Origins: Fremont Fitness Center

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Fremont Fitness Center

Seeing the rapid expansion of commercial health and fitness facilities across the country during the 1980s, Dr. Bob Jones III decided by March 1990 that BJU should have its own fitness center.

With Dr. Walter Fremont retiring that spring after 37 years as dean of the School of Education, BJU announced that a new facility would bear his name. Jones explained in the 1993 Vintage, “Because fitness, both spiritual and physical, has been a theme of (Dr. Fremont’s) life, we feel that naming the Fitness Center after him is the perfect tribute to him.”

Ground for the Fremont Fitness Center was broken next to the gymnasium in March 1992, and it was constructed during the summer and fall semester. On Jan. 22, 1993, Fremont cut the ribbon to open the facility.

The interior was divided between men and women, and both areas had saunas, whirlpools, locker rooms with showers and an exercise room with a treadmill and a stair climber. The men’s exercise room had powerlifting equipment while the women’s area was designed with equipment for muscle toning and endurance, including a monitor displaying aerobics routines. There were also four indoor racquetball courts. Restrooms and a concession stand were included on the side of the building for Alumni Stadium guests.

Once the Davis Field House opened in 2004 with dedicated space for a women’s fitness center, the men’s side of the Fremont Fitness Center was expanded.

In October 2018, alumni Mike and Joy Myers donated Hammer Strength Half-Racks to the fitness center in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Ray St. John for their service of more than 50 years to BJU.

Renovations and Partnership with Greenville Triumph

In March 2019, the professional soccer team Greenville Triumph began its inaugural season as part of the new United Soccer League Division III (now USL League One). When the team began looking for a training site in 2018, president Chris Lewis considered using BJU’s campus after meeting athletics director Dr. Neal Ring through a BJU alumnus and then visiting campus.

In January 2019, Triumph officially partnered with BJU to use the practice fields and part of the Fremont Fitness Center as their temporary training site for two or three years. Renovations, paid for by Triumph ownership, to the center began that month.

First, the entrance was permanently relocated to the side of the building across from Alumni Stadium. The lobby eventually became a players’ lounge with couches and televisions.

By February, the dividing wall was pushed back 15 feet to give the Triumph one-third of the center and BJU students the other two-thirds. Later, a locker room and athletic training room were added in Triumph’s area along with their own strength and conditioning equipment. Additionally, two of the four racquetball courts were converted to offices for coaches. Students also received new equipment for their space — now a combined aerobics and strength and conditioning area maximized with advice from a strength and conditioning company.

“We’re very excited about this partnership with the Greenville Triumph,” Ring said. “This partnership (has enhanced) our facilities to better serve our student-athletes in the future while also being a valuable resource to Greenville’s professional soccer club. We’re thrilled to partner with them as they build the foundation of their organization.”

See Also: BJU to Serve as Training Site for Greenville Triumph

Walter Fremont

Walter Gilbert Fremont Jr. was born on July 20, 1924, in Terre Haute, Indiana, the second of five children. Although he grew up in a Christian home, he was not saved until a fellow Boy Scout witnessed to him when he was 16. Afterward, he joined a Bible study, which helped him grow spiritually, and then dedicated his life to God at a Christian camp after he finished high school.

After graduating in 1942, he became a toolmaker at the National Cash Register Company with plans to design tools and work in real estate later. Being an able-bodied man in the middle of World War II, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 and trained as an engineer at the Carnegie Technical Institute in Pittsburgh. Afterward, he taught the Airborne Engineers and then the Combat Engineers. He also spent 14 months managing a mobile machine shop that accompanied Gen. George Patton and his troops across the European front.

Education

After Fremont was discharged in 1946, he applied to Wheaton College because he felt God wanted him to teach. However, with so many GIs applying to colleges, Wheaton decided not to increase its enrollment, and Fremont was denied admission. Instead, he attended the University of Dayton, where his father taught.

While he was at a Bible study in Dayton, he met Trudy Reed, a nursing student at the university. For the next year, he spent time with her every day. As they were praying during a New Year’s Eve watch night service, he proposed. After she accepted, they kissed and kept praying. They married on Aug. 12, 1947, and graduated together in 1949, the first married couple to do so from the University of Dayton.

The next semester, Fremont began a master of science in curriculum development program at the University of Wisconsin, which he completed in 1950. With one year of GI benefits left, he decided to take 30 Bible credits at BJU because he had heard of the school’s evangelistic emphasis. Because he had earned degrees in education, BJU asked him to teach educational psychology during his first semester. One semester became two, and in the fall of 1951, he joined the faculty to teach secondary education and psychology full time.

In 1953, he became the dean of the School of Education. To adequately fill his new role, he began working on a doctor of education from Pennsylvania State University, which he earned in 1961.

