The campus recently celebrated its golden anniversary by graduating its largest class in its history. What's left of the original Evangel College is about to wind up as pile of lumber.

Between Evangel's newest buildings is the last, soon to be demolished piece of the original campus. The final vestige of what was the World War two era O'Reilly Army hospital. It was a sprawling wooden complex of operating suites and patient wards to care for the walking wounded who came home.

O'Reilly wasn't on the radar for the first liberal arts college of the Assemblies of God churches. But a leading Springfield businessman had his own idea. Lester E. Cox decided O'Reilly was a perfect location for continuing its original mission and for the hospital he co-founded to run it. Cox saw it as the opportunity for a veterans hospital.

When President Truman came to town to meet up with his old Army outfit, Cox arranged to sell him on the idea. Turns out, Harry was wild about his hometown of Independence, not Springfield, and later told Mr. Cox,when you're in this position, you let "preference take precedence over principal."

We don't know if former President Truman knew he had opened the door on Evangel's creation and location. But his decision was an answer to many prayers to transform a place of rehabilitation into hallowed halls of higher education.