For more information or if you have any questions please email us at coned@manor.edu or call (215) 884-2218.

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To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven
— Ecclesiastes 3:1

It is with both sorrow and lament that I write to inform you that the Civil War Institute under the auspices of Manor College’s partnership with the Delaware Valley Civil War Roundtable has come to a conclusion.

September 2024 will usher in the first fall semester at Manor College in the 21st century that will not have Civil War classes offered on its website. It was not an easy decision, but as Jerry Carrier, the President of the DVCWRT said, “the time has come.” Years of diminishing attendance and changing cultural mores have resulted in facing an inevitable truth: it is time to let the field go fallow and allow the soil a chance to replenish its nutrients.

Although in writing this, I am sad in searching for the right words, I still find myself smiling at the score of years’ memories that have enriched me. Watching Hugh, Herb, Jerry, Andy, Lance, Mike, Nancy, Paula, Pat, Steven, Tom, Walt, and so many more enchant their students with spellbinding bright stories from the darkest period of our nation’s history never failed to impress and delight all who were lucky enough to be present. Seeing Manor College’s campus go back in time when the we did the Gettysburg Comes to Manor events with Harriet Tubman’s powerful and passionate presentation entrancing all, Generals Forrest, Grant, Jackson, Meade, Pickett, and Sherman all marching through our hallways and the sound of a cannon that would frighten our Nuns (so much so that we had to stop that,) was a magical time. But as the Good Book says, to all things there is a season and for the moment, this season has passed.

Thank you all (far too many to name by name, but you all know who you are) for your patronage throughout these years. Without an audience, a play is a lifeless thing. You, with your interests, passions, questions and points of view, not to mention your funds, kept this going far longer than many thought possible. It is with the sincerest gratitude that we end this chapter of our story. The History Institute will go on. We hope to have presentations from time to time that will be of interest to you and I very much look forward to reconnecting with all of you, but we know that we will never be able to recapture the magic that Manor and DVCWRT’s collaboration was able to conjure. Who knows, maybe someday we will come back with new stories of secrets long forgotten, but for the time being let us simply accept Stonewall Jackson’s final words, “Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.” At least for a little while.

God Bless you all,
Nicholas Rudnytzky
Chair of Adult & Continuing Education
Manor College