Couple’s Legacy Lives On at Houghton

During the Great Depression, Lois (Roughan ’39) Ferm and Dr. Robert Ferm ’39 began a journey at Houghton University that would impact generations to come.

Lois and Bob came to Houghton in the mid-1930s as young students from immigrant parents with limited education. Lois double majored in English and social science, while Bob tackled Bible and history. They met at Houghton, married, and had four children. “[Houghton] was the place that opened them up both spiritually and intellectually,” said Esther Mitchell, one of the couple’s four children. “At various times, both had commented on how different their lives would have been were it not for their experiences at Houghton.”

Lois and Bob used Houghton as a launching point in their lives. She earned a master of arts degree from the University of Michigan and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, working first as a high school teacher, then a librarian, and eventually as a college professor. He earned his master of arts degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his doctor of theology degree from Central Baptist Seminary in Missouri. His career included serving first as a church pastor and eventually as an administrator in higher education. In fact, Lois taught at Houghton and Bob served as dean of students there from 1952-1958.

Following their time at Houghton, the couple spent more than 30 years working in various roles for Dr. Billy Graham. They did everything from writing, speaking, and preaching to tending to the archives and oral history of the organization. They traveled far and wide both in the United States and to foreign countries on behalf of and with Graham.

All the while, Lois and Bob remembered Houghton. They supported the college through regular gifts to the annual fund and in 1993 confirmed that Houghton University would be included in their wills. Bob died in 1994 at the age of 82. Lois continued her work until 2007 and passed away in 2009. The couple left more than $13,000 to Houghton’s general purpose endowment through their estate plan.

This gift to Houghton’s endowment produces around $600 per year in perpetuity to support general operations of the college. Ultimately a gift like this strengthens Houghton’s mission to provide an academically challenging, Christ-centered education in the liberal arts and sciences. It also means that Lois and Bob’s regular annual support to Houghton University will continue for generations to come.