Kauffman, Melva G. (1917-2003)

Revision as of 16:47, 16 December 2010

Newton Kansan obituary: 2003 Oct 7 p. 2; 2003 Oct 8 p. 2; 2003 Oct 9 p. 2

Birth date: 1917

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2003 Nov 3 p. 7

text of obituary:

HESSTON, Kan. — Melva Kauffman, a Hesston College professor for more than 30 years, died Oct. 7 at Showalter Villa. She was 86.

Kauffman taught English, education and other courses. Her students remember her as an assertive and dynamic teacher who cared about them and the learning process.

Teaching people to think was important to her. According to her philosophy of education, teaching is not telling. It is questioning, motivating, arousing questions and getting interactions. it stimulates the learner to discover solutions.

She was strongly influenced to become a teacher by her grandfather, T. M. Erb, who helped found Hesston College. She retired in 1977.

Melva attended Hesston Academy and graduated from Hesston College in 1939. She began teaching in a rural elementary school near Hesston. After graduating from Goshen (Ind.) College in 1944 with a bachelor's degree in English, she began teaching English, education, composition, literature and speech classes at Hesston. She also taught part time at Goshen, Bluffton (Ohio) College and Bethel College in North Newton.

She received a master's degree in English and education from the University of Wisconsin in 1947 and a doctorate in 1962 from Columbia University in New York.