Published in 1980, in the  commemorative magazine honoring ACU's 75th anniversary.

By Dr. Cheryl M. Bacon

The 1938 Prickly Pear opens its "executive" section with a predictably traditional photograph of the dean and a student. Thirty-one years later, the two were together again in an executive office. This time the younger man was behind the desk, and dean Walter Adams was consulting with his new boss.

John Christopher Stevens was no stranger to the chief executive’s office when he was inaugurated as the eighth president of Abilene Christian University. In addition to mugging for the yearbook photographer during his college days, he had served as Don Morris’ assistant president for more than 13 years.  Nevertheless, the new title brought with it some strange and thoughtful moments. "I remember one day that Don Morris was sitting here at my desk, Walter Adams was standing at the door and Lawrence Smith had called me on the phone, and all of them were checking some assignments. At the time, it dawned on me that this was a very peculiar feeling for me to be giving instructions to the people who had always given instructions to me," Stevens said in a recent interview.

"The one thing that made the job possible," said Stevens "was that they were all such great people … they were humble people. When Don Morris stepped out of the office of president he said, ‘I’m working for John Stevens.' He wouldn’t even give me any advice unless I just really asked him for it."

Before becoming president, Stevens had been an ACU student, teacher and administrator. A 1938 graduate, Stevens was a decorated World War II Army chaplain in the European theatre, preached and completed his master's degree at the University of Arkansas before returning to the Hill to join the history faculty in 1948. He also received his Ph. D. from U.A. in 1954.

Hill legend has it that Steven’s first question when president Morris called with the offer of a teaching position was, “Is that Ruth Rambo still teaching there?” ACU’s first lady was a teenager in one of the churches where Stevens preached after graduating.  She was teaching shorthand and typing in the business administration department when she became Mrs. John C. Stevens on Dec. 16, 1948.  She resigned from her teaching post when her husband became president.

Stevens continued teaching at least one course each semester even while serving as assistant president, and exes who were students when Stevens was a member of the history faculty remember standing in long registration lines, trying to get into one of his classes. Listening to president Stevens list the milestones of the university’s first 75 years, one gets a glimpse of professor Stevens.

Beginning with Jesse P. Sewell’s decision to make the school a "full-fledged senior college," he weaves a common thread of growth mindedness through three quarters of a century. He talks about the year president Batsell Baxter and company decided to "pick up the entire institution and move it out here to a ranch. This made it possible for us to grow."

He praises Morris' decisions to seek accreditation and to expand, includes the acquisition of ACU Dallas, and "maybe not least, would be our decision to change our name to a university which came on Feb. 22, 1976, and now it’s up to us to try to live up to it."

As the eighth president of Abilene Christian University, Stevens has perpetuated the tradition of his predecessors. His retirement, scheduled for June 1984, will allow him to serve as president for 15 years, a tenure only half the length of Morris'. The campus and the student body have already almost doubled during Stevens' first 11 years, but he hopes that history will record as his administration’s greatest achievement "great strides in getting the whole-hearted support and the confidence of our constituency as to our basic purposes."

Meanwhile, John Stevens is busy leading a university. The president is not a worrier. A quick wit and easy smile take the blame for the distinctive lines etched around the corners of his eyes. "The thing that I detest the most on the part of anybody is the spirit of a cynicism," says Stevens. "I like people who are just open and above board and who figure things maybe are not always in as good a shape as they ought to be but by the grace of God we’re going to make them better."

Although he’s been known to wince in speeches about letters that come to his office from folks who are “kind enough to send a copy of the letter to every member of the board,” he says he’s used to that part of the job.

"It doesn't bother me like it used to, and yet I hope I never get to the point where it doesn’t bother me at all. I think we should take every criticism and look at it to see if in fact we do need to make some changes. A lot of times we do,” Stevens admitted. But when the critics’ demands wouldn’t allow the school to be “true to our purpose, we just have to pull our coat collars up around our necks and carry on!"

