Neufeld, Vernon (1920-2008)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2008 Aug 4 p. 16

Birth date: 1920 Apr 11

text of obituary:

Former Bethel president dies

Neufeld served from 1960 to 1967

By Melanie Zuercher

Bethel College

NORTH NEWTON, Kan. – Bethel College’s seventh president, Vernon H. Neufeld, died July 18 in Bakersfield, Calif., after a brief illness. He was 88.

Neufeld served as president from 1960 to 1967 after joining the faculty in 1959 to teach in the Bible and religion department.

“I appreciated his leadership very much," said Keith Sprunger, professor emeritus of history. "He presided over Bethel in a dignified and thorough way. He represented Bethel College in the community very well.”

He was born April 11, 1920, in Shafter, Calif., one of six children of Nicolai and Justina Neufeld, and raised on the Neufeld family farm west of Shafter. He married Ruth I. Neumann on Nov. 17, 1940.

After working the farm for a few years, Neufeld decided to pursue a college education. He and his family moved to North Newton in 1946, where he studied at Bethel, graduating in 1949 with a bachelor of arts in music. They returned to the Shafter farm for a year before moving to Chicago in 1950, where Neufeld attended Mennonite Biblical Seminary, earning a divinity degree in 1954.

Before completing the degree, Neufeld moved the family to Donnellson, Iowa, where he served as pastor of Zion Mennonite Church, commuting to his seminary classes in Chicago.

In 1955, the family moved to New Jersey, where Neufeld earned master's and doctoral degrees at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Walter Jost and J. Harold Moyer were Bethel classmates of Neufeld’s, music majors as well who went on to become music faculty members at the college. Moyer remembers that Neufeld sang in the choir and gave a senior voice recital. He was also president of the class of 1949.

“The Fine Arts Center was planned and constructed during his presidency,” Moyer says. “I remember one meeting where the architect had brought several different drawings, and there were questions about how the auditorium would be set up. He was a key person in [deciding] that.”

After his tenure as Bethel president, Neufeld and his wife moved to Fresno, Calif., where he became executive director for Mennonite Mental Health Services.

He retired in 1982 and spent his time with family, research on Mennonite and Neufeld family history, music and woodworking. The Neufelds moved to Bakersfield in 1984.

Survivors include his wife Ruth; two sons, Ramon Neufeld and wife, Karen, of Bakersfield, and Howard Neufeld and his wife, Carolyn, of Portland, Ore.; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Aug. 9 at First Congregational Church in Bakersfield.