Bender, Elizabeth Horsch (1894-1988)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 7 Apr 1988 p. 5

Birth date: 1894

text of obituary:

Former Professor, Editor, Translator Dies in Goshen at 93

Goshen, Ind. — Elizabeth Horsch Bender, 93, a former member of the Goshen College faculty and a well-known translator and editor, died March 24 at her home in Goshen.

She was the wife of Mennonite historian and churchman Harold S. Bender. He died in 1962.

Mrs. Bender attended Hesston and Goshen colleges, graduating from Goshen in 1918. She received a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota. She taught Latin, Greek, Spanish, geometry and psychology at Eastern Mennonite School (later Eastern Mennonite College) 1918-1920 and taught at Hesston College, 1920-1921. She taught at Goshen College from 1924 to 1963, when she retired. Among the subjects she taught at Goshen were German, Latin, English and mathematics.

In the 1950s Bender translated the entire Mennonitische Lexikon, which formed the core for the later Mennonite Encyclopedia. She was a major editor for Mennonite Quarterly Review for many years.

She was a member of the College Mennonite Church, Goshen, where a memorial service was held at 2 p.m. March 27, with James Waltner officiating. Sharing remembrances of Bender were Betty Springer, a friend; John Oyer, Goshen College professor of history and editor of Mennonite Quarterly Review, and Leonard Gross, archivist of the Mennonite Church. Burial was in Elkhart Prairie Cemetery.

She is survived by two daughters, Mary Eleanor Bender and Nancy B. Kosteck, both of Goshen; a grandson; and two brothers, Menno Horsch, Frankenmuth, Mich., and Paul Horsch, Pittsboro, N.C.

Memorials have been designated for the Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College.