The Life of Generous Benefactor, Vangie Bahnson Smith, Honored at Chapel Service

Evangeline (Vangie) Bahnson Smith, one of the Seminary’s most ardent supporters and generous benefactors, died at the age of 86 on September 13, 2008, in Winston-Salem, NC. Her life and generosity were honored at the November 18th Chapel Service at the Seminary.

Glen Stoudt '77, assistant professor of Pastoral Theology and Interim Chaplain, wrote a commemorative liturgy that was led by the members of the full-time faculty. The sermon was given by Bishop Wayne Burkette '69, a life-long friend who presided over her memorial service and serves as President of the Provincial Elders’ Conference of the Moravian Southern Province. The service honoring Vangie was scheduled to coincide with Burkette’s 3-day visit to campus where he served as Bishop-in-Residence.

Active Moravians from Winston-Salem, Vangie and her first husband Paul Bahnson took particular interest in Moravian clergy and the educational institutions that nurtured them. In the 1960s, after a visit to his alma mater, Moravian College, Paul Bahnson recognized the need for Moravian Theological Seminary to no longer share building space with the undergraduate school, as it had for nearly 170 years.

Sincere people of action, Paul and Vangie established a fund, to be used in concert with funds provided by the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church, to build an academic home for Moravian Seminary. Though Paul Bahnson died three years before ground was broken for the new facility, in 1976 Bahnson Center was dedicated — a modern, self-contained, academic center that became the heart of Moravian Theological Seminary.

From the early 1970s through the 1990s, Vangie served as an active, devoted, out-spoken member of the Board of Trustees of the Seminary. The board honored her service in 1989 by naming her a Life Trustee of the Seminary.

Dean Frank Crouch '80 speaks of Vangie’s legacy, “we at the Seminary benefit from Vangie’s generosity every day. She and her husband provided the money to build the Bahnson Center, a setting for preparing people for ministry. She also established an endowment fund in honor of a beloved pastor and Moravian Church leader, R. Gordon Spaugh '27, so that we have always had money to make repairs and even major renovations without breaking the budget. All that being said, the most important part of her gift is not that she was interested in providing a building, but she was interested in excellent and faithful ministry. That’s the part of her legacy that we seek most to carry forward.”

Even as her generosity was bestowed on the Seminary, Vangie’s benevolence extended far beyond this institution. She was devoted to a learned clergy, the world-wide Moravian Unity, her own congregation of Home Moravian Church, and Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem. Her generosity and life’s activities were beautifully captured in the memoir written by Bishop Burkette and delivered at her memorial service held at Salemtowne Retirement Community in Winston-Salem, where she had resided for more than twenty years. The full version of her memoir is posted here.

We praise God for Vangie’s witness, and the way her generosity inspires us and touches the Seminary community each day.