Divine Word College opens in Epworth, Iowa
By 1930, the Society of the Divine Word had opened seminaries in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Massachusetts; they had a novitiate in Wisconsin; and a vineyard in New York. But the Divine Word Missionaries saw growth potential for yet another high school seminary, and when a Methodist seminary turned military academy became available in Epworth, IA (near Decatur) in 1931, the SVDs jumped at the chance to purchase it.
After readying the school for occupancy, 58 students from around the upper Midwest arrived in September 1932. They joined eight priests and five brothers, with Rev. Francis Humel SVD as the first rector. The seminary would be known as St. Paul’s Mission House, and it would function as a high school seminary until 1949.
In 1949 St. Paul’s became the location of the SVD juniorate, where graduates from the minor seminaries would complete their first two years of college. In 1955, however, St. Paul’s became a school for belated vocations, but concerns about high school accreditation standards led Epworth in a new and unexpected direction.
The Society determined in 1959 that a central college would be necessary for future SVD formation, and due to its location in the middle of the country, Epworth was picked as the ideal spot. Groundbreaking for Divine Word College took place in July 1962, while much of the old campus was torn down.
Divine Word College began classes in September 1964 with Rev. Edward Dudink SVD as its first rector. A board of trustees was formed in 1967, which recommended the college hire a president. As such, Divine Word College’s first president, Fr. Harold Rigney, came aboard in 1970. Rigney, who had served as rector of both the SVD’s Fu Jen Catholic University in Beijing and San Carlos University in the Philippines. He was followed by Divine Word priests Louis Luzbetek (1973-1978), Raymond Quetchenbach (1978-1981), John Donaghey (1981-1987), Joseph Simon (1987-1993), Michael Hutchins (1993-2011), Timothy Lenchack (2011-2017), and current president Rev. Thomas Ascheman SVD.
Divine Word College enrollment jumped from 61 in 1965 to 182 in 1967, but by 1974 it had plummeted to 58 students, a worrisome sign. However, the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 marked an important turning point for the college. The massive exodus of Vietnamese fleeing the new Communist regime led to refugee groups resettling in the United States. One such group arrived in 1975 in Fort Chafee, AK, and among this group were a number of seminarians.
The SVD province offered to admit the Vietnamese seminarians to Epworth. There faculty would teach them English and ready them to pursue their vocations to the priesthood and religious life. The first group of 16 seminarians contained both college-age students, who would remain at Epworth, and high schoolers, who would eventually transfer to St. Augustine’s in Bay St. Louis, MS to attend a nearby diocesan Catholic academy.
The decision breathed new life into Divine Word College. Academics, faculty, and campus culture shifted to accommodate these new students. From 1975 to 1990, over 150 Vietnamese students entered Divine Word College. Of those, many became full members of the Society and currently occupy leadership positions throughout the North American SVD community and beyond.
In the 1990s, the decision was made to expand the student body and welcome students of other Catholic religious communities throughout the world, giving Divine Word College community an even more international character. The current college population contains students from over 20 different countries, creating a unique environment for the education of future missionaries.
The text of this page is an adapted version of Communities of the Word, "The Epworth Story" by Rev. Walter Bunofsky SVD et al.