Lake Doctor | A Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams Podcast

Restoring Relationships: An Approach to Environmental Stewardship

• Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams • Season 2 • Episode 16

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In this episode of The Lake Doctor Podcast, we honor the legacy of Dr. Ron Manahan, one of the original founders of the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams and a lifelong example of faithful stewardship and environmental care. Though Dr. Manahan has passed away, his influence continues to shape the mission and heart behind the Lilly Center’s work. This episode reflects on his vision and the relational approach to environmental stewardship he championed—reminding us that caring for creation begins with how we connect with the world around us and with one another.

Through stories, reflection, and thoughtful insight, the conversation explores how restoring trust, communication, and shared responsibility can lead to lasting environmental impact. Dr. Manahan’s legacy invites listeners to see stewardship not simply as a scientific practice, but as a relational commitment rooted in humility, care, and long-term vision. This episode offers an inspiring perspective on how honoring those who came before us can help guide the future of healthy lakes and streams.

Learn more about the Lilly Center's work at https://lakes.grace.edu/.

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SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for joining us on today's episode of the Lake Doctor Podcast. Today, we're changing it up a little bit, Nate.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's just you and me.

SPEAKER_00:

It is. So, Dr. Nate Bosch, the official Lake nerd, the doctor is in.

SPEAKER_03:

That's true. All right. So today, as Susie said, it's just going to be the two of us talking. And uh we wanted to start by acknowledging the passing of one of our three founders, Dr. Ron Manahan, uh past president of Grace College. And we'll talk about that a little bit and his legacy that still continues here at the Lily Center, and talking about restoring relationships, environmental stewardship. And I think it's it's really fitting to talk a little bit about Ron's legacy as we launch into some of that foundational why behind the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, Dr. Manahan was the first person that that introduced me to environmental stewardship. And I recall when I was working at the community foundation, um, one of the first things that I got to do in an official capacity was go to his inauguration as Grace College's sixth president in 1994. And it was such a moving experience to be able to go see him become the president of Grace College.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. My history with him started in 2007 as the Lily Center for Lakes and Streams was just getting started. And then I started, then he hired me, and I started then in January of 2008. What I love about Ron was his passion both for God's word, the Bible, as well as his passion for people. He really cared for people well, a gentle, kind man. And even I got to spend several days with him in his uh final time here on this earth. And um those themes came up even in those last days that I got to spend with him. Uh, really a remarkable man, uh friend that I'm sad to lose, but excited to see again. And as we think about heaven in the future, um I'm excited to keep doing sort of lake research and those sorts of things. I'm sure ecosystems and and things will look different, but he, I think, will be continuing to, he's an old testament scholar, and so he'll continue to be studying. And I know he had a book that he was hoping to write that he didn't get a chance to write here during this life, uh, and I'm sure he'll want to work on that.

SPEAKER_00:

So in 2004, make sure, yes, 2004, Dr. Manahan became one of the board members at the Cassiasco County Community Foundation. He was appointed to that position by the Cassiasco Ministerial Association.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And one of the things that we always appreciated was the faith that he brought to the board table. And it was when a donor came to the community foundation and said, I'm interested in doing something that deals with water, that is data-driven, scientific, can be replicated somewhere, and educational. And so we struggled. We strode, we brought together a lot of people to talk about water, and and I talked to the board about the struggle, and and Dr. Manahan in his quiet way said, Susie, we want to help. Wow. Wow. Thank heaven he said that, and you are the result of it. And he was proud. You know, pride can be sinful, but not in this case. Dr. Manahan was proud of you and the gift that you brought to the Lily Center, and he was pleased with the work. When he became president of Grace College, local leaders challenged him and said Grace needs to be more embedded in the community. You are graduating teachers that are part of our school system. You are you are important economically. You, Grace, are important economically to the success of Casciasco County and to Warsaw and to Winuna Lake. And he took that charge seriously and made wonderful inroads and how Grace is now embedded in our community. That was certainly a legacy.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. Yeah. And we'll talk a little bit as we dig into environmental stewardship today. We'll talk about restoring relationships as a big part of that. And what a fitting um legacy for him personally with helping Grace connect in more and more with the community and develop stronger and stronger relationships in the community. Um, and that's more broadly environmental stewardship and what the Lilly Center does as well. So as president uh and as an Old Testament scholar, Ron was teaching an environmental ethics class here on campus. And um so when the opportunity came to start not only an externally facing uh Lakes Research and Education Center on campus, but also then to start an environmental academic program on campus that really brought together um this, these, these uh passions that Ron had and was a good uh fulfillment of what he had already been working on on campus, which is uh helping our students to see the need to take care of this amazing creation, this amazing environment that we have in the area. So um yeah, I I I really appreciate uh what he did to get us started. And um, like I said at the beginning, three founders, you were one of those as well at the I was just the matchmaker. So we had um our uh original donor, Frank Levinson. And we should mention to our viewers and listeners if they want to go back and dig into the founding of the Lily Center a little bit more in depth. We have an episode in season one where I sort of interview you and uh Dr. Frank Levinson and Dr. Ron Manahan.

