Stephen, Samuel (1918-2006)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2006 Jun 26 p. 6

Birth date: 1918 Mar 28

text of obituary:

Indian leader, educator dies at 88

By Mennonite Mission Network

JAGDEESHPUR, India — Samuel Stephen, a church leader and educator in the Bharatiya General Conference Mennonite Church, died April 30. He was 88.

Stephen was born to Christian parents at Birra on March 28, 1918. He married Helen Pannalal from Bilaspur in 1944.

He began his career in education at Mauhadih, teaching in the mission middle school. The facilities were flooded in 1937, so the school was moved 30 miles in Jagdeeshpur, where it became the Jansen Memorial School.

Stephen began teaching at JMS in 1944 and became headmaster in 1945. He later earned a master's degree in education at Wichita State University in Kansas. He returned to India to become principal of the school, renamed Jansen Memorial Higher Secondary School.

Stephen and the school's manager, mission worker Lubin Jantzen, pursued academic excellence while emphasizing evangelism. Stephen took a team of students by bicycle to villages to hold Sunday afternoon worship services for small Christian groups who could not always be reached by their pastor.

In 1966, Stephen was ordained as an evangelist. He directed the choir at Bethel Mennonite Church in Jagdeeshpur. He was elected to various positions in the Bharatiya General Conference Mennonite Church.

After retiring as Jansen school principal in 1979, he managed the mission schools in Champa, Janjgir and Korba for three years.

Surviving are his wife, Helen; a daughter, Shireen of Aurora, Ill., and her husband, Jai Prakash Masih; a son, Anand of Calgary, Alta., and his wife Warsha Gottlieb, and five grandchildren.