As the largest Church of Christ-related school, ACU spends more time in the brotherhood spotlight than most of her sister Christian colleges. With the spotlight comes an occasional cry that "ACU has gone liberal!" Stevens disagrees.

"I don't think we are liberal, but I do believe we have an environment that encourages people to run a high caliber academic program, yet in a Christian way. I believe Abilene Christian has the kind of attitude and the spirit that enables people to study all phases of every question, yet I still believe we are committed to our Christian beliefs and use that concept in teaching."

Stevens rebuffs with equal confidence occasional accusations from the community that the school is too straight-laced. He is straightforward when he represents the school's interests, yet he has become a highly respected community leader. Appropriately, he is anxious for "our people to get out and be involved" at the local, state and national level.

Stevens was instrumental in founding Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas (ICUT), the 40-school organization that has helped secure financial aid for students in the private sector via the Tuition Equalization Grant. But he bows out of the spotlight, explaining, “The only credit I get for that is assigning Bob Hunter to run the program!” Stevens currently serves as ICUT secretary. Hunter is executive vice president.

With more than two decades of teaching behind him, Stevens has predicted that his last official administrative task may be to reappoint himself as a history professor. This perspective makes Stevens at once more sensitive to and more demanding of his teaching faculty than many administrators might be.

He is proud that the days have come to an end when "anyone with a Ph.D. and membership in the Church of Christ would almost automatically be hired." Today when a department has a vacancy, he urges department members to seek those who have the spiritual qualifications and the Ph.D. but also "someone who shows scholarly interests."

He looks forward to a time when a larger endowment will permit reduced teaching loads for faculty members, allowing more time for scholarly work. Yet he is determined that ACU never become a publish-or-perish institution.

"We want to be always primarily a teaching institution, an institution where faculty members are very much concerned with the students," said the man whose own teaching philosophy is best reflected in the advice he would offer to a new teacher:

Keep a positive and forward looking spirit. Keep up in your field. Teach your classes.  Enjoy working with your students. If people don't like students they shouldn't be college teachers. Consider your students as your friends. Give them the best counsel you can and I think you’ll do great things."

ACU's president likes students. Before his years as Morris' assistant president, Stevens was dean of men for two years and dean of students for four. Perhaps more important, he's been a father of students. The Stevens educated their two children (Clark and Joyce).

From these varied perspectives, the president urges students to "enter into things! Be a part of the whole life of the campus. That would include of course meeting your classes and working in the library and getting your materials up but also be apart of the student life and get into some student activities."

Stevens believes that students deserve more from a Christian university than just effective classroom teaching. He believes in an environment that cultivates an active and healthy social and spiritual life, as well as informal opportunities for intellectual discussion, but realizes such a setting is difficult to provide.

"This may be one of our greatest weaknesses - not enough opportunities for intellectual discussion in an informal setting. I would like to see much more of this kind of thing," Stevens said.

He would also like to see the university more involved in providing a social atmosphere of "warmth and friendship" for students. "We've all complained that for one thing there simply wasn't enough dating on campus … and when people come here from all over the country, the young and men ought to get acquainted with one another!"

Describing the spiritual atmosphere on campus as "very good," Stevens acknowledges that, "there never has been a time when everyone on the campus was in tune with that." But he's pleased to see today "a good many people now who are very perceptive in spiritual matters."

Although careful to point out that ACU is not a "church college," in the strictest sense, and that students of all faiths are welcomed. Stevens is proud of the "university's 'close connection' with the Churches of Christ, and emphasizes that we want to be faithful to the church."

"This is our heritage. This is where we belong," explains the president. "Everybody needs to know that we exist to serve the families of the Churches of Christ and we want to stay very close to the church and serve the people in that church and enjoy the confidence of the church."

Stevens' reputation as a very human president may find its foundation in his philosophy that, “the most significant thing is to have people a real system of Christian values and Christian morals … in all of our working together, I hope that we’re showing people that they can be Christian in their conduct and their ethics and still have a very successful life."

He well epitomizes his firm conviction that "people, as a matter of Christian faith, ought to be able to be optimistic, hopeful people."