William Joseph McFarland, president emeritus of Geneva College, rose to join his Lord on Jan. 27, 2012, at age 82. He was born in Sterling, Kan., on July 25, 1929. Joe grew up as the oldest of three boys in Quinter, Kan., where his father was a minister during the Depression and Dust Bowl days. He joined the Reformed Presbyterian Church as a young man and was a lifelong member.

As a youth, Joe took part in psalm memory contests at Forest Park Camp and won three years in a row, enabling the trophy to remain with the Quinter congregation permanently. He was a regular attendee and leader at these camps and only missed the national conference two times during his life. Joe was a member of four Reformed Presbyterian churches during his lifetime: Quinter, Topeka and Sterling in Kansas, and later College Hill in Beaver Falls, Pa. In Topeka he was an elder, a Sabbath school teacher, a youth sponsor, chairman of the congregation, member of pastoral search committees, the building committee as well as others. On the presbytery level, he served on an early Camp Curry committee and several visitation and research committees.

Joe attended elementary school in Quinter, then junior high school and high school in Topeka before his family moved to Sterling, Kan. He finished high school there and graduated from Sterling College in 1951. He was inducted into the Army that summer, and married his high school sweetheart, Roberta Dill. They remained devoted and much in love for 60 years and raised three children. He served his country for 16 months in Korea, half of that housed in tents, and was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation and three bronze service stars.

Upon his discharge from the Army in 1953, Joe began a unique educational career that spanned all levels from teaching in public school classrooms through serving as a college president. In 1966, he accepted the position of associate executive officer of the Kansas State Teachers Association (K-NEA) in Topeka, and four years later became director of academic affairs for the Kansas Board of Regents, a position he held for 14 years. In 1984 Joe was named president of Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pa., where he served until his retirement in 1992. It has been said that Dr. McFarland guided Geneva from stormy seas into a calm harbor.

In retirement, he served a year in Taiwan as consultant to the president of Christ’s College and later spent a term in Cyprus as headmaster of the American Academy in Nicosia.

Joe was active in both church and community affairs throughout his life. Fit until late in life, he officiated high school and college football games as a referee for 50 years and was inducted into the Topeka Official’s Association Hall of Fame in 2010. He was Tri-State Senior Olympic Champion in the javelin. He made his first parachute jump at age 70 and his second at age 80.

He was master of ceremonies for the Kansas Governor’s State Prayer Breakfast for over a decade and taught the Businessman’s Bible study that sponsored this event. He was a member of a number of commissions on the state level.

In choosing universities at which to do graduate work, he looked for those that had Covenanter churches nearby. He earned his M.A. from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo., and his doctorate in education from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. He was honored to receive awards from many community organizations where he lived in addition to Sterling High School, Indiana University, Sterling College, and Geneva College. Joe is survived by his wife, Roberta; two sons, Bill and Matt; a daughter and son-in-law, Kathy and Tim Gardner, all of Topeka; a brother and sister-in-law, Rev. Robert and Georgia McFarland, also of Topeka; and a sister-in-law, Siola McFarland of Holland, Mich.He is also survived by three grandchildren—Sarah Muehler (Brandon), Rachel and Hannah Gardner—and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. He was preceded in death by his father, Dr. A. J. McFarland; his mother, Sylvia Hutcheson McFarland; and a younger brother, Rev. Armour J. McFarland.

“With an incurable disease churning inside of me, I recognize more acutely than ever that my time is in God’s hands. As I enter into this season of my life, unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength that I have so long enjoyed, I can truly say like the psalmist, ‘Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.’ Facing death has caused me to be reminded of the higher purpose for living, which is, I believe, to know God as my Savior and Redeemer, and to be a tool in His hand. These are not deep theological statements, just simple truths as I have experienced them. While there are many temporal things we live for: education, a career, raising a family, owning property, etc., when we breathe our last breath, if we don’t know the Lord, nothing else really matters” (Joe McFarland, My Time on the Clock:The Shaping of a College President, p. 512).