Bluffton University will celebrate 75 years of offering a social work program to students later this month.  

A university Forum will focus on the social work program at 11 a.m., Tuesday, March 17, in Yoder Recital Hall.

During the presentation, alumni and faculty from the program will present stories from the earliest graduates, those who came back to teach in the program and others who used their degrees in creative ways.

Since being established as a major in 1944, nearly 700 alumni have graduated from Bluffton with a social work degree. The program started with just two classes: Child Welfare and Public Welfare. Lead by 1934 Bluffton education graduate Carl Smucker, the first social work graduates, three in total, received their diplomas in 1948.

This event is free and open to the public.

PHOTO:  Bluffton’s four emeriti social work faculty stand in front of Ropp Hall in 1994: Don Brubaker (1987-2008), Paul Klassen ’48 (1977-87), Carl Smucker ’34 (1944-77) and Betty Sommer (1985-2005).