Five years of planning and fundraising came to an end the week of June 15, 1975, when Bryan College broke ground for its new Rudd Chapel. It was planned as a memorial to Dr. Judson A. Rudd, the late president of Bryan who died in 1970. The long-awaited facility was to provide a fine-arts center complete with an 800-seat auditorium, classrooms and offices. Dr. Theodore C. Mercer who succeeded to the presidency of the college in 1956, after Dr. Rudd’s retirement, presided over the groundbreaking ceremony. Excavation began immediately after the groundbreaking rites. Bids for the project will cost in excess of $700,000, not including equipment and furnishings. A total of $515,000 in cash and pledges had already been raised toward the cost of construction at the time of groundbreaking. The beautiful Rudd Chapel is still in use today on the campus.
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Kathy McManus
December 13, 2021 at 6:52 pmI remember the day clearly that they broke ground for the chapel. There were lots of men in suits and the band played and Dr.Mercer, Dr. Keefer and several others dug the first hole. I was 11.
I remember the day they set the crosses up four years before, sitting in fascination as the crane slowly put them into place.
Both are a huge part of my childhood and my life.