taught English at the YMCA in Hiroshima, Japan, and during summers instructed supply pastors in schools of theology in Kansas City and Dallas, as well as other classes and scholarly opportunities.

Toni Gray, daughter of Ina and Wallace and member of the Southwestern Class of 1976, also spoke at the occasion, "When I asked Ina Turner Gray her favorite quotation about gardens, she chose, 'To nurture a garden is to believe in tomorrow,' attributed to Audrey Hepburn.  In addition to her belief that Southwestern College is key to our tomorrows, she loves flowering and vegetable gardens."

Ina Turner Gray earned her master of arts from Scarritt College in Nashville in religious education and church history and she completed postgraduate work in sociology at the University of Hawaii.  For twenty years Ina served as the Executive Director, Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Science, retiring in 1996.

“Ina offered thoughtful and creative leadership to Pi Gamma Mu – a society that has offered enrichment to the thousands of faculty and students and that was founded here at Southwestern College in 1924 by Dean Leroy Allen,” Frombgen said.  “So Ina’s work to advance Pi Gamma Mu carries particular weight and perhaps extra admiration here on our campus.”

Frombgen is grateful for her friendship with Ina.

“I regret that I never was able to know Wallace,” Frombgen said.  “In Ina, I have found a great friend."