Larry Dunn, Ph.D., professor of peacemaking and conflict studies, will participate in “Grieving, Celebrating and Loving Seth—Exploring Unexpected Paths and Connections on the Mysterious Journey of Remembering,” Saturday, October 8, 2022, at Bethel College, Newton, KS, as part of its annual Fall Festival.
The event honors Seth Dunn, the oldest of Larry and Susan’s three sons, who, two months before his 21st birthday and days before starting his senior year at Bethel College, died in an accident while on vacation with his family. Larry will read poetry from his book A Beanie and a Cup of Tea: A Father’s Poems of Loss and Love. The poems will be woven together with reflections from Christine Crouse-Dick, Ph.D., professor of communication arts at Bethel College, as she considers relationships that have emerged as a result of her infertility journey, Seth’s death and the life of her 8-year-old son Johann.
The event, planned for the North Lawn of Bethel College Agape Center, invites people, those who knew Seth and those who did not, to remember him and consider the ways all our lives connect at the intersections of grief, friendship, life, loss and love.
Larry Dunn has worked for more than a quarter century as a mediator, trainer, consultant and educator in conflict resolution. Before joining FPU, he was executive director for Eastern Pennsylvania Mediation Service. Earlier he worked with Aboriginal communities with Mennonite Central Committee in Labrador, Canada. Dunn has mediated cases involving neighbors, families, schools, churches, businesses and government agencies and written extensively.
Christine Crouse-Dick studies purity culture rhetoric, infertility and adoption issues, and pedagogy and mentorship practices in the small liberal arts communication classroom. She is a founding member of the Bethel College Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, which aims to ease barriers to equal treatment and opportunity by working toward narrative change, racial healing and relationship-building on college campuses.
Dunn’s book is available at A Beanie and a Cup of Tea- Wipf and Stock Publishers. More about Seth at SETH DUNN Obituary (2011) - Fresno, CA - Fresno Bee (legacy.com)