Every year at homecoming, Geneva College recognizes a number of alumni who have shown exceptional service to the College, community, and God. There are three specific types of awards that can be awarded: Young Alumni Award, Alumni Award, and Distinguished Service Award.

Distinguished Service Award Recipients

The Distinguished Service Award is presented each year to alumni of Geneva College for service above self, who embody the principles for which Geneva College stands, and whose efforts on behalf of the College, the community, and the nation have been exemplary. The award is also a means of honoring alumni for demonstrating Geneva′s standards, mission, and commitment to servant-leadership.

This year, the following alumni are awarded this honor: Steven Garber '76, PhD and Marilyn (Williams) Wilt '78.

Steven Garber ’76 is a native of the American West who found his way to the Beaver Vale, as his father and mother, grandfather and grandmother had done before him. Coming to college in the counter-culture of the early 1970s, he dropped out for several years, living in communes in the Bay Area of California and then in Europe, asking questions, longing for answers, wanting to make more sense of his education.

Eventually he returned to Geneva College, developing an interdisciplinary major with a senior honors thesis focused on ideas that have become the questions of his life. In his senior year he developed a conference that he hoped would change the whole world, “Reshaping the American Dream.” As it was the bicentennial of the United States’ founding, it seemed worthy to rethink who and why we were as a culture, and while we had great lectures and great musicians, the culture was not wholly transformed, which was a disappointment. But in retrospect it was a signpost along Route 18, longing for what could be and should be, and someday will be.

He spent the next years doing more study, finally finishing a PhD in the philosophy of learning, focused on “the formation of moral meaning” in the years between adolescence and adulthood. A long member of the faculty of the American Studies Program in Washington D.C., teaching politics to eager, serious 21-year-olds from all over America, he was appointed to the position of Scholar-in-Residence for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, which took him into scores of institutions of every theological kind, speaking to faculties and students about learning and life. Because of the character of his work, he was drawn into the visionary philanthropy of the Lilly Endowment in their grant, Programs in the Theological Exploration of Vocation, spending several years coming alongside schools of every ecclesial history, thinking with them about the nature of vocation within their own distinctive traditions.

For the next 15 years he founded and directed the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture, a project that continues on, offering resources for those longing for more intellectual and vocational coherence in their lives. He was then appointed professor of marketplace theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, a position he held until the advent of COVID, when he returned to Washington D.C. to continue his work of lecturing and writing.

The author of several books, his first, The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior, won the award for Best Book of the Year by Christianity Today. Other books are Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good; The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Leaning, Worship and Work; and his most recent, Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate.

The senior fellow for vocation and the common good for the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, senior advisor to the Economics of Mutuality Alliance, and senior fellow for the Institute for Marketplace Transformation, Steven’s work has taken him to Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Latin America, always entering into the relationship of “faith to vocation to culture” questions which have threaded through his life from his Geneva years on.

Married to Meg Elliott ’73, they are the parents of five children and 15 grandchildren, and live in Charlottesville, Virginia, amidst the bucolic beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Marilyn Ann (Williams) Wilt graduated cum laude from Geneva College in 1978, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in Bible. Upon graduation, she married her pastor husband, Robert J. Wilt Jr., in November of 1978. She raised their two children before earning a master's degree in special education at Lehigh University. She is certified to teach English and Social Studies 9-12 and Special Education K-12. She taught at Centennial School of Lehigh University, an approved private school for students diagnosed with emotional disturbance and autism.

Marilyn received a call to ministry following an altar call at her local church. To be faithful to that call, she saw her teaching career and her involvement in the local church as a ministry. She followed her husband’s career moves after teaching at Centennial School for 12 years. She taught at Methacton High School, Minersville Jr/Sr High School, and Penncrest High School in the Rose Tree Media School District. She mentored young teachers in each district, led afterschool homework help sessions, proctored SAT exams, and held detention sessions before retiring in June of 2021.

In the community, Marilyn taught Sunday School classes since before attending Geneva College, teaching pre-school through adult classes wherever needed. She taught Vacation Bible School classes, Confirmation Classes, Bible Study classes, and led Women’s Retreats. She is currently teaching the youth class and the Disciple Makers Zoom Bible Study class at her home church. Marilyn and Bob are blessed with two grown children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandson.

After getting the COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 three times, Marilyn was diagnosed with inclusion body myositis (IBM) from the virus. It is a rare, degenerative, muscle disease with no cure and no treatment. IBM causes mobility issues and prevents Marilyn from participating in many of the activities she anticipated during retirement. However, God continues to bless her with His presence and love as she seeks to serve Him.

Geneva College’s impact upon Marilyn’s life cannot be understated. Geneva’s professors and staff taught the importance of a Christian worldview with the Sovereignty of God. Her colleagues have remained lifelong friends for over 50 years. And, as the Lord permits, Marilyn contributes to the next generation of Geneva alumni through faithful contributions in the 1848 Society.