In Memory of Paul E. Bushnell `53
Bloomington—Paul E. Bushnell, age 93 died October 15, 2023 at Martin Health Center, Westminster Village. He was born May 2, 1930 in Cleveland, Ohio the son of Paul Palmer and Mildred (Shackleton) Bushnell who preceded him in death as did his brother Walter Bushnell (Peg), Denver, CO. Survivors include his wife, Dorothy Lyon Bushnell, and four children, Paul Timothy Bushnell (Yuping Han) Cincinnati, OH, Anne Lyon Bushnell (John Schepers), St. Paul, MN, John Ellsworth Bushnell, Santa Barbara, CA and Sarah Bushnell McManus (James), Normal, IL and four grandchildren, Henry Bushnell, Boston, MA and Benjamin Bushnell Brooklyn, NY, and Oliver McManus and Declan McManus, Normal, IL.
Paul grew up in Wooster, Ohio and attended the College of Wooster where he met Dorothy Moore Lyon. They married just after graduation in June 1953. During what would have been his sophomore year at college, Paul spent time abroad traveling with his parents to Afghanistan. His father was a professor of education at the College of Wooster and was recruited by the U.S. State Department to head an American-style school in Kabul. During that year, Paul also travelled on his own through many historic cities of India and the Middle East before returning to Wooster after his father’s death.
He attended graduate school at the University of Michigan followed by Yale Divinity School and finally, Vanderbilt University in Nashville,TN, where he was drawn to participate in several of the lunch counter sit-in protests and organizing meetings of the local civil rights movement.
In 1966 Paul was hired at Illinois Wesleyan University, and in 1968, he introduced one of the first courses in the country in African American history. He specialized in American history, particularly the history of religion, the American Revolution, and the nineteenth century, as well as African American history.
A Celebration of Life will be held at 2pm Sunday, Nov. 12th, 2023 at Evelyn Chapel on Illinois Wesleyan University campus followed by a reception.
Posted in on November 10, 2023.
