My parents left home in the late 1920s in search of an education that would enable a better life than they had known. Gus Thurman ’32 and Miriam McVey ’31 found that, and each other, at Berea College.
Gus made his way to Berea as a young teen running away from home. His fate in Jellico, Tenn., seemed tied to the coal mines there, and it was not a life he wanted. He finished high school at the Academy before continuing on to Berea College. As he helped construct the buildings on campus, he developed a love for geology.
Miriam had arrived a year before, in 1927, to study home economics. She grew up on a farm in southern Ohio. Her aunt worked as a librarian at Berea, and had told her of the opportunity there. She finished her degree before Gus but waited for. him. Miriam found work as a hostess at Boone Tavern as Gus finished college.
Berea College
All In A Day's Work
In the May 1948 edition of the Berea Alumnus, Gus Thurman ’32 spun quite the yarn as he reported on his geological excursions. Read this insert to learn about some of his adventures.
They married in 1934. Gus went west to find whatever labor was available at the height of the Great Depression. As Miriam took on the role of dietician in the student dining hall, he rode the rails out west, herded sheep and took other jobs to earn enough money to continue his education at the University of Chicago.
I was born in Roswell, New Mexico. We moved a lot, because that’s what geologists did. Gus’s mission out West was to discover oil and gas deposits. Eventually, we settled in Denver, where he became an executive in several petroleum companies.
My parents’ peripatetic life shaped my own desire to see and live in many places. They taught me the Berea values of experiencing different ways of living with a curious and open mind. They frequently regaled me with stories of the Berea way of learning through work and study.
I learned also the value of the Berea College alumni network. My parents had these really tight relationships, and they kept them until they all died. Berea gave them something they never forgot. And in turn, they gave me everything.