SPEAKER_00:

That was a fun episode. Oh my gosh, didn't Dr. Manahan's humor shine in that?

SPEAKER_03:

It did. It did. He's talking about ancient languages and as you said, sort of a quiet, slow talker. We didn't speed him up at all on that episode, but we were able to increase the volume a little bit so everybody can hear the wisdom that he shared.

SPEAKER_00:

Our listeners and our uh viewers who are of my generation, not so much the younger ones, are gonna resonate with this. It people in our community would say Dr. Manahan was like E. F. Hutton. E.F. Hutton was a financial firm, and the their commercial was when E.F. Hutton speaks, everybody listens. And that was the way with Dr. Manahan because he would in his quiet voice say something, and everybody had to be really quiet and lean in to hear what he had to say.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. He is missed for sure. Um, yeah. So we're recording to our uh listeners and viewers, we're recording this episode just about a week after he passed away, although this will be uh released um probably a month or two after he passed. And so it's still fresh in our minds, uh, which is why we're pausing and a little bit emotional about that on this day.

SPEAKER_00:

We are, but you know, Nate, I think it's really important that our listeners understand the values that are embedded in the Willie Center. And you talked about relational restoring relationships.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. Yeah, yeah. So let's dig into that a little bit. So um when we look at at the Old Testament of the Bible, it starts with Genesis. And already in the first two chapters of Genesis, Genesis one and two, we see God creating the world, the natural world that that now we are enjoying and taking care of. And that relationship part is really interesting. And I teach uh ecology, two different ecology classes here on campus. And ecology is all about the interrelationships between plants and animals. And God could have made the world in a different way where things were more independent and isolated, but he chose to make everything in an interrelated sort of a way. I think that's a good picture of how he wants our lives to be interrelated both with him as well as each other and and the rest of uh creation. It's interesting the words and especially Genesis one. So God would make something and he would call it good, and he would make something and call it good. And then towards the end of Genesis one, it says, and when God saw all he had made, he called it very good. So once in whole in whole, when everything is there, interrelated to each other, people with the rest of creation, then it's very good. And that's what we're trying to do at the Lily Center for Lakes and Streams. We're trying to get back as best we can to the very good, where things are interacting naturally and properly in a healthy ecosystem with balance, with diversity. And um, it's a really rewarding way to look at the environment around us. Uh, God made it also in Genesis 1, and then also repeated in Genesis 2 was God's mandate for humans to subdue, rule, cultivate, keep, to be stewards of this amazing world that He made. And so that environmental stewardship um call we take uh very literally at the Lily Center. And what I think is cool is when our mission at the Lily Center is making our lakes and streams clean, healthy, safe, and beautiful. And when we make a lake clean, when we make it healthy, safe, when we make it beautiful, we allow those relationships to start to thrive and start to be interconnected once again. If you think of the worst polluted stream or lake, those relationships are gonna be broken and they're not gonna work the way they are supposed to. But when those things are clean again and we have the right chemistry, the right physics, the right flows, the biology that the ecosystem is gonna start to come back together again in those relationships. And I think that's such a cool thing. And when we look more broadly at the Lily Center, the way we do that is we work in research and education and collaboration, and all of those things require people working together, right? And there's an idea of restoring relationships there too. As we work together well with partners, as we work together well with our student interns that are working here at the Lilly Center, with other community members. Uh, even if we can have a spiritual influence on folks around us to think more seriously about the God who made all of this and his son Jesus, uh, who wants a relationship with each of us, it can help put things back into balance, back into relationship as was originally intended. So we have a tall order at the Lily Center to do these things. Uh, it's a lot of work, but it's also our pleasure because it's really um compelling and satisfying to do what we get to do too.