Ministry at BJU

Accomplishments as Dean

During his 37 years as dean, Fremont expanded the School of Education to include a full program of undergraduate degrees in primary and secondary education — including special education — and graduate degrees. He also began the annual Principals’ Recruitment Conference at BJU in 1970.

Additionally, Fremont ensured that classes emphasized the role of the teacher. In 1989 he said, “We base our program on our belief that the teacher is the key. Too many educational problems stem from a lack of training for the teachers!”

Fremont was also an influential advocate for Christian schools while he was dean. He first saw their importance during his undergraduate years while taking a correspondence course on the philosophy of Christian education with Dr. Mark Fakkema, an early supporter of Christian schools. Fremont studied the idea in detail by writing his dissertation on “Administrative Competencies in Christian Day Schools.” Consequently, he was prepared to further the Christian school movement once it was underway in the 1960s.

Teaching

The BJU community also remembers Fremont for his teaching, including students who had not been taught by him. Dr. Jim Berg, a professor of biblical counseling at BJU Seminary, said of him in a Voice of the Alumni issue, “Until I began working at the Information Desk at the end of my freshman year, I knew only three things about him: he walked fast, he was a popular teacher, and he was full of enthusiasm.”

His enthusiasm was evident in his unique lectures. The BJU Diamond Jubilee Commemorative gives one of many examples:

“His sense of drama and humor in classes were legendary. One psychology lecture is noteworthy. Each year, privately, he asked a member of the class to open an envelope in class and read the contents. The student would do so, then scream or create a disturbance and run from class. Fremont then questioned the students about their observations and perceptions. He then directed the discussion to the principles of God’s Word and man’s limited understanding.”

Off-Campus Ministries

When Fremont arrived at BJU, he began serving in the community right away. Dan Turner wrote in his history of BJU Standing Without Apology, “Between 1950 and 1953, the Fremonts involved themselves in several extension ministries, including street preaching and work in a local children’s home. Every Monday he sponsored a Young Life Club in a local high school, and every Thursday the Fremonts held a Bible study for teenagers in their home. He also taught Sunday school at a local church.” Eventually, Fremont taught a training program at his church for 120 Sunday School teachers.

With experience parenting three children, Fremont and his wife were also busy training Christian parents on family life. Fremont recorded tapes on the subject, and he and his wife co-authored Formula for Family Unity: A Practical Guide for Christian Families in 1980. For more than 25 years, they traveled to churches, camps and conferences on weekends to speak and counsel families.

Additionally, Fremont was instrumental to the founding of the Wilds Camp and Conference Center in Brevard, North Carolina. Knowing the value of youth camps as a former Boy Scout, he met with Ken Hay — then a professor at BJU — two to three times a week to pray for a camp in the Southeast. After 10 years God answered that prayer when the camp opened in 1969. Fremont was on the board of directors for 28 years, and the Fremont Inn is named in his honor.

A Gift of Leadership

As a leader, Fremont stood for what he believed in, but he always interacted with others graciously. The 1979 Vintage, which was dedicated to him, reads, “Waging war against humanism, he upholds the principles of godly character and Biblical authority; yet he teaches and counsels with warm, friendly understanding. (His life is an) example of zeal mingled with sensitivity.” Fremont is remembered for his compassion, encouragement, wise counsel and concern for students, colleagues or anyone he met.

Grace Through Trials

In 1986, Fremont was diagnosed with ALS, which takes two to five years on average to run its course. His emphatic teaching voice soon grew weaker and his mobility decreased, compelling him to retire from being dean in 1990 and then from teaching in 1991. His wife wrote in 2004, “He handled it well. Walt’s mind remained alert, so he kept busy with various projects for which he hadn’t had time before.” Since God had more than five years planned for Fremont after his diagnosis, he was able to co-author four more books, his last being Power to Serve: Living a Joyful Spirit-Filled Life in 2002.

ALS was not the only trial the Fremonts went through. In 1995 their daughter Elaine was in a car accident while driving with a friend. Although the friend survived, God took Elaine at the age of 43. When Bob and Beneth Jones III, the Fremonts’ pastor and his wife, and the singles’ pastor arrived at their house to tell them the news, Fremont’s immediate response was, “Praise the Lord.” Fremont’s wife wrote, “This gal who loved the Lord and life was in heaven with her beloved Savior. Walt’s spontaneous praise expressed his assurance that Elaine was in a better place and that God makes no mistakes.” They realized that God was graciously teaching them the truth of Psalm 18:30 — that His way is perfect — and 2 Corinthians 12:9 — that His grace is sufficient.

Fremont’s testimony during his trials influenced those around him. Maureen Vanderwarker, formerly a nurse at Barge Hospital, said, “Taking care of Dr. (Walter) Fremont during the last three years of his life … was a growing experience spiritually for me.”

Until he died on Jan. 7, 2007 at age 82, Fremont lived out his favorite verse Acts 20:24: “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”

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