Oyer, Noah (1892-1931)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1931 Mar 4 p. 4

Birth date: 1892

text of obituary:

Noah Oyer

It is indeed sad news that Prof. Noah Oyer has been called away from an active and useful field of labor.

The following letter brought this early and unexpected departure to our attention:

"Goshen College

Goshen, Ind., Feb 25, 1931.

The Mennonite Weekly Review, Newton, Kansas. Gentlemen:

Noah Oyer died on Wednesday February 25, after two months' illness with typhoid fever. Funeral will be held in Goshen College chapel Saturday, February 28, at 2:00 P. M.

Very truly yours,

Guy F. Hershberger

Secretary of the college."

The editor of the Review feels the death of Noah Oyer as a personal loss. For he knew him well and often met him during the years that he was student in Hesston College and while connected with its educational activities. Only something over a year ago it was my privilege to be guest in his home and with his lovely family in Goshen. His was an earnest, sincere faith and piety, and his endeavor as an educator was to lead men to the higher life in Christ, and while the importance of the schooling of the mind was in no wise undervalued, the building of Christian character in the growing generation was his chief aim.

But his time of usefulness was brief, as he was by 39 years old at his death. For six years he had served successfully as den of Goshen College. He was chairman of the general Sunday School Committee of the (Old) Mennonite Church of the United States and a member of the National Mennonite Board of Education of that connection. The widow, two daughters and a son survive.

In his death Goshen College, his section as well as the whole Mennonite church and the cause of positive Christianity suffers a great loss.

K.