SPEAKER_02:

What are you thinking? You're teared up.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome legacy that after many hands. And thank you for thank you for teaching us about this. And you're talking about lakes being in balance. I mean, I hear you talking about plankton and and fish and and all this stuff that lives in the lake and and how important it is to keep things that don't belong out and help the things that belong thrive.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we've talked about a lot of those topics on the podcast here. We're now in the second season, and a lot of episodes have dealt with those things in balance, the diversity of different plants and animals. You know, we need the native ones that are supposed to be here, and they're the ones that that help that balance the best. But as things interact with each other and um function as a whole healthy ecosystem, that's when people around our lakes are going to be able to thrive. The economy around our lakes thrives, the family memories and gatherings are able to thrive. Everything starts to fall into place when we get those original building blocks of a clean and healthy lake when we get those things in place. And you're right, it's it's the food chain, as you were describing there, right? We've got uh the phytoplankton, the algae, and then the zooplankton, the tiniest little animals, and the little fish and the bigger fish eating them. We've got wetlands, as we've talked about, and how wetlands can clean water before it gets into our lakes and streams. We've talked about uh groundwater and that its importance. We've talked about weather and the importance of weather as a driver, and uh we've talked about different individual critters, whether it's fish or we've talked about mussels or mud puppies, all of these different components are what make that interrelated, uh, well, well-functioning ecosystem.

SPEAKER_00:

So you knew Dr. Manahan well, not long, but well. Why beyond an appreciation for God's creation? Why do you think he was attracted to environmental stewardship?

SPEAKER_03:

One of the things that he talked a lot about was loving the K-12 programs that we do here at the Lily Center and being really proud of how we're raising up that next generation of what we call water literate citizens, because he sees he saw the importance in our community of citizens and what they can accomplish. No doubt through the community foundation that he served on for years, um being uh a member of this community and seeing all kind of like we're talking about in an ecosystem, you have all of the natural parts interrelated, but also in a community, you have all of these parts that are interrelated to each other. And all of those require people who are uh well-meaning and understand how to collaborate with each other and uh understand the different uh factors that we have in in the community. And one of those things is our lakes and our streams, especially here in Casillasco County in northern Indiana, since we have over 100 lakes and 600 miles of streams. So I think he loved seeing these kids come for field trips at the Lily Center, and um I think that was a uh a proud thing that he had of what he was able to help be part of starting.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you remember when we went to lunch and you got to tell him about the the fishing episode where kids were throwing hooks left and right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think he was a little more animated than normally we we would see him. But uh yeah, I mean, those fishing experiences here we have, as I just said, all of these lakes. But yet usually less than half of the kids that come to these field days have held a fishing pole or have been able to go fishing. They haven't had those experiences in their life for whatever reason. And so to be able to give kids the privilege of holding a fishing pole and cast and maybe catch a fish. We don't catch a lot of fish because there's a lot of commotion on the shoreline, but um, those can be really proud moments for these young kids. And it helps the kids see that these lakes are home of our homes for these fish. And hopefully, then as these kids grow up and grow in water literacy through some of our educational programs, they're gonna remember that experience. They're gonna remember that fish and mud puppies and turtles and frogs call these lakes home. And so we better take care of these water resources in our communities because you know they they are that important home for these critters. You know, we've got this aquarium right behind us on the Lake Doctor Podcast set. And these uh this is the exact size aquarium that goes out in local libraries in our schools and classrooms in our schools. And that's another way that these kids can learn about uh our local lakes. We even call it lake in the classroom or lake in the library because it's sort of a miniature lake that's brought right there with local fish. Now, our fish here are mostly hiding uh behind some of the plants and rocks in there. But kids can again see that these local critters are calling these things home right from their desk or from their seat in their library, and hopefully that will leave a lasting impression on them.

SPEAKER_00:

And then kids come to the Lily Center for field trips and get to see the big aquarium here. Um, and the Lily Center is open to the public so people can come in.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. Often um we will do critter encounters, which is a great time for people in the community to come and learn about particular aquatic critters. We do several of those in the summer and we usually do a wintertime one as well. So people can check our website, lakes.grace.edu, and see what upcoming events. But even if there's not a specific event, we always love it. If people want to contact us and come uh for a tour and see what we're doing. Or during normal business hours, uh, typically the building is open and people can come and look at some of our aquariums and see some of the critters here. And we've got some signage around those as well, which can tell about uh what's in there. And most of our animals are named as well. We have Mabel the mud puppy, for example, and Monster the Turtle, for example.

SPEAKER_00:

So uh probably about a year ago, maybe a little bit longer, Dr. Manahan got to come here and have lunch with us at the Willie Center. And and do you recall, did he kind of get behind the scenes and see some of the lab work?

SPEAKER_03:

We did a tour as part of that afternoon, I remember. Uh yeah, I think we were up in the research lab upstairs. I think we were back in the aquarium lab, kind of behind the scenes. And um I remember him as well as you, as well as uh Dr. Levins and all of you just having a real proud moment of kind of what the Lily Center has become over these years uh since 2007. And that's really fun for me as the director to be able to see our uh founders and and see you guys proud of what it's become. And I think to all three of you, it's become more than what you had imagined in the beginning.

