Shenandoah University commemorated its 150th birthday with a Founders’ Day event on Wednesday, Feb. 19, that celebrated SU’s extensive history and the resiliency that has powered the university into its sesquicentennial year in 2025.
The celebration, held in Alson Smith, Jr. Library, was attended by Shenandoah students, faculty, staff, alumni, and donors as well as community leaders. Attendees were treated to performances by the Shenandoah University Marching Band, sesquicentennial-themed treats, and a glimpse into the transformative actions taken by past Shenandoah leaders that shaped the institution’s history, courtesy of Jonathan Noyalas ’01, M.A., director of SU’s McCormick Civil War Institute and adjunct associate professor of history.
Speakers included James Imoh, chair of SU’s Board of Trustees; Shenandoah University President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D.; Winchester Mayor Les Veach and city councilor Corey Sullivan; and Bob Crawford ’56, SU’s Dayton Alumni president.
James R. “Richie” Wilkins, III, also announced that the Wilkins family is funding two initiatives to help tell the history of Shenandoah: the creation and installation of 10 wayside signs that will be placed throughout Shenandoah’s main campus in Winchester, Virginia, and the filming of a short documentary. Those projects will be done in collaboration with Shenandoah University’s history and film production departments.
Richie Wilkins’ grandfather, James R. Wilkins, Sr., played a central role in Shenandoah’s move from Dayton to Winchester in 1960. It was that “bold push,” Dr. Fitzsimmons said during her remarks, that moved Shenandoah forward at a pivotal point in its history as it faced a “moment of faltering and weakness.” That move north saved Shenandoah, which in Fall 2024 reached a record enrollment of 4,343 students.
You need a visionary push, but you need a pull, and Winchester was that pull. Shenandoah would not be here if it were not for the city of Winchester and its willingness to receive us, to give us the first buildings and the first land. … When we say we are a family, we mean it deeply. We are a family. We are a community that is bound to each other, that is bound to the Northern Shenandoah Valley. And if Winchester and Frederick County are our home, our backyard now extends all the way to Washington, D.C., with our campuses in Clarke County and Loudoun and our deep connections to Northern Virginia. And I say that with much, much gratitude.”
Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., Shenandoah University president
Noyalas began his keynote speech by introducing the audience to the story of Charles Tatum, the first individual to complete a full course of study and earn a degree from what was then known as Shenandoah Institute in 1887. It took 12 years for Shenandoah to award its first degree because, Noyalas noted, the institution wasn’t originally intended to serve as a college.
Shenandoah transitioned to the university it is today, Noyalas said, thanks to the contributions of visionary leaders such as George P. Hott, who expanded Shenandoah’s curriculum in areas of practical education in the late 1880s, and James H. Ruebush, who embraced the spirit of educational innovation while navigating Shenandoah through moments of crisis, such as World War I and the Spanish flu epidemic.
The remarks of James Ruebush, delivered to Shenandoah’s Board of Trustees in the late spring of 1920, will ring as true today and in the future as they did over a century ago. Ruebush stated, and I will close with this, ‘I think the outlook for the school was never so bright as at present, and will continue to remain so as long as we dare not sit idly by.’”
Jonathan Noyalas, M.A., director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute
Fitzsimmons closed the event by announcing that Shenandoah University sesquicentennial wine and coffee will be available for purchase later this year.
Shenandoah University celebrates Founders’ Day annually on Feb. 12. This year’s celebration was delayed a week due to inclement weather. A full recording of Shenandoah University’s 2025 Founders’ Day celebration is available on the university’s YouTube page.
