college mcp-logo-header-white mcpherson

Wheels of Change

How the Automobile Shaped Our Lives.

A Six-Week Live Webinar Series from McPherson College

Brought to you by the only college in America with a bachelor’s degree in Automotive Restoration, join McPherson College for a 6-week summer experience as we learn about the people, innovations, and art of the automotive industry. The series will blend together fascinating topics from the advent of the automobile to the car’s impact on war and globalization to how automotive styling drove art for the people. Join our automotive experts along with surprise car-world celebrities, all from the comfort of your living room! The only thing you won’t be able to do is smell the oil (but we’re working on that!).

Summer Experience

June 25: Four Epic Road Trips that Upended the World – Bertha Benz, Ransom Olds, Horatio Nelson Jackson, & Alice Ramsey.
Guest: Kyle Smith ‘13 – associate editor, Hagerty

July 2: Paving the Way for the Automobile – Roads, steam omni-busses, bicycles, and the entrepreneurs behind them.
Guest: Andrew Beckman, archivist, Studebaker Museum

July 9: Thar be Giants in Them Thar Hills! – Henry Ford, Billy Durant, and the megacorporation.
Guest: Bob Casey, retired curator of transportation, Henry Ford Museum

July 16: The Road to PerditionHow the automobile liberated women and captivated teenagers
Guests: Abbey Paulsen – high school junior restoring (and driving) a Model T
Tabetha Hammer ‘09 – director of Greenwich Concours

July 23: The Great War – Industrial pacifism, mobilization, and mechanization.
Guest: Casey Maxon, heritage specialist with the Historic Vehicle Association

July 30: Art for the PeopleHow Harley Earl and automotive styling democratized beauty.
Guest: Donald Osborne, CEO of Automotive Valuation Services and CEO of Audrain Automobile Museum/Concours

All webinars will begin at 12:00 noon CDT.

Your Host

Professor Ken Yohn

MC Professor Ken Yohn

Ken Yohn
Dr. Ken Yohn is a professor and chair of McPherson’s Department of History and Politics. For the past 21 years, Professor Yohn has taught about philosophy, geography, political science, and automobiles. The Illinois native has traveled the world, teaching courses on cars and castles in Europe; hiking in the Japanese Alps, the Andes, the Polish Carpathians, the Black Forest, and the Swiss Alps; and serving as a visiting professor at some of the top schools in France and East Asia.

Outside of the classroom, Professor Yohn has a love for restoring and building vintage racing and touring bicycles. He is currently restoring a 1974 Raleigh International. He is an avid online gamer, and especially enjoys EverQuest. His skills as a professor and a gamer are not to be outdone by his mastery in the kitchen.

About MC

The Automotive Restoration Program
The McPherson College Automotive Restoration program began in 1976 and has evolved into the  only award-winning four-year bachelor’s degree program for restoration technology in the country. The program offers student experience outside of the classroom at some of the most prestigious car events in the United States, like Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where the program was featured in a spotlight on Fox Business. The college also has a growing alumni base who work in all facets of the car collecting world including Hagerty, Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, Historic Vehicle Association, RM Sotheby’s, in their own shops, museums, and private collections.

McPherson College
Established in 1887, McPherson College is a four-year liberal arts college founded by the Church of the Brethren. The beautiful 27-acre campus is set in McPherson, Kansas, a town of 13,000 that is one of the top 100 small towns in the U.S., with a strong diversified economic base, located in central Kansas 50 miles north of Wichita. McPherson College offers over 30 areas of study including pre-professional programs and the unique option to create a student-designed major which allows students to combine select courses throughout the curriculum to meet their specific personal and professional goals.