SPEAKER_00:

I would say that's definitely the case that you exceeded the vision that Dr. Manahan had for what this could be.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and certainly credit goes to some amazing volunteers that we've had along the way, helping with educational programs, boat captains taking us out sampling on lakes, volunteers in the community who have given us insight and wisdom. I always call you my number. Number one uh cheerleader and coach. And so you've helped a lot with fundraising. And we have a lot of great donors and granting organizations that have helped with the finances of this place.

SPEAKER_00:

Building relationships, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fundraising, I learned from you, is all about building relationships and seeing what our supporters are interested in and comparing that to the things that we're working on or would like to work on. And when there's good overlap there, then there's good opportunity for an investment. We're very appreciative to our students. Our students are able to multiply our efforts. We have 46 of them working for us right now, and we get so much more accomplished than we would have without our students. Um, and then as we sort of started talking about on this episode of the podcast from a biblical perspective, we're thankful to God for his blessing because he gives a lot of uh wisdom and insight. Uh, we pray a lot for um for impact and he answers those prayers. And um and so it's been it's been a really uh a really great um opportunity to follow his leading as well as uh insights from folks in the community and um help from people in the community as well, whether it's volunteering or or uh helping financially.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I said this was gonna be a hard episode.

SPEAKER_00:

But it's a celebratory one too.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

We are thankful to God for the life of Dr. Manahan for what he poured into Grace College, into his family, into our community.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um yeah, you know, in in his uh quiet way, as you mentioned before, he would say things like, I think a lot about and then he would say something, and and those were always well thought out. He would say it in a way that he's thinking about something, but you knew that the implication was you better get to work. You better think about these things too. And I love that. And there was so many good insights that came from those conversations over the years. Um and uh yeah, so that that legacy will will continue, certainly, with what he's taught and what he has uh helped us to think about. And uh yeah, and and look, you sounded like you were gonna say something.

SPEAKER_00:

I I think about the gift that the gift of what he brought to the table at the community foundation when he talked about strategic planning. Like you know, people were, oh, do we have to do that? And yes, I mean strategic thinker. What a gift.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. And at the Lily Center, as we think about strategic planning now, we're sort of looking at our next phase of work, which is the Lake RX. And uh, we've talked a little bit about that on our podcast already, but we're really excited about that. And I think that if we look at the founders, yourself included, certainly part of the initial idea was that we would be a clearinghouse for data, we would do the research to understand the problems, to understand strategic solutions to those, we would do the education to help raise up this next generation, we would be replicatable to help other communities around the Midwest. And certainly we've accomplished many of those things. The next step then is to put that knowledge and that expertise into practice and taking action with some of those solutions and fixing some of those problems that have been identified. And so we're really excited to come alongside our partners. So it's part again of that collaboration pillar, one of our three pillars, and uh help them, whether it's financially or investing time or expertise with them, and start to see some solutions to some of the problems that we've noticed. And I think that's a testament to uh Dr. Manahan and Dr. Levinson and yourself as well, because um all of you are action-oriented people, and this was um always uh an action-oriented endeavor. We want to see as our mission would would state, we want to make our lakes and streams cleaner, healthier, safer, and more beautiful. So we're we're going about that and we're excited about this next phase and this the this next way to to continue that mission.

SPEAKER_00:

So, Dr. Manahan, you were right when he was looking for a person to lead the Lily Center, he knew where to look, and he picked you, and we are thankful.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm thankful as well. This has been a wonderful um position, and um I hope to uh continue doing this work till I retire. And uh, you know, this community, I don't know that we've talked about this on the podcast, but this community has some really cool roots for my family going back all the way to my great-grandparents, and so um Winona Lake specifically, this area, but the lakes in general around here. So um my great-grandparents up in Holland, Michigan, that's where I grew up, and they had one of their children pass away at a young age, which obviously was really difficult. And my grandma uh who uh has filled in more of the details of the story, it was her uh younger brother who passed away and when they were teenagers, and it had a uh obviously a really difficult time, and and my grandpa, my great-grandpa would would know particular weeks when it was hardest on my great-grandma. Um uh he called her Betts, uh, her name was Betsy, and um he'd say, Betts, we're headed to Winona Lake this weekend, and they would head down here and and with my grandma in tow, and they would hear people like Billy Sunday and uh Homer Rodaheaver with music and good Bible teaching, and it would lift their spirits and uh help them go back home with a little bit uh more hope and uh peace and comfort. And so they were coming down to this lake uh many years ago.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll bet Betts is talking to Dr. Manahan saying you made the right decision, buddy.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, she actually got to come down here to Winona Lake um when our uh oldest daughter was baptized. So she uh our church does baptisms in Winona Lake uh sometimes. And uh so our oldest daughter wanted to be baptized when she uh decided that she wanted to follow Jesus and wanted to let other people know about that. She was baptized in Winona Lake, and my great grandma was able to come down and see that. So we've got a picture um sitting in a minivan of my great grandma, my grandma, my dad, myself, and daughter. Five generations. Five generations, yeah. Pretty cool. Um then my grandma, uh, when she then became uh wife and mother, she uh and my grandpa would take their kids here, uh a little different generation then. And um my dad uh became a Christian uh at a um not Billy Sunday, but Billy Graham um service uh down in um in the uh tabernacle down by the lake. And uh so that's kind of a cool uh story as well. Um my dad starting his his uh faith journey here uh in Winona Lake. And my grandma talked about loving the ice cream in this area when they would come down, and um they would stay at a little place called Eskimo Inn.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I remember that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

When I was growing up, I remember where the Eskimo Inn was.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And so I didn't know about any of that family history when Ron Manahan brought me here to this community, hired me, and gave me this opportunity to work in this position. But as um we were moving here and starting here, got to hear more and more of that history from my grandma and from my great grandma, and really a special heritage now that um we get to continue on, my wife and I with our own kids.

SPEAKER_00:

So, Nate, I I first heard about environmental stewardship from Dr. Manahan uh long ago. What is stewardship at the Willie Center?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I think we need to think about the word stewardship as someone being a steward of something that they don't personally own. And so if you think about the natural environment around us, no one of one of us owns that, right? But it's held sort of in in collective. And we are supposed to be responsible managers of it or stewards of it. And we want to be taking care of it. Another way to say it would be caring for. And so we want to care for our lakes, our streams, our forests, our prairies, our wetlands. We want to care for those in such a way that they are going to continue to be important parts of our context, of our environment, even in the future. And we can do that from a from a pragmatic, sort of self-serving way, because these natural systems provide a lot of what we call ecosystem services for us as people. They help our economy and those sorts of things that provide family memories and gathering places, but also in a more altruistic way, and in a more responsibility way, it goes back again to that original mandate in Genesis and the Old Testament of the Bible of being stewards of God's creation, cultivating, keeping, subduing. These are our words that help should help flesh out this stewardship idea. And so when we look at our local lakes and streams, which is what our mission is geared towards, we want to be stewards. We want to care for those things, just as you would steward something that's precious to you, a family heirloom or um your finances or a beloved pet in your family. Um, we want to be careful for that and help it help those those ecosystems, those natural resources, you know, be sustained for the future so that other people are also going to be able to enjoy those things uh down the road.

SPEAKER_00:

You talk about the impact of family on values and our understanding of stewardship. And I I recall my dad, so like I'm probably like your grandma's age. And back when I was growing up, we went around and picked up litter. And that wasn't a thing that everybody was doing. And it's more fashionable now, but I remember my dad saying to us, he didn't call it environmental stewardship, but you know, we need to take care of God's creation.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. Yeah, stewardship is kind of one of those kind of fancy words that maybe some nerdy people like me throw around, but sometimes we don't really think about the meaning of it. And sometimes uh folks probably hear the word and aren't sure what it means. So I think it's good that we're kind of talking about what do we mean by that. And I think the way you just said it, caring for something, I think is a a good way to to to think about that. We we don't really w use the word steward so much. Being a good steward of something, maybe we talk about it financially sometimes is probably the the most often way that it's used. But we can be a good steward of our local natural resources as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Our time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

A lot of the gifts that we receive.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. Right. Right. And that goes back again to that balance idea that we talked about. Um, in an ecosystem, you want good balance between those different features all working together, interrelated, and that's good stewardship.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think Lake Dr. Rx is an answer to the whole puzzle of stewardship. Being able to you've identified a problem, now we can write a prescription for that problem for a like and fix it through Lake Dr. RX.

SPEAKER_01:

What a legacy Dr. Manahan has for you, for us, for our community through the Lily Center.

SPEAKER_00:

Just one aspect of his legacy.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks. Thanks so much. You made this hard one not so hard.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, some tears, but um good things have happened as a result of his life and also uh you and Frank Levinson as well. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lake Doctor Podcast. You can share your thoughts or submit questions by leaving a comment or sending an email to lakes at grace.edu.

SPEAKER_03:

Listening to this podcast is just the first step to making your lake cleaner and healthier. Visit lakes.grace.edu for more information about our applied research and discover some tangible ways you can make a difference on your lake.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll see you next time. The doctor is in.