“Attending Union was one of the great joys and challenges of my life; my Union experience has blessed me, my family, and the churches I’ve served,” Carol Millspaugh, M.Div. ’69, writes. She applied to Union at the suggestion of Dr. Franklyn Josselyn, her religion professor at Occidental College and a Union alum, and thanks to generous financial aid and field work opportunities was able to graduate debt free.
Carol began in the M.R.E. program in 1966 but soon changed to the B.D. program. “I didn’t know then that women could be ministers,” she writes. For most of her ministry, she has been the first woman pastor in the churches she served. “Union gave me a solid grounding in biblical interpretation, ethics, religious education, group dynamics, and social justice, all of which prepared me well for ministry in the local church,” she writes. Now retired, Carol chairs the Missions Committee at Hope United Methodist Church in San Diego and is active in advocating for those seeking asylum in the area.
Dick Millspaugh, M.Div. ’70, comments: “I especially appreciated my Union classes on group dynamics, death and grief, clinical pastoral education (CPE), and field work in inner-city Brooklyn. Coming from a small Iowa town, I found that Union provided a rich and multicultural, multi-faith experience in a cosmopolitan setting. After 11 years in local church settings, it was memories of the profound experience of CPE that led me back to more education in clinical care. I then became a hospital chaplain serving patients and families, providing for community outreach, and later working with veterans in San Diego and supporting chaplain organizations at the state and national levels.”
“Union’s contributions and witness in the world are needed now more than ever,” Carol continues. “Dick and I support that ongoing witness through our monthly giving and also through designating Union as a beneficiary in our wills. We greatly appreciate our time at Union and want to help the seminary continue its work and witness into the future. We are thankful to be part of extending that blessing to others through our giving.”