Stoltzfus, Grant M. (1916-1974)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1974 Aug 1 p. 7

Birth date: 1916 Feb 12

text of obituary:

On EMC Faculty 17 Years

History Professor Dies

HARRISONBURG, VA. — Dr. Grant M. Stoltzfus, 58, a church history professor for 17 years at Eastern Mennonite College, died Sunday morning, July 21, at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg. He suffered a heart attack Saturday night at his home near Harrisonburg.

An authority on church-state relations and war-peace issues, Dr. Stoltzfus was engaged in writing a book at the time of his death on the origin and development of alternative service for conscientious objectors to war.

Last January the EMC professor led a study tour of the Soviet Union, where the group of college students and other persons focused especially on church-state relations.

DR. STOLTZFUS was the author of "Mennonites of the Ohio and Eastern Conference: From the Colonial Period in Pennsylvania to 1968" and numerous articles for professional journals.

At the time of his death he was a member of the planning committee for the Bicentennial Conference on Religious Liberty and the Mennonite Church Historical Committee.

A graduate of Goshen College, Dr. Stoltzfus received an M.A. degree from the University of Pittsburgh and B.D. and Th.D. degrees from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond.

PRIOR to joining the EMC faculty in 1957, he served as an editor at Mennonite Publishing House, Scottdale, Pa., directed a Civilian Public Service camp during World War II, and was publicity director for Mennonite Central Committee in Akron, Pa.

Dr. Stoltzfus was born Feb. 12, 1916, in Morgantown, Pa., son of the late Sylvanus and Lydia Stoltzfus. On June 17, 1941, he married Ruth Brunk, daughter of George R. and Katie Brunk of Newport News, Va. Mrs. Stoltzfus who survives, is a former radio speaker for Mennonite Broadcasts and is currently director of Concord Associates in Harrisonburg.

In addition to his wife, Dr. Stoltzfus is survived by five children: Allen of Lancaster, Pa.; Eugene of Harrisonburg; Mrs. Kathryn Fairfield of Durham, N. C.; Ruth Stoltzfus of Boston, Mass.; and Helen Stoltzfus of Harrisonburg.

ALSO SURVIVING are two brothers, Ivan of Morgantown, Pa. and Mahlon of Homer, Alaska; three sisters, Ada and Ida Stoltzfus of Hebron, Israeli-occupied Jordan, and Mrs. Verna Yost of New Holland, Pa.; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service was conducted at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg July 23 at 7 p.m. by Rev. Harold Eshleman, Rev. Moses Slabaugh, and EMC Dean Daniel Yutzy. Interment was in the Lindale Mennonite Church cemetery near the Stoltzfus home.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions he sent to the Peace Section of Mennonite Central Committee.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1974 Sep 12 p. 11

Thinking With . . .

ELAINE SOMMERS RICH

[Photo of Elaine Sommer Rich not copied] . . .

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IT IS HARD to believe that Grant Stoltzfus is dead. Fifty-eight is young to die. Surely he had more books to write. Yet what is cannot be changed. I learned to know Grant a quarter of a century ago when he was editor of Mennonite Community magazine, predecessor of Christian Living and Ruth Carper (Eitzen) and I were doing a children's page for it entitled "The Young Community." During the summer of 1950 at Mennonite Publishing House at Scottdale, Pa., we often exchanged ideas. He introduced me to the writings of Walter Rauschenbusch. At his suggestion I read Tolles' "Meetinghouse and Countinghouse" and Theodore Dreiser's powerful and disturbing novel "The Bulwark." He prodded me to think about the term "the simple life" and questioned whether wealth was not as much an evil as war.

That summer I learned to know his gifted and capable wife Ruth, founder of the Heart to Heart radio program, with whom I also worked some years later. He encouraged her to launch out and do whatever God wanted her to do. My path did not cross his again until October, 1969, when we both attended an MCC Peace Section-sponsored seminar in Washington, D. C. Whereas he had been "a young and fearless prophet," he was now maturer, mellower, but a prophet still, deeply interested in justice and peace. How appropriate that memorial gifts are to be given to the Peace Section. His family and colleagues at EMC will miss him deeply. All of us have been enriched through the legacy of his life and writing.

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