In memoriam

The Messiah community mourns the loss of friend, former employee and former trustee, Vernon E. Anderson, who passed away in October.

In addition to his work at Messiah, he owned Vernon Anderson Real Estate and co-owned Anderson-Stern Construction Company. He was a longtime Rotarian, past president of the Mechanicsburg Rotary Club and former board member at Messiah Lifeways among other volunteer activities.

Generous supporters of various efforts at Messiah, he and his wife, Faye, established an endowed scholarship at the University in the late 1980s. Further, they were founding donors of the Friends of Messiah Sarasota winter dinner that evolved into the Sarasota Scholarship Endowment benefiting Floridian students who attend Messiah.

Bob Brown, director of charitable services at Messiah, said, “I had the privilege of knowing Vernon in a variety of contexts and admired his many qualities. He certainly had an entrepreneur mindset – he was curious, had vision, was a risk taker, had a deep Christian faith and was a hard worker. He was genuine, cared about people and community and was generous. In my role at Messiah, I witnessed that generosity. He was grateful and felt indebted to Messiah because of his time spent here as an employee and for the people he met. The impact of his ‘pay it forward’ mentality will benefit students for generations to come.”

We hold Faye and her family in prayer as they grieve their profound loss.