By Inae Kim, Guest Contributor
Tucked behind Edman Chapel is the Marion E. Wade Center, a quaint building surrounded by a cozy garden. Just off the sidewalk a plaque reads: “Aslan’s Garden: In Honor of Marjorie Lamp Mead.”
Marjorie Lamp Mead was the assistant director of the Marion E. Wade Center for almost 50 years before retiring in fall 2025. In addition to her job, Mead was the executive editor of the academic journal VII, a literary scholar and the winner of both the 2018 Wheaton College Alumna of the Year Award and the Kilby Lifetime Achievement Award.
Despite her many accomplishments, her friends and colleagues know her as a humble, welcoming woman. To them, she’s simply “Marj.” Tony Dawson, auxiliary services director at Wheaton and a member of the center’s board, described his friend as “an extremely smart person who has an extremely big heart.”
Mead’s Wheaton story began in college, when she studied under Clyde Kilby, then dean of men and assistant professor of English. Kilby later founded the C.S. Lewis Collection which would later become the Marion E. Wade Center. The Wade is a major research collection of works by seven prominent British authors, including C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy Sayers.
After Mead graduated with a B.A. in English Literature in 1974, Kilby invited her to work at the Wade. She began as curator and eventually became assistant director.
During her long tenure, Mead worked with each of the Wade’s directors. When a director departed, she stepped in as interim director until a successor was appointed, serving a total of 12 years in that role.
According to Dawson, running the Wade is a complex operation. As the interim director, Mead was responsible for everything, from managing construction projects to fundraising to assisting scholars with research.
“When the director leaves, it’s all on her, and she just rolled with it, just stepped in and figured it out,” Dawson said. “I just think that’s really remarkable.”
Once a new director was appointed, Mead showed them the ropes. Current Wade director James Beitler said that Mead’s “counsel and wisdom and guidance have been invaluable.”
“I know I couldn’t have done this job without her guidance,” Beitler said.
Although Mead worked at the Wade for almost its entire existence, friend and former Wheaton vice president for alumni relations Marilee Melvin notes that Mead never claimed superiority over her newer colleagues. “She was always very open to suggestions,” Melvin said. “She had such a mature, godly attitude of support.”
On top of her administrative work, Mead found time to help launch and edit the Wade’s journal VII, earn an M.A. in biblical and theological studies and publish articles, books and more.
“She was a scholar in her own right,” Melvin said.
Still, Mead’s character is what ultimately leaves a lasting impression.
“The deeper, bigger part of her is her heart for people,” Dawson said.
Andrew Ashe, a graduate student in Wheaton’s historical theology program, first met Mead as an archival assistant at the Wade. He was immediately struck by her kindness. “I just remember how invested and curious she was about who I was,” Ashe said.
This opinion was echoed by Wade archivist Laura Stanifer. She has served as the Wade Center’s archivist since 2005.
“I think everybody feels this way with Mead,” Stanifer said. “You can tell when she’s talking with you, she’s listening intently. She cares about you as a person.”
Stanifer first experienced Mead’s kindness in college. Though Stanifer was simply a student worker at the Wade, Mead invested in her life, getting to know her family and friends and even attending her birthday party. “It was really special,” Stanifer said.
However, for Mead, the honor was all her own, describing the relationships she’s built over the years with students, researchers, colleagues and more as “true blessings.”
“I don’t use the word blessing lightly,” Mead said.
If there’s one thing Mead is filled with when looking back on her career, it’s gratitude.
“It was a great blessing to be able to spend my life reading and writing and sharing things from these authors,” she explained. “There’s just so much richness, it’s no small thing and I’m very grateful for it.”
Accolades and awards were never Mead’s focus. Instead, she devoted half a century’s worth of time and effort to the Wade in the hopes that it would cultivate people’s imagination.
“I can tell you that God loves you and you can also read in Narnia about Aslan and begin to experience a sense of what God’s love might feel like.”
