By: Lois E Janzen Preheim

Lois E Janzen Preheim — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 15:55:04 +0000

Mim and I became lifelong friends when we were both teaching at EMHS in 1968. We traveled across the USA together the summer she did VS in Portland, Oregon. On a trip to a youth convention to South Carolina, we offered to take a black student at EMU with us. He, however, only agreed to go with us if we would let him choose the gas stations and restaurants we stopped at. We both thought this was a strange request, and seeing our puzzled looks, he said, “You realize, don’t you, that I could be lynched or arrested for being with two white women.” I was mortified at my naivete and only at that moment did I realize we were only a few years out from the 1965 Civil Rights Act. On the trip, he did indeed scrunch down a few times as we went through a small town that seemed dangerous to him. Both of us looked at the landscape we were passing through with new eyes. After I left Harrisonburg and she went to D.C., we stayed in touch, arranging visits every time I went east. At Christmas 2024, we only talked on the phone, she saying that it was getting too difficult to drive to Harrisonburg. “After all, I am 86!” And we marveled together at how fast our lives had passed.

By: Bonnie Lofton

Bonnie Lofton — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 16:58:31 +0000

What a great write-up, a great testimony to a life well-lived.

By: Viola Miller

Viola Miller — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 03:31:32 +0000

I was privileged to be part of the beginning of woman’s intercollegiate sports as an athlete with Mim as my coach for my 4 years at EMU. I always felt she was the most influential person in my college experience.
Her coaching was broader than sports. Her life represented the optimal example of caring for the whole person.

Comments on: In Memoriam: Miriam “Mim” Mumaw ’61 coached the first women’s intercollegiate athletics teams

By: Lois E Janzen Preheim

By: Bonnie Lofton

By: Viola Miller