Every campus has its icons. For Pittsburg State University, one of the most beloved is the Timmons Chapel on the banks of the University Lake.

A gift from Bess Spiva Timmons, a generous PSU benefactor, Timmons Chapel was created by the donor as a quiet, all-faiths sanctuary for meditation or prayer and as a location for weddings and small religious services.

The chapel has exceeded Timmons’ expectations.

Since its dedication in 1966, Timmons Chapel has served as a wedding chapel for more than 1,500 couples. It has been the site for numerous concerts and special ceremonies. The Friends of Timmons Chapel sponsors an annual series of lectures and performances at the chapel and each December, the chapel is decorated in seasonal greens for the beautiful Timmons Chapel Christmas Concerts. Those are scheduled to take place this year at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7, and Friday, Dec. 9.

Bess Timmons took a very personal interest in the planning and construction of the chapel. She worked with architect Richard N. Wakefield to design the chapel in the Gothic style.

The chapel walls are built in the Ashler pattern of masonry and are 18 inches thick. The chapel’s 80,000 pound roof is made of Vermont slate. The bronze bells for the chapel were cast in Asten, The Netherlands, and were a gift from Mrs. Timmons’ children.

On the interior, the chapel’s altar rail is fashioned of wedding rings, a design that is repeated in the chapel gates. Chapel music is provided by a five-rank, Wicks pipe organ, which is also a gift of Mrs. Timmons’ children. The organ’s 341 pipes are concealed in the organ loft.

Bess Spiva Timmons was born in Galena, Kansas, in 1901. She graduated from Monticello College in Illinois in 1921 and in 1923, married L.K. Timmons. They moved to Pittsburg in 1928.

In 1951, Bess Timmons established the Spiva Emergency Loan Fund, which for the first time made funds available to PSU students for emergency loans and grants. That fund evolved into the Spiva Scholarship fund, one of the first scholarship funds established as part of the PSU Endowment Association. Mrs. Timmons established a second scholarship fund in 1985, called the Timmons Trust Fund.

Bess Timmons served on the first board of trustees for the PSU Endowment Association and served as its president in 1961-61. She died in 1987 and was posthumously awarded the PSU Presidential Award of Merit in 1988.

---Pitt State--