Harder, Warkentin named to Tabor College Arts Hall of Fame

HILLSBORO, Kan– Dr. Larry Warkentin (g’62) and Judy (Prieb, g‘68) Harder have been selected as the 2022 inductees for the Tabor College Arts Hall of Fame.

With a combined 60 years of full-time teaching in communications, choral music and theatre, the pair left a lasting legacy on arts and education at Tabor College and Fresno Pacific University.

“Honoring the achievements and the legacy of Tabor Arts graduates and faculty is an amazing privilege,” said Dr. GregZielke, Tabor arts director and Hall of Fame committee member. “I am so inspired to learn about Judy Harder and Larry Warkentin, and it is truly humbling to see how they each used their gifts and talents to further Christ and His kingdom. This is what Tabor is all about.”

The ceremony is set for Saturday, Sept. 10 in the Shari Flaming Center for the Arts.

Harder became a theatre adjunct at Tabor in 1987. After completing her master’s in 1989, she was hired as assistant professor of communications. Harder taught public speaking and theatre classes and developed the communications department. Her primary efforts came in theatre, directing over 120 productions at Tabor. Among those performances were five musical repeats: “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Godspell,” “Into the Woods” and “The Music Man.”

She received the Clarence Hiebert Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2001 and was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 2007. She retired in 2013 and was awarded faculty emeritus status.

Harder and husband Keith were married in 1968 and spent time in Elkhart, Ind., before returning to Hillsboro.

Warkentin spent 36 years at Fresno Pacific University, teaching music theory and composition and later serving as music department chair. He received more than a dozen prestigious awards through the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He was a prolific composer, including hymns in “Worship Hymnal,” “Sing Alleluia,” “Hymnal: A Worship Book” and “Covenant Hymnal.”

In 1978, he was commissioned by the Mennonite World Conference to write an orchestral work for its international assembly. He later wrote the Fresno Pacific University Song, which serves as a traditional piece for the college’s graduation. He was awarded faculty emeritus status following his retirement in 2002.

Warkentin was a music education major at Tabor College, serving as president of the choir before his graduation. After marrying Paula (Berg) later that year, they moved to Fresno, Calif., where he completed his master’s degree at Fresno State in 1964 and taught part-time at Pacific College. He later earned his doctorate in choral and church music from theUniversity of Southern California.

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