Summer 2007 - Northwestern College

Lookingback
A Northwestern Tragedy
by Carrie Odell Anderson ’01
Editor’s note: As part of
Northwestern’s 125th anniversary
celebration in 2007–08,
the Classic presents a series of
articles exploring the institution’s
history.
A van with college students
and staff collides with a
semi. A bus full of university
baseball players plunges from
an overpass.
In the past two years,
two small Christian universities,
Taylor and Bluffton,
have experienced the devastation
of losing members of
their campus communities in
tragic accidents. As national
news coverage revealed, such
events deeply impact college
campuses.
In the summer of 1934,
the Northwestern community
experienced similar grief
after an instructor and four
students died in a swimming
accident. At the time,
Northwestern had just 144
students, and the effect of
suddenly losing five people
was shocking for the campus
and the region.
Six female students and
their chaperone, Margaret
Blackburn, an instructor at
Northwestern Junior College,
intended to spend a week
sunbathing and swimming at
Iowa’s Lake Okoboji. During
their vacation, the group
decided to explore a rocky
reef near the cottage where
they were staying. While
wading on the moss-covered
rocks, three of the women
slipped off the reef into
deep water.
Though the details
that followed were vague
even to eyewitnesses,
Blackburn, who had earned a
lifesaving badge, and two of
the students made a vain
attempt to rescue their companions.
When one of the
women, Eleanor Rozeboom,
screamed for help, other
vacationers came running to
assist.
Although artificial respiration
was administered,
Blackburn and four of the
students drowned. Two
members of the group,
Rozeboom and Mildred
Vanden Bos, survived.
News of the tragedy
spread quickly to Orange
City and throughout the
state. A combined funeral
service for the four students—Wilma
Duimstra,
Elsie Herwynen, and sisters
Wilmyna and Vera
Muilenburg—was held at
First Reformed Church,
drawing thousands of
mourners.
Twenty-four Northwestern
students served as
pallbearers, and five pastors
participated in the service,
including the Rev. Jacob
Victims of the 1934 tragedy:
The front page of the Des Moines Register carried
eyewitness accounts of the drownings.
Heemstra, then the president
of Northwestern Junior
College and Classical
Academy. A service for
Blackburn was held at the
same hour in her hometown
of Davenport, Iowa.
Though more than 70
years have passed since the
drownings, Henry Vermeer
’33 says he often thinks
about the tragedy and
describes the event as one of
the most shocking incidents
of his life.
“The girls were all good
friends of mine, and Miss
Blackburn was a very devout
teacher,” he says. “They were
great people—their deaths
left a hole in the Northwestern
community.”
Clarence Buurman ’34
also remembers the events of
that summer.
“It was a disaster that hit
the entire community,” he
recalls. “Everyone was affected,
seeing those four hearses
driving down the street.”
Margaret Blackburn, age 27—taught French, Latin and physical education to women at
Northwestern Junior College
Wilma Duimstra, age 19; Elsie Herwynen, age 19; Wilmyna Muilenburg, age 18—1933
graduates of Northwestern Classical Academy and first-year students at the junior college
Vera Muilenburg (Wilmyna’s sister), age 17—1934 graduate of the academy
16 ▲ Summer 2007