James Richard Clemmer Detweiler (26 September 1924–23 September 1991), president of Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary (later Eastern Mennonite University), was born in Souderton, Pennsylvania, and was the son of Elmer M. Detweiler, a post office clerk, and Lillian Clemmer Detweiler. Educated at Souderton High School, he became a sports writer for the North Penn Reporter. As a conscientious objector during World War II, Detweiler did alternate service at the Civilian Public Service Camp in central Pennsylvania from 1943 to 1944, when he was discharged following a bout of rheumatic fever. Afterward he attended Eastern Mennonite College, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, from which he received a B.A. in the Bible in 1949.

Richard C. Detweiler, as he was known throughout his career, returned to Souderton as the first principal of Franconia Mennonite School, which had been opened four years earlier by Mennonite leaders who feared the secular values imparted at public schools. In addition to his administrative duties, Detweiler taught history, Bible, English, and physical education to the high school students. On 27 June 1953 he married Mary Jane Rudy, of York, Pennsylvania. They had two daughters and one son.

After the Franconia Mennonite Conference established its first high school, Detweiler served as its principal from 1954 until 1966. In addition he was the pastor at Perkasie Mennonite Church from 1948 to 1963 and was ordained as a bishop (later called overseer), responsible for ten congregations, in 1954. Detweiler served as pastor of Souderton Mennonite Church from 1967 until 1980. He attended Temple University and Eastern Baptist Seminary, both in Philadelphia, before earning Master of Divinity (1966) and Master of Theology (1967) degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary. He began, but did not complete, study for a doctorate at Princeton Theological Seminary. His publications included The Christian Woman's Head-Veiling: A Study of 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 (1955), An Examination of Mennonite Peace Witness Documents, 1915–1966 (1967), and Mennonite Statements on Peace, 1915–1966: A Historical and Theological Review of Anabaptist-Mennonite Concepts of Peace Witness and Church-State Relations (1968).

Detweiler served on Eastern Mennonite College's board of trustees from 1968 to 1972 and as interim dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary during the 1976–1977 academic year. At a time when some Mennonites questioned whether seminary training was desirable for ministers, Detweiler urged EMS to focus on training pastoral ministers, rather than theological scholars. In 1980 the board of trustees and the executive board of the Virginia Mennonite Conference elected Detweiler as the college's sixth president. He started a one-year term on 1 July 1980 on a consultation basis as he wound down his roles as overseer and pastor at Souderton Mennonite Church. On 1 July 1981 he became the college's full-time president.

Detweiler began his tenure as president at a time of concern about EMC's Mennonite identity. The institution's previous president had opened up the college to new influences, including music, drama, and intercollegiate athletics, which previous presidents had viewed as outside the Mennonite tradition, and had helped to found the Christian College Coalition of evangelical colleges. Detweiler, a devout churchman, helped return EMC to its Mennonite roots by emphasizing students' spiritual development and preparation for Christian service. EMC adopted a semester-long, service-learning, study-abroad requirement during his tenure. He hired more Mennonite faculty members as a way to preserve the college's religious and cultural heritage, and in 1984 he brought the college fully under the oversight of the Mennonite Board of Education. Detweiler also tried to build bridges to lay members of the Mennonite Church, many of whom remained suspicious of higher education and ministerial training, by encouraging vanloads of EMC faculty to visit Mennonite congregations in the United States and Canada to offer reassurance about the college's policies. In 1986 Bridgewater College awarded him an honorary D.D.

During his seven years at EMC, Detweiler faced many challenges, including declining enrollment, which necessitated faculty and program cuts. When the college renovated its main hall in 1983, faculty members did some of the work, including shingling the roof of the four-story building. A fire gutted the empty hall the following year, however, and forced its replacement with a campus center that opened in 1986. The board of trustees reappointed Detweiler to a new four-year term beginning in 1985, but he chose to end his term on 30 June 1987, citing the college's need for long-term planning and his wife's health problems.

Detweiler served as interim pastor of Harrisonburg Mennonite Church from 1987 to 1988 before returning to Pennsylvania to become director of pastoral training for the Franconia Mennonite Conference and administrative director of the northern district of the Franconia Conference. James Richard Clemmer Detweiler died of bone and pancreatic cancer on 23 September 1991 at a hospital in Sellersville, Pennsylvania. He was buried in the cemetery of Souderton Mennonite Church.

Sources Consulted:
Birth date in Social Security application, Social Security Administration, Office of Earnings Operations, Baltimore, Md.; Richard C. Detweiler Papers, Mennonite Heritage Center, Harleysville, Pa.; Richard C. Detweiler Papers, Mennonite Church–USA Archives, Goshen, Ind.; Harrisonburg Daily News-Record, 16 Oct. 1976, 3 Sept. 1985; Doylestown, Pa., Daily Intelligencer, 15 Feb. 1980 (portrait); Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary Bulletin 60 (Apr./June 1981): 2–3 (portraits), (July/Sept. 1981): 2–5 (inaugural address); Nathan F. Alleman, "Faculty Ritual, Solidarity, and Cohesion: Thirty-Five Years of Change at Eastern Mennonite University" (Ph.D. dissertation, College of William and Mary, 2008), esp. 89–91, 136–137; obituaries in Harrisonburg Daily News-Record, 24 Sept. 1991 (with marriage date), and Doylestown, Pa., Intelligencer, 25 Sept. 1991; memorial in Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary Bulletin 72 (winter 1991): 7.

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Mary Carroll Johansen.

How to cite this page:
Mary Carroll Johansen, "James Richard Clemmer Detweiler (1924–1991)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2019 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Detweiler_James_Richard_Clemmer, accessed [today's date]).

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