Celebrating Alumni Stories: H. Michael Shenk ’49

When one is asked about their teacher from third grade, no matter how impactful or memorable that person may have been, recalling the fuzzy, faraway details can be difficult. Unless, that is, you are H. Michael Shenk II ‘49, a retired pastor, teacher, and school counselor with a penchant for the specific. He remembers. 

He’ll tell you that Ms. Nancy Garrow drove a Chevy Coupe and always had the same license number: 800. He’ll tell you that his old school in Denbigh, Virginia is 178 miles from here, and that Ms. House had a state trooper for a boyfriend and Mrs. Ingram – a school principal and teacher who did jumping jacks with the students even while in maternity clothes – kept a brick on her desk to remind students of a fateful fight between two classmates.

But it’s not just these particular, pointed memories from more than 80 years ago that Shenk holds onto, for he knows details without story can mean very little. Instead, he weaves them into anecdotes full of meaning. And he tells them because he knows no lesson – like each particularity itself – is too insignificant to remember and share.

Throughout his rich life, Shenk has built a world of love and care by paying close attention to detail and sharing the encouragement he finds in them with others.

“EMC High School”

Shenk grew up with seven sisters, including his twin, H. Mabel Shenk 49’ Baker, on a fruit and dairy farm. All except one of his siblings attended EMS – or “EMC [Eastern Mennonite College] high school, as it was known then,” says Shenk – as dorm students. But back at home, almost every morning during peach season, Shenk drove peaches from Newport News to Norfolk, taking the ferry over Hampton Roads before there was a bridge-tunnel. The sweltering peach season made heading to Harrisonburg in the fall all the sweeter. “It was like coming to a picnic – to get out of that hot peach orchard and come to a dormitory where you didn’t have to get up at 5:30 a.m. to either milk cows or pick peaches, and you get to lay in bed until close to 7 a.m. and then run for breakfast,” Shenk recalls.

There became another sweet reason besides escaping the heat that Shenk looked forward to returning to EMS each year. Peggy Brackbill ‘49 Shenk, his wife of 72 years – whom he had noticed in Ms. Kemrer’s Latin class and had asked to walk down the Massanutten slope with him during the annual peak climb of 1946 – also provided a significant attraction.

Shenk attended EMS for three years, gaining experiences that would last him a lifetime. Not one to skip daily chapel services like some of his classmates, he worked in the newly-built chapel, Lehman Auditorium, for 45 cents an hour (with a half-cent raise each year) on Saturdays. Or when farmers posted their phone numbers on the bulletin board in need of weekend help, he and his friends cleaned chicken houses. More for leisure than work, Shenk traveled in a 1937 four-door Dodge all the way to Knoxville, Tennessee as part of an a cappella quartet.

But it was his spiritual development at the school that Shenk cites as particularly meaningful. He became involved with EMC’s Young People’s Christian Association, and he felt his teachers and the high school staff encouraged him in the right direction. “It was just a part of the teaching,” he says. “There was much encouragement to be a witness…to be involved in the work of the church…to live a good life.”

Pastoring and Educating

After getting married in February of 1952, the Shenks moved to Sarasota, Florida, where Myron Augsburger – once president of EMC – pastored Tuttle Avenue Mennonite Church. Augsburger, a cousin of Shenk’s, trusted Shenk with overseeing the building and pastoring of Newtown Chapel, a Mennonite church in the heart of a Black neighborhood during a time of strict segregation. After a few years, Shenk returned to Tuttle Avenue, where he pastored until 1971.

When Shenk’s wife received a work opportunity at EMC, the couple returned to Harrisonburg, and Shenk returned to EMS – this time as a part-time Bible and social studies teacher. This work would pair nicely with his pastorates at Trissels Mennonite Church near Broadway, Virginia and Valley View Mennonite Church near Bergton, Virginia. Shenk also soon became the school counselor at EMS.

Shenk enjoyed his decades of work at EMS, though he admits being a counselor can be a complex job. At one point, he worked with a student who smoked – a habit the school wished to curb. Each morning, he met with the student to learn how many cigarettes she had smoked since leaving school the day before. Despite some difficulties, Shenk fondly remembers how he became something of a school pastor through his role, planning chapels and having helpful and healthy conversations with students. 

Education and Legacy

While as a student Shenk loved EMS as a way to escape the heat of peach season, education wasn’t simply his way to get out of the orchard. It was also something he deeply desired and, eventually, something he wanted to share with others. During his time in Florida, he earned his bachelor’s degree from EMC through courses at Manatee Junior College and by taking advantage of EMC’s correspondence courses and a year sabbatical from Tuttle Avenue. Upon his return to Virginia, he then took courses at the University of Virginia and earned a master’s degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

This love of education spilled into Shenk’s work as he helped establish a Christian day school in Sarasota, worked with high schoolers at EMS, and pastored nearly his entire adult life. In elementary school, he was asked by a teacher what he wanted to be when he grew up. He recalls answering, “A teacher or a preacher.” He appreciates that he got to do both.

With three children who attended EMS and two of them pastoring their own congregations – his son H. Michael Shenk III ‘71 even taking over his position at Valley View – Shenk leaves a legacy of education and encouragement. He continues to use his careful noticing and remembering to share the lessons he’s learned throughout a full life.