Celebrating more than 50 years of faith

More than 50 years ago, Frank and Daisy Beck returned to IU, their alma mater, with the goal of fulfilling one of the campus’ greatest needs: a small chapel.\nThe Indiana University Chapel, Frank Beck’s initial name for the building, would sit nestled between the family burial ground of George Dunn and the Jordan River because, as he wrote in a chapel newsletter, no man can love IU without loving the Jordan River.\nHis plans outlined a building with an exterior of Indiana flagstone or shell stone from nearby hills, much of it from the farm of Col. John Ketcham, one of IU’s first trustees,. The roof would be of slate, the spire of copper and wood from native strands of timber.\nAnd on a January evening in 1941 during a large dinner in Alumni Hall, the Becks presented the University with the initial funding for a small campus chapel. \nSince its dedication, the chapel has been a popular location for weddings and memorial services. About 90 to 100 couples are married at the chapel each year and usually an additional 25 miscellaneous ceremonies, such as christenings and memorials, are held there each year, said Sarah Cady, sales and events coordinator for the Indiana Memorial Union.\nThe chapel, like the people who have passed through its doors for 50 years, is a reflection of a wide cross-section of the community. Groups such as the IU “I” Men’s Club donated the spire as a memorial to the men who lost their lives in World Wars I and II. The bronze doors were a gift from the wife of the chapel architect, while other individuals donated the stained-glass windows and lychgate.\nBy the time the chapel was dedicated in June 1957, Frank Beck’s vision of a small and intimate chapel for generations of Hoosiers had come full circle. \nAn intimate wedding\nMore than half of a century after the chapel opened its doors to the public, patrons can still feel the same qualities Frank Beck hoped to instill in the building.\nRebecca Eberle, a clinical associate professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, said the sense of timelessness and spiritual intimacy at Beck Chapel is what drew her and her husband to have their wedding ceremony there.\n“I feel that every time I walk past it, even during chaotic passing times of a typical college campus day,” she said.\nThe Eberles, both IU alumni, were married in Beck Chapel on April 30, 1983. The were good friends from Bloomington High School South, but they did not start dating until college.\n“(In high school) we were both runners, cross country runners, and we met through that sport,” Eberle said. “We were just good friends. He dated another woman and I had a boyfriend and we were just friends. We did a lot together. We were just compatible, which is why I think we are still married now.”\nThey decided to get married during Eberle’s graduate school program, and they looked to non-denominational Beck Chapel.\n“All of the weddings in the family ... had been large Catholic weddings,” Eberle said. “We felt like we wanted something smaller and more intimate – not that what had been done before wasn’t good – to meet our own personal needs. We wanted something less structured and opportunities to individualize the ceremony more.”\nBeck Chapel was an ideal location for a Catholic, yet original, ceremony. A Catholic priest from St. Charles Catholic Church in Bloomington officiated the ceremony and the couple incorporated personalized vows and poetry.\nCady said weddings of all faiths take place in the chapel, exactly the way Frank Beck imagined. During the dedication, Catholic, Jewish and Protestant leaders planted three trees outside of the chapel to solidify this idea. And today, the building still contains copies of the Bible, Koran and Torah for visitors \nto observe. \nEnduring values\nThe day of the chapel’s dedication, former IU President Herman B Wells shared his thoughts on Frank Beck’s gift.\n“We have begun something today which in a way we shall not be able to complete as long as memory knows gratitude and there are those who long the things for which the chapel stands,” Wells wrote. \nHalf a century after his remarks, people are still using the chapel as a place for quiet and meditation, longing for the values Frank Beck instilled in the building. \nThe night of her wedding, Eberle walked down the aisle in a long-sleeved, white dress. The couple’s 75 guests filled the pews and the room was bathed in candlelight.\n“My husband and I spent a lot of time on campus as college students,” Eberle said. “It felt like a place that felt like our place.”\nThe couple’s 25th anniversary is at the end of April. While they initially wanted to take a tropical vacation, Eberle said their plans will probably be similar to their anniversaries in the past.\nIf the weather is nice, they’ll take a walk through campus. And that almost always means a trip under the lychgate to Beck Chapel.