Cross & Crescent

On February 22, 2007, Chaplain Emeritus Edgar D. Christman (Wake Forest 1950) received the Medallion of Merit, Wake Forest University’s highest honor.

With a Wake Forest career that spans nearly 50 years, he served 35 of those years as the university’s chaplain, from 1969 until his retirement in 2003.

In addition to the Medallion of Merit honor, Christman also was presented with the first Wake Forest Divinity School Distinguished Service Award on March 22, 2005.

This award recognizes individuals who have offered “distinguished service” to the university, the church, and the world. The university’s faculty selected the former chaplain because of his many contributions to the work of the gospel.

Over the last decade, two scholarships also have been established in honor of Christman and his wife.

In 2004, the estate of Kathleen McGill established a Divinity School scholarship and in 1998, the Wake Forest Ministerial Council established a William Louis Poteat Scholarship for North Carolina Baptist students.

Becoming a Chaplain

In 1947, Christman arrived on the Wake Forest campus focused on becoming a lawyer.

After finishing college in three years, he went to law school at Wake Forest, where he served as president of the bar association and finished third in his class in 1953.

“I always thought I’d be a lawyer,” he says. “I always wanted to help people through the power of speech the way a surgeon helps people through the power of his hands.”

During a revival service held on campus in the spring of 1953, Christman says he felt a message from God that he needed to go to seminary instead of practicing law.

“I had never thought about ministry before that week,” he says. “But with Wake Forest’s coming move to Winston-Salem and the sale of the old campus to Southeastern Seminary, it seemed like it would be no big deal to go.”

In 1956, when Wake Forest moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Christman accepted the job to become Wake Forest’s new campus minister even though he had not yet finished his seminary degree.

After three years, he left the position to return to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to finish his degree, and then he went to do graduate work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, New York.

In 1961, he again was offered the job of Baptist campus minister, which evolved into the job of assistant chaplain. In 1969, Christman became Wake Forest’s chaplain, a job he held until his retirement.

“I never even had a resume,” he says. “God’s grace gives you gifts you don’t deserve. Having been given gifts like this, you shouldn’t look the gift-God in the mouth. The more I think about my life, I am beset by the word grace. Grace is gifts that you don’t deserve. My life has been a series of these kinds of events. I’m not a saint; I’m a person, but I have been given more than I deserve.”

Over the years, Christman became something of a legend on campus. His approachable nature, distinguishable white hair, and squinty eyes were hard to miss. He was born with crossed eyes, had four eye operations in childhood, and has lived with limited vision all his life.

Lambda Chi Memories

As a result of completing his bachelor’s degree in three years, Christman was only an undergraduate member of the Wake Forest chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha for two years.

“Beginning my sophomore year, I lived in a small residence called Little Dorm,” he says. “Among the residents were several Lambda Chis. The trailer park behind our dorms also included members.

“The chapter used the dorm lounge for meetings. Thus, knowing these Lambda Chis made me interested in becoming a member and having a close relationship with them. One of them is now my cardiologist.”

The others he says he remembers, in particular, were known as the “Barefoots from Wilmington,” which referred to men from the “port city of progress, pleasure, and prosperity.”

Some years later, during his career at Wake Forest, Christman also served as the Fraternity chapter adviser.

Lasting Legacy

Christman’s influence on students began almost from the time they first set foot on campus.

In 1955, he helped start the popular Pre-School Conference, still held before orientation each year, to introduce freshmen to religious life at Wake Forest.

For years, he delivered a speech during student orientation entitled “What’s in a name?,” which included the name of many incoming freshman. This annual event became legendary but Christman says modestly that he only learned about 250 names each year out of the 1,000 new students.

“My goal was to say that you matter enough for me do this,” he says. “I thought it made a few of the students feel good and think this white-haired guy who squinted a lot had a good memory.”

In later years, he also dressed up as Wake Forest’s founder and first President Samuel Wait to educate new students about the university’s history.

He was consistently one of the most visible members of the university community for more than five decades.

Today, he still remains a visible part of the university community and teaches Sunday school at Wake Forest Baptist Church.

Adjusting to Retirement

After retiring in 2003, Christman says he misses the students the most, whether it was working with them on the weekly chapel services, counseling them, or helping those with financial difficulties.

He still attends student recitals and other events, as well as meetings of the campus ministry.

“I like to ask people questions that don’t have answers,” he says. “God put us here to think and feel this life. My opportunity is to try to connect the Biblical stories to our modern lives and to make that work in a college setting. We have all this beauty and yet more anxiety than I can speak of.”

Working at Wake Forest was God’s gift, Christman says. He tried to make that gift mean something to the students he counseled.

“The thing I like most is engaging people in meaningful conversation,” he says. “I like to ask people questions that don’t have answers. God put us here to think and feel this life. My opportunity is to try to connect the Biblical stories to our modern lives and make that work in a college setting.”