January 15, 2023
Those are the words of Alice Jewell, the beloved wife of Fred Jewell who succumbed to cancer January 15, 2023 and claimed his “victory in Jesus.”
Alice writes, “Fred and I grew up in the same congregation in Indiana, started dating after his freshman year in college at Indiana University, and married after his graduation in 1963.”
In 1968, Harding College invited Fred and Alice to join their faculty. Fred taught history and political science, and Alice taught English and Latin for forty-three years.
Alice says, “We became members of the College Church in Searcy, and we were exposed constantly to mission work all over the world. . . . When Fred completed his doctorate, he became involved with the missions committee and started participating in European campaigns. . . . Fred served as an elder for 30 years and as chairman of the missions committee for 25.”
Since the mid-1990s, the College Church in Searcy has sponsored and supported Ellen Walker as a missionary in Tirana, Albania. In 2013, Fred and Alice made their first trip to Albania to work with Ellen in a WEI short-term mission effort. That piqued their interest in WEI and Albania. Since then, the Jewells have returned to Tirana again and again to participate in WEI summer campaigns.
Alice writes, “Fred started teaching [WEI students] online as well as in person in the summers. Fred truly enjoyed his students and developed close relationships with many. Our trips to Albania to work with Ellen Walker and Arjan Muça and the Tirana congregation became the highlight of our year.”
