Friesen, Milton B. (1915-2002)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2002 Oct 7 p. 8

Birth date: 1915 Mar 23

text of obituary:

MILTON B. FRIESEN

Milton B. Friesen, 87, of Adams, Okla., died Aug. 31, 2002. He was born March 23, 1915, to Jacob and Elizabeth Bartel Friesen at a homestead two miles west of Adams.

On Nov. 26, 1939, he married Evelyn Anna Martens at Hooker Mennonite Brethren Church.

His high school years were at Buhler (Kan.) High School. He graduated from Panhandle A&M in Goodwell in 1939 with a bachelor's degree in industrial arts. In 1956 he received a National Science Foundation Grant to continue his education, receiving his master's degree from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater in 1957. In 1965 he received his specialist in education administration degree from Western State College in Gunnison, Colo.

His teaching career began in Adams during World War II. Later he taught at Eureka High School in Baker, the Mennonite Indian Mission School for Comanches in Indiahoma, at Balko High School and completed his teaching career at West Junior High in Liberal, Kan. During these years he also farmed.

He accepted Christ as his Savior as a child and as a teenager was baptized and joined Hooker MB Church. In his later years he became an affiliate member of the United Methodist Church in Hooker.

Music was an important part of his life. While in college he sang in the Accapella Choir and the men's Glee Club. For many years he sang in a male quartet, in duets with his wife, in solos and trios. After he retired from farming and teaching, he translated many of the German hymns. He also loved to play the guitar and mandolin.

Survivors include his wife, Evelyn; a daughter, Janice Colvin and her husband, Dwayne, of Hooker; an adopted daughter, Frances Friesen of Newton, Kan.; a sister, Elma Kliewer of Perryton, Texas; four grandsons and two great-grandsons.

He was preceded in death by three brothers, Dietrich, Jacob and Elmer; and three sisters, Elizabeth Schroeder, Sarah Schroeder and Olga Balzer.