Bell music returns to campus, thanks to Whitlock family

Published: November 10, 2024

Author: Dave Bell

Among Mark Whitlock’s favorite memories from his years as a Greenville College student in the 1970s is the sound of bells wafting across the campus.

Those bells, emanating from the tower of the Free Methodist Church on College Avenue, were part of the soundtrack of his college years. Predictable. Comforting. Inspiring.

After graduating in 1975, Mark married his college sweetheart Karen, earned an engineering degree at the University of Illinois, and pursued his career in Springfield. But his thoughts never strayed far from Greenville College (now university), where he was the fourth generation to attend.

When the Free Methodist congregation built a new facility on the northeast edge of town, Mark’s family was involved in converting the College Avenue building into the Whitlock Music Center.

He also has served on GU’s board of trustees since 2002. Though he enjoyed coming back to campus for board meetings, he noticed that the bells had gone silent.

“A while back, the idea of getting the bells back on campus came up in a conversation,” recalled Mark (pictured above with Karen). “My mother, who was very musical, had just died and we decided to pursue the bell system in her memory.”

His research led him to a programmable digital system manufactured by the Schulmerich Carillon Company (pictured above). It plays bell music through four speakers mounted in the bell tower of the Whitlock Music Center. It’s been in place for a few weeks and has been played on a limited basis. University officials are deciding how to use it more fully.

“There are many potential uses for the bells,” said Brad Warren, vice president of university relations. “They could be used on special holidays, as a call to prayer, or as an ‘all call’ signal when an event is happening on campus. We want them to create a sense of community and identity, reminding us of our unique mission as a Free Methodist university.”

Though the digital unit already contains hundreds of songs, it is possible to program it to play other tunes. The first to be added, Warren said, was GU’s ‘Alma Mater’.