The morning sun shines through the windows onto the Kratz 1 lounge. One by one, five men — each donning either blue jeans or khakis, long sleeve button ups or polos with crewnecks, and some with a thermos in hand — maneuver chairs around to form a circle. A table sits in the center where a yellow National Geographic magazine lays folded open. 

The conversation starter is one that Vic Stoltzfus, former president of Goshen College and father of the current President, Becky Stoltzfus, reads off.

“[Frank Lloyd] Wright’s behaviors line up with a more deeply entrenched mental health diagnosis: Narcissistic personality disorder,” he reads, “symptoms include a grandiose sense of self importance, a need for excessive admiration, exploiting behavior and relationships and a lack of empathy.”

Victor Koop, former professor of psychology, calmly chimes in, elaborating further on narcissistic personality disorder. He explains the DSM-5 description for narcissism, listing the scoring on things such as deceitfulness, impulsivity, reckless disregard for others and those who can’t learn from their own behavior. He segways into the topic abroad.

“I mean, he easily qualifies, and that’s what we’ve got to put up with for the next four years,” said Victor Koop 

The friendship group meets every Thursday morning at 9 a.m. The conversations don’t have an agenda and aren’t guided as it’s meant to unstructured. This can include personal anecdotes, an excerpt from a magazine, or, in the case of this particular meeting, the outcome of the election.

The group is made up of John Lederach ’57, former professor emeritus of Bible and religion at Hesston College; Len Geiser, professor emeritus of business; Don Blosser, former professor of Bible and religion; Stoltzfus ’62 former president of GC; John Yordy ’67, former professor of chemistry and interim president; Wilbur Birky, professor of English emeritus and Delmar Good ’62, a former economics professor and current adjunct professor in Division of Adult and External Studies, going on 58 years.

They have been meeting for the last 14 years, with their first couple years of meetings being held in the upstairs section of Martin’s. 

Their conversation continued, questioning the future of Goshen as a result of the election on topics such as immigration and deportation, teaching, farmers, morals and ethics,  and the economy. The topics flowed freely and with each one came a perspective deep rooted in their vocation.

“My daughter-in-law was devastated by the outcome of the election,” said Yordy, “but then she sent the entire family this poem by Emily Dickinson, ‘Hope is a thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all,’” said Yordy. “That’s where I try to go … is ‘given the situation, how do I both sustain hope and transmit it in positive ways?’”

According to Geiser, Dell and Victor brought him into the group to “try to, I think, get me through the period after my wife passed.” In total, they carry a combined five PhDs and approximately 189 years of teaching experience and two of them are successful business owners.

When asked about the significance of the meetings, Blosser responded by saying, “This group is healing.” This sentiment is important to the group especially in the wake of his wife’s passing.

Stoltzfus also added the “intellectual stimulation and also the opportunity to interact with opinions different than my own” keeps him going.

He continued, mentioning that “many, many women have friendship groups. It’s relatively rare for men to have friendship.” 

“For me, what I wanted to include in retirement was that I’d like to retain my re lationships,” Koop said, “And there’s something about this group that, they shouldn’t hear this, I can’t stay away.”

“Thursday mornings, there’s never a question: I’ve got to go.” Koop said.