KOBE COLLEGE LOGO

The Kobe College school pin was designed in 1885, when Emily Maria Brown was our third president, in honor of our 10th anniversary.

It was originally a simple trefoil, symbolizing our ideal--the harmony of body, mind and spirit. In 1904 we added the letters "KC" to create the logo seen today on pins, rings, spoons and stationery. In the anniversary year of 1885, too, dark blue, symbolizing Peace and Truth, became our school color, and the school motto, "Love God; love your neighbor," was chosen. In chapel, we still sing hymn 380, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus," Emily Brown's favorite, sung at her funeral.

In 1988, by pure chance, I met Emily Brown's nephew when I was seated next to him at the dinner given during a conference where he was keynote speaker. Robert J. Broadwater was long an executive with Coca-Cola, a drink he helped introduce to Japan. He was low-key, saying his aunt "had taught at Kobe College." He said that her stories about and love for Japan and the Japanese had helped to sustain him through his capture in Bataan by Imperial Japanese Forces in April 1942, and his internment as a POW there and at Tanagawa, Wakayama, until the end of the Pacific War. Her inspiration, for he was ten years old when Emily Brown died in 1925, helped direct him into a career in Japan.

Emily Maria Brown was president of Kobe College from 1882 to 1892, and came back for two more years in 1897. After returning to the US for good, she married the Reverend James Harkness in 1902. In 1933 the Emily Brown Harkness Memorial Scholarship fund was given to Kobe College, and Room 34 in the Literary Building, where I teach this semester, is the Emily Brown Harkness Memorial Room. It was during her time that the spadework was done for the founding of the college division and the school color, pin and motto were determined.