Nell Beem was surprised to be in college in Keene during the Depression,
but she would really have been surprised if she could have foreseen that
she would spend the rest of her life in education, eventually teaching
ever grade from first through college. Born and raised in Little Rock,
Arkansas, she graduated from the normal (education) course at S.W.J.C. in
1930. She returned to Little Rock to teach church school for several years
before going on to receive her bachelor’s degree from Union College.
After
graduation, she married Calvin Gordon of Colorado, and they began a
ministry that extends to today. Following Cal in his work, Nell taught at
the Sioux City, Des Moines and Amarillo church schools, Enterprise
Academy, Union College Academy and Atlantic Union College. They served as
missionaries in Cuba and Costa Rica, where she taught her own children as
well as the other missionary children. (In all, she taught her two
children, Spencer and Lavona Gillham – both SAC alumns – 10 of the 12
pre-college grades.) Nell went on to earn the master’s degree in home
economics with an emphasis in dietetics at Simmons College in Boston.
In
1967 the Gordons came home to Southwestern, he to head the modern
languages department and she to chair the home economics department.
During her time at SAC, she was named to “Outstanding Educators of
America”. The Gordons retired in 1983, both with rank of professor
emeritus.
Homecoming
Weekend Brochure
April
12-15, 1990
