The late Emery Sears, a 1928 graduate, lettered in football, basketball and track at Bluffton. He majored in biological sciences and was a regular on the college honor roll and vice president of his senior class.

After graduation, Sears was a high school principal and athletics coach. He received a master’s degree from the University of Iowa and was a board member for three corporations and a state realtor for Farm Bureau.

Sears was also a Sunday school teacher and superintendent in the Mennonite church.