Mention the Stanton name among Kansas United Methodists and you are sure to make a connection. For decades, the Stanton family has faithfully served across Kansas.
Both native Kansans, Marshall and Janice are familiar with all regions of the state. Marshall was born in Satanta and raised in Plains while Janice was born in Topeka and raised in Wichita.
Marshall and Janice were children during the Great Depression. Marshall grew up on a farm and learned about farming and all the equipment required to carry out its operation. Above all, he learned about working from dawn to dusk.
While Janice didn’t grow up on a farm, she was no stranger to work. Coming from a family of modest means required her to work part-time in high school and to work all through college.
Significant life lessons stemmed from those days of hard work and little resources. They learned to both solve problems and to measure work not by the clock but by the task.
After high school, both Marshall and Janice pursued advanced education, which led to them meeting at Friends University. In 1956, the two married while Marshall was a senior and Janice was a junior. Both graduated from Friends with honors and then moved to Wilmore, Kentucky, where Marshall enrolled in Asbury Theological Seminary.
Following seminary and another degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1961, the Stanton’s moved back to Kansas, where Marshall started pastoral ministry by serving the Jewell/Randall parish in North Central Kansas. While at that appointment, Eric (1962) and Kirsten (1966) were born. Marshall also started his involvement with Conference-wide tasks, the first of which was organizing a study tour for adults to Washington, D.C. and New York City.
The Stanton family moved to Salina in 1966 to serve Trinity United Methodist Church, a church then only four years old. The congregation’s membership was dominated by young and middle-aged adults. Only two couples were of retirement age in 1966. Nathan was born in 1969, and the Stanton’s moved to a thousand-member church at Colby in 1971.
After seven years Marshall was appointed as District Superintendent of the Hutchinson District, during which time he started service on the Kansas Wesleyan Board of Trustees. During those years, Janice returned to teaching English at the junior high level.
In February 1984, Marshall was elected President of Kansas Wesleyan University where he served for 18 ½ years, setting a service record for presidents at KWU. Janice was active at the university as spouse of the president. She taught English at the high school level during Marshall’s tenure and then as an adjunct faculty member at KWU.
All three Stanton children earned college degrees, and Nathan gained two master’s degrees, one in Theology and one in Theater.
The great themes guiding Marshall and Janice’s life have been Christian commitment; stewardship of all of life, including time, talent and treasure; emotional stability during all circumstances; making things work, ranging from institutions and organizations to automobiles and model airplanes; and learning to be comfortable with difficult situations while working to improve them.
Above all, the Holy Spirit has guided the Stanton’s into greater service opportunities than they could have imagined, leading them through great difficulties while also providing endless joy and satisfaction. The Stanton’s have dedicated their lives to faith, family, and education. Their legacy and generosity amplify all three of those areas. Included in their estate plans, established through the estate planning process with KMF, are provisions for the Marshall & Janice Stanton Legacy Fund, which will support college and seminary scholarships. Truly, the life Marshall and Janice have lived and the plans they have made create a legacy of learning, teaching, and leading.
