Agnes Horness graduated from Wheaton College in 1931 and spent the better part of the next 40-plus years serving quietly and efficiently in various administrative positions at alma mater.
Born June 30, 1903, she was the youngest of five sisters and two brothers from the prominent Michigan Heights, MI office furniture manufacturing Horness family. Her parents Sever and Annette (Petterson) Horness were married in America about 1865 after being born in Norway. In college, Agnes was the corresponding secretary in Aeliolian literary society, treasurer of Women's Athletic Association and sang one year in the women's glee club.
Shortly after graduation, Agnes was hired by Enock Dyrness '23 as Recorder in the Academic Administration Department (later Registrar's Dept.) and remained there through the 1940s. However, when President V. Raymond Edman needed a secretary for a couple of years in 1945-46, Agnes was ready. She returned to Registrars and then, beginning in 1950, served until retirement in the early '70s as administrative assistant to Dr. Clyde Kilby, literature prof and chair of the English Department.
Agnes had a full 30 years retirement after moving back to Michigan. She stopped driving her car about 90 because "she did not want anyone to be provoked at 'that old lady' driving." All her sisters lived at least to 97. Agnes died November 27, 2008. |