Bluffton University

2025 Commencement

02/12/2025

Emeritus professor of history, Dr. Perry Bush

Bluffton University’s 125th Graduating Class

Dr. Perry Bush, emeritus professor of history, will address Bluffton University’s 125th graduating class during the May 3 Commencement ceremony in Sommer Center.

With nearly 30 years of teaching experience within Bluffton University, author of four books and multiple published academic articles and book reviews, Bush looks forward to sharing this moment with the 2025 graduating class.

“It’s hard to express what an honor and privilege it is to be addressing the class of 2025 on this occasion,” Bush stated. “They are beginning their careers and, as an emeritus professor, I am finishing mine. I am hoping that they will find something meaningful in the remarks of an old historian when these two different professional moments meet.”

Bush has published four books including “Peace, Progress and The Professor,” “Rust Belt Resistance: How a Small Community took on Big Oil and Won,” “Dancing with the Kobzar: Bluffton College and Mennonite Higher Education,” and “Two Kingdoms, Two Loyalties: Mennonite Pacifism in Modern America”. Bush is currently finishing up a book manuscript on the history of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and has been giving regular monthly commentary on national and international affairs on WLIO TV, Lima. Bush has also spent time teaching U.S. history as a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine.

Bush holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from University of California, Master of Arts and Ph.D. in history from Carnegie Mellon University. He was employed at Bluffton for 30 years with four years of previous teaching experience at Philips University in Enid, Okla.