Earlene Nofziger
When I became a principal, I happened to be the only lady. I went to an administrators meeting and one of the other guys said, ‘You can’t be in here because you don’t have a tie on.’ Guess who wore a tie the next time? Me.
I came to Goshen Community Schools in 1964 and stayed there until I retired in 1996. I was principal at Riverdale and then at Chandler Elementary School.
Through Kiwanis, we started a program in 2003 called Tools-4-Schools, and it has grown and grown and grown. I was co-chair for 11 years. We provide free classroom materials to all the teachers in the Goshen and Fairfield districts, plus St. John’s and Bethany and not-for-profit preschools. Teachers can come to our warehouse and take anything they want for free
My husband Roger and I went on our first date at The Goshen Theater. We’ve been married almost 60 years.
Photographs would probably be some of the oldest things we have at the Goshen Historical Society Museum. We have clear back to glass slides. We’re talking 1860s and a couple before that.
Everything in here has something to do with Goshen in some way, either through a business, through an invention, through a school, through a person.
I would say 95 percent of the items in here have been donated. We have a few things that we’ve bought with memorials people have given us.
We have a couple of things on our list, if we could find them – like an Ariel bicycle. The Ariel Cycle Manufacturing Co. was in Goshen. The only thing we have is a seat and the emblem from under the handlebars. And we have a catalogue. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the whole thing? That’s one of our ‘dream list’ kind of things.
The thing about the museum is, we’re not finished. Eventually, you would be able to come in and get on the guest computer and research what we have. Eventually, we could be connected to other museums with the software we have.
Do you have a story you want to tell?
Do you have a story to tell about someone who contributes to Goshen’s greater GOOD?
We invite you to share!