Mennonite World Review - October 2013
Obituaries are emailed to MennObits before MWR is printed. Wording may vary in printed version.
Alderfer, Helen Wade ; . . Eigsti, Joseph M. ; . . Shetler, Leland ; . . Stucky, Willard ; . .
Mennonite World Review - October 14, 2013 - 91st Year, No. 21 - p. 21
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Leland Shetler, 96, died Aug. 24, 2013, at the Mountain Home, Idaho, hospital. He was born Nov. 14, 1916, to Milton and Ada Shetler at Cheraw, Colo.
His family moved to Hesston, Kan., where he attended Hesston Mennonite High School and then Hesston College.
He married Lucille Hostetler on Feb. 8, 1944. In 1945 they moved from Nebraska to Filer, where he worked as an auto mechanic. In 1955 they moved to Bruneau, where they settled on and built a farm on 250 acres of sage brush located on the Snake River.
His Christian faith was very important to him, and he was involved in church all of his adult life. During his years in Filer he was active in Filer Mennonite Church. He was particularly known for his song leading throughout the area Mennonite churches. After moving to the Bruneau area, he and Lucille were active in Indian Cove Mennonite Church and the Bruneau Sunday School. He was ordained to the ministry in the mid-1960s and served as pastor of Indian Cove Mennonite Church, Bruneau Community Church and the Mountain Home Christian Center.
In the 1970s he and Lucille spent two summers serving at the Christian Retreat Campground in Strawberry Lake, Minn., where he was janitor and general maintenance man and she was the cook. They also spent two winters helping missionary friends in Mexico.
Survivors include three sons, Ivan and his wife, Janis, of Bruneau, Edward and his wife, Kathy, of Middleton, and Vernon of Givens Hot Springs; a daughter, Neva Hamilton and her husband, Sam, of Indian Cove; five brothers, Floyd, Eldon, Walter, Paul and Harold; four sisters, Laverne Horst, Helen Reeder, Ruth Stutzman and Lois Decker; a sister-in-law, Margaret Shetler; seven grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Lucille; three sons, Norman, Waldo and an infant son, Duane; and a brother, Ralph.
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Helen Alderfer, 94, of Goshen, Ind., died Sept. 5, 2013. She was born Aug. 27, 1919, to Clark Wade and Mary Graber Conrad Wade in Whiteside County, Sterling, Ill.
She grew up on the family farm and graduated from Sterling High School and Goshen College. She married Edwin Stover Alderfer on Aug. 12, 1944, and they began a lifetime of serving the church.
They moved to Canton, Ohio, where Ed served as pastor at the Canton Mission. After that year, they moved to Barto Civilian Public Service Camp in Florida, where they lived until the camp closed. They then served in the Philippine Islands with Mennonite Central Committee, doing postwar relief and reconstruction, including building a hospital. Returning to the U.S., they moved to Culp, Ark., where they served in the mission school for four years. During this time she edited The Voice, a women's publication, for Mennonite Publishing House. In the mid- 1950s they moved to Blooming Glen, Pa. After four years she accepted work on the editorial staff at Mennonite Publishing House at Scottdale, Pa. Ed was pastor of two Mennonite churches in the area while she worked on Christian Living magazine for 26 years, including writing a column, "Personal Preference." She also edited On the Line, a magazine for children, for 14 years. During a sabbatical year in Winston-Salem, N.C., she taught at Carver School. In retirement they moved to Goshen, where she volunteered at Chamberlain and Prairie View schools. A collection of her poems, The Mill Grinds Fine, was published in 2008.
Survivors include four daughters, Ann Kauffman and her husband, Ned, Faith Summer and her husband, Rod, Mary Snyder and her husband, Merle, and Amy Alderfer and her husband, Steve Bell; a brother, Harold C. Wade; four grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Edwin; a son, Eric; a sister, Doris Wade Rupe; and a brother, Ralph E. Wade.
She arranged to donate her body to science. Memorial services were held at College Mennonite Church, where she was a member.
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Willard Stucky, 84, of North Newton, Kan., minister and carpenter, died Sept. 22, 2013, at Kidron Bethel Village. He was known to many as Bill. He was born July 26, 1929, to Emilie and Gideon Stucky in rural McPherson.
He attended school in McPherson and learned farming and carpentry on their family farm. In 1951, he was among the first group of men to serve in the Pax program. He spent one year in Germany building houses and two years farming in Greece.
On Aug. 8, 1954, he married Marjorie Olson. Before his death they celebrated 59 years of marriage.
He and Marj served Mennonite churches in Deer Creek, Okla.; Liberal, Kan.; Turpin, Okla.; and Fort Collins, Colo. From 1974 to 1984, he and Marj were directors of Camp Mennoscah near Murdock. After retiring, he and Marj moved to North Newton and have since been members of New Creation Fellowship.
Survivors include his wife, Marjorie; a son, Alan of Denton, Texas; a daughter, Jo Suderman of Gardiner, Mont.; two sisters, Margaret Thiessen of Hutchinson and Elizabeth Belknap and her husband, Wayne, of Inman.
He was preceded in death by these siblings and their spouses: Linda and Carl Oberst, Sara and Jacob Daum, Paul and Rosalie Stucky, Harry and Bertha Reimer, Mary and Menno Doerksen, sister Martha Stucky and brother-in-law Ed Thiessen.
Memorial services were held at Faith Mennonite Church, Newton. Private family burial services took place at Eden Cemetery, rural Moundridge.
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Mennonite World Review - October 28, 2013 - 91st Year, No. 22 - p. 15
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Joseph M. Eigsti, 91, died Sept. 3, 2013, in Goshen, Ind. He was born April 27, 1922, to William and Anna (Hartzler) Eigsti in Buda, Ill.
He married Norma "Jean" Litwiller on June 26, 1949, in Morton, Ill. She preceded him in death on May 2, 2002.
During World War II, he served in Civilian Public Service in various locations and capacities: in Fort Collins, Colo., and Vineland, N.J., as a cook; in Missoula, Mont., as a smoke jumper; and in Medaryville as a cook. He concluded his experience by making two cattle boat trips to Germany and Poland.
He was a lifelong farmer. He resided on the family farm in Buda until he moved to Greencroft Retirement Community in Goshen in 2011.
He was a member of Willow Springs Mennonite Church, Tiskilwa, Ill., where he served as a deacon, Sunday school teacher and on the church board. He also served as a member of the school board and the county Farm Bureau board.
Survivors include three children, Eldon Eigsti and his wife, Marilyn, of Buda, Ill., Donna Roth and her husband, Doug, of Morton, Ill., and Calvin Eigsti and his wife, Sara Swartzendruber, of Washington, D.C.; seven grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; a sister, Marion Nunemaker of Sterling, Ill.; and a special friend, Aldine Wyse of Goshen.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Norma; a daughter, Marcia Eigsti; and two brothers, Walter and Howard Eigsti.