AIIAS is very pleased to announce that AIIAS president Dr. Ginger Ketting-Weller has been chosen as one of five individuals to receive an award for excellence from the Charles E. Weniger Society, to be presented at their 49th Annual Awards Presentation at Loma Linda University Church on February 17, 2024.
The prestigious Charles E. Weniger award and accompanying medallion presented by the Society honor the qualities of excellence and kindness that were paramount in Weniger’s life as an educator and educational administrator. The Society states that “through its award program, the Society seeks to identify and recognize the contributions made to the world by people with similar significant traits of character.”
Charles Weniger was an English teacher, a seminary professor, and a vice president for graduate studies. He was known for integrating academics with real life as he taught, and for his personal relationship with God as evident in his humble and intimate prayers. Weniger died sixty years ago, in 1964, but his deeply spiritual influence and emphasis on excellence live on through the society set up by his students, and through its annual awards and scholarships.
“I like to call these awards the equivalent of the Oscars,” commented Dr. Richard Osborn, president of the Weniger Society and host of the 2023 awards program. Past awardees include well-known Seventh-day Adventist individuals from all walks of life, including denominational leaders, academics, physicians, artists, musicians, authors, evangelists, TV personalities and philanthropists. The award comes with no monetary component, but the stories of those who are honored serve to inspire. The list of previous awardees may be seen below.
In the upcoming 2024 program, in addition to AIIAS president Dr. Ketting-Weller, the Charles E. Weniger Society will be honoring Walla Walla University president, Dr. John McVay, Loma Linda University Church organist Dr. Kimo Smith, retired General Conference vice president Elder Lowell Cooper, and award-winning author Sunny Lockwood (Merikay McLeod), whose legal action in the 1970s resulted in equal pay for equal work for women employed by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.
Dr. Richard Nelson, AIIAS vice president for academic administration, has attended previous Weniger Awards programs. He comments, “The group Dr. Ketting-Weller is joining includes some of the most influential characters of our lifetime in the SDA church. She is joining the founders of the Loma Linda Overseas Heart Team, the author of the 5-day plan, the world’s greatest infant heart surgeon, some of the brightest theologians and institutional leaders…the list goes on. She has served the church with great distinction and her life reflects the character values of excellence that the Weniger Society recognizes.”
In addition to in-person attendance at the annual awards presentation, the program can be watched via streaming video on February 17 at 4:30 p.m. (California time) at the Loma Linda University Church YouTube channel.
Weniger Medallion Recipients
1974
- Alonzo Lafayette Baker
1975
- William Gordon
- Campbell Murdoch
- Jerry Lyle Pettis
- Harold Marshall
- Sylvester Richards
- Kenneth H. Wood
1976
- Winton Henry Beaven
- Charlotte Joan Coggin
- Raymond Archie Mortensen
1977
- Frank Wilbur Hale, Jr.
- J. Paul Laurence
- John Raymond Wahlen
1978
- Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse
- Miriam Gilbert Tymeson
- Marvin Ross Walter
- Ellsworth Edwin Wareham
1979
- Kenneth Harvey Emmerson
- Siegfried Herbert Horn
- William Martin Landeen
1989
- Walter Raymond Beach
- Helen F. Little
- Leona Glidden Running
- Russell L. Staples
- Ruth Wheeler
- Lois Christian Randolph Woods
1988
- Charles Edward Dickerson, III
- William Milton Lee
1987
- Harrison Silas Evans
- Frank and Alice Marsh
- Dorothy Nelson Moore
- Else Louise Nelson
- George Bahn Nelson
- William Fredrick Norwood
1986
- Arthur Lacy White
1985
- Mercedes Habenicht Dyer
- Thomas Sinclair Geraty
- Robson and Isabel Newbold
- Elton and Evelyn Wallace
- Evabelle Rosamond Winning
1984
- Julius Lafayette Tucker
- Theodore Carcich
- George Tryon Harding, Jr.
- Ruth Rittenhouse Murdoch
1983
- Godfrey Tryggie Anderson
- Harry Anderson
- Walter Everett Macpherson
- Mary Colby Monteith
- Margaret Vollmer Richards
1982
- Cecil Warren Becker
- Ted Webster Benedict
- Reinhold Reinhardt Bietz
- Edward Heppenstall
- Arthur Graham Maxwell
- Calvin Bozell Rock
1981
- Francis Alvin Knittel
- David Louis Lin
- Jack Wendell Provonsha
- Denton Edward Rebok
- James Paul Stauffer
1980
- Charles John Nagele
- William A, Fagal
- Hedwig Nagele Jemison
- Richard Burton Lewis
- Neal Clayton Wilson
1999
- Elmer Digneo
- Daniel Matthews
- Louis Venden
1998
- Charles and Elizabeth Anderson
- George Lewis Caviness
- Leon Harold Caviness
1997
- Sakae Kubo
1996
- Donald Malcolm Maxwell
1995
- Hulda Crooks
- Del Delker
- Granville Gene Wilson
1994
- Raymond F. Cottrell
- Donald Vincent Hemphill
- Douglas Carlyle Marchus
1993
- J. Wayne McFarland
- Alice Alberta Neilsen
- Ivan Robert Neilsen
1992
- Paul C. Heubach
- Gordon and Betty Jenson
- Charles Warren Teel, Sr.
1991
- Wilfred J. Airey
- Ronald and Grace Drayson
- Joseph Greenleaf Fallon
- John T. Hamilton
- Richard Hammill
- Narasimiah and
- Jasmine Jacob
- Axel Clarence Nelson
1990
- Walter Bush Clark
- Maurice and Helen Mathisen
2009
- Barry Black
- George Knight
- Richard Osborn
2008
- Charles V. Bell
- Charles E. Bradford
- Fritz Guy
2007
- Lowell L. Bock
- Wayne Hooper
- Lawrence O. Longo
- Milton Murray
- Vernon P. Nye
2006
- Wilbur Alexander
- Dorothy Minchin-Comm
- Kermit Netteburg
- Louis W. Normington
2005
- Ray Hefferlin
- Robert M. Johnston
- Donnie G. Rigby
- Randall Lee Roberts
2004
- John W. Cassell
- Loren C. Dickinson
- Peter E. Hare
- Alice L. Holst
- A. Vernon Winn
2003
- Leonard L. Bailey
- Shirley N. Pettis-Roberson
- Ariel A. Roth
- Charles R. Taylor
2002
- Herbert P. Ford
- Edward Paul Johnston
- Merlene A. Odgen
- Helen T. Zolber
2001
- Clinton and Patricia
- Giddings Emmerson
- Lawrence Thomas Geraty
- Florence Longway
- Fisher Howlett
- Helen V. Warren Lee
- Rolland Harold and
- Florence Nagel
- Sherman Albertus and Edith Louise Nagel
2000
- William Loveless
- Milton and Murial McHenry
- Jan Paulsen
2019
- Rebekah Wang Cheng
- T. Grace Emori-Elder
- Harvey A. Elder
- Charles W. Scriven
2018
- B. Lyn Behrens Basaraba
- Douglas R. Clark
- Ella Smith Simmons
- T.Richard Rice
2017
- Brian S. Bull
- Alvin L. Kwiram
- Verla R. Kwiram
- Sigve K. Tonstad
2016
- Roy Branson
- Robert E. Lemon
- Sandra E. Roberts
2015
- Bert B. Beach
- Bert B Haloviak
- William G. Johnsson
2014 [Medallions originally awarded the year after selection]
2013
- William Emmerson
- Elissa Kido
- Arthur N. Patrick
2012
- Bonnie Dwyer
- V. Bailey Gillespie
- Shelton E Kilby, III
2011
- Herbert Blomstedt
- Alcyon Fleck
- Howard V. Gimbel
- Oliver Jacques
2010
- Niels-Erik Andreasen
- George T. Harding
- Loree Sutton
- Bernard A. Taylor
2022
- Lyndon Johnston Taylor
- Gilbert M. Valentine
- Kendra Haloviak Valentine
- David R. Williams
- Gerald R. Winslow
2021
- Edwin Krick
- Edna Maye Loveless
- Helen Pearson
- Michael Pearson
2020
- Reinder Bruinsma
- Richard H. Hart
- Andrea T. Luxton
- A. Ganoune